... and the ship's stranded armaments resulted in a name for the town of Cannon Beach. (Columbia River Bar, Clatsop County; 1846) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/1508a.shark-shipwreck-part2.html)

But his haste to get back out to sea while he still could set the stage for disaster. (Columbia River, Clatsop County; 1846) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/1507d.shark-shipwreck-part1.html)

The 81 passengers were unbuckling their seatbelts and peering out the windows of their big four-engine Douglas DC-8 into the pastoral darkness outside. One or two lights twinkled here and there, and the shadowy hulk of a few low buildings and pickup trucks could be seen in the distance.

Inside the plane, there was a murmur of confused conversation. “This is Portland?” someone asked incredulously.

Passenger Dr. Richard Gorrell of Maquoketa, Iowa, was also surprised. He knew Portland was a small city compared with Chicago. But this “small, shoddy airport,” as he phrased it, seemed too tiny for any city to be flying jet airliners in and out of. It also seemed deserted. Did they close the airport for the night in Portland, along with the deli and the grocery stores?

And the landing run had seemed unusually short. The instant the plane had touched down, Gorrell had noticed, “the pilot set the brakes full on and reversed the motors. You could feel the rubber scraping off.”

Then the rising murmur of baffled conversation was cut short by a rattle from the cabin loudspeakers. “Uh, ladies and gentlemen, we have inadvertently landed at Troutdale Field by mistake,” a man’s voice announced sheepishly. (Troutdale, Multnomah County; 1962) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/1802a.massive-jet-lands-at-tiny-country-airport-by-mistake-481.html)

A few seconds later, the Gazelle exploded, killing 20 people. (Canemah, Clackamas County; 1854) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/1307c-boiler-explosions-in-willamette-steamboats.html)

... ready and willing, with no particularly strong motive, to murder his alleged lover’s ex-husband after filling the ears of three witnesses with the details of his plan and letting one of them witness it directly? And after having done this, did he calmly go home, climb into bed, and carry on with his ordinary life, waiting for the sheriff to come slap the cuffs on him? Yes, the jury decided; that’s exactly what happened .... Joseph Drake's was the first legal execution of an African-American in Oregon history — although it seems very likely that the hanging was legal in name only. (Salem, Marion County; 1885) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/1801d.joseph-drake-murderer-or-innocent-patsy-480.html)

... enabling dozens who otherwise would have been pinned and crushed against the closed door to escape. (Silver Lake, Lake County; 1894) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/o1107b-schroder-hero-of-silver-lake-fire-died-saving-lives.html)

... hoping to make their fortunes mining “A-metal.” ('Outback' counties of Eastern Oregon; 1950s) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/1507c.uranium-mining-gold-rush-348.html)

... the next day, all but three drowned in one of Oregon's worst-ever salvage disasters. (Nehalem Bay, Tillamook County; 1913) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/o1107c-mariners-dream-eerily-predicted-shipmates-deaths.html)

But Lane paid dearly for his commitment to sanity. (Washington, D.C.; 1917) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/1307b-harry-lane-war-hero.html)

Bright, a frequent contributor to the Oregon Historical Quarterly, promptly prepared a selection of some of the juiciest morsels for publication. Here are some of the highlights from what he found ... (Nowhere near Oregon, 1840s) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/1801c.davy-crockett-tall-tales-about-oregon-479.html)