The Captain George Conrad Flavel Home It was from the plot of a horror movie: the haunted house sitting abandoned on the hill, the strange labyrinthine history of the family who owned it and the influence, even in their absence, that they still cast upon the town, the outlandish rumors circulating around them that were repeated by more than a few of the town's long-term residents, and to a lesser and more personal extent, my desire, ever since having moved to the town, to somehow make my way inside of the house. Astoria, Oregon. This was the oldest town west of the Rockies, at least in terms of having the first post ...
Susan Vaslev - theme park soundscape composer winter 2015/2016 --- [ introduction ] "Idiot Hill" was the name given to a small forested plot of land in a rural area bordering Oregon's capital city of Salem in the mid 1960's when Roger Tofte, an Oregon Department of Highways worker with no experience in running an amusement park, would spend his free time pouring and shaping bags of cement following an idea to construct just that - an amusement park that could become a haven for his and other local children living in the quiet area. Built in his hours after work and on weekends, while taking on ...
A strange craft sits landlocked above the banks of the Columbia River on a Sauvie Island beach in Oregon. For years, no one seemed to know the history of the saucer-shaped craft sitting amidst the trees on Collins Beach, a clothing-optional beach near the northern tip of Sauvie Island outside of Portland, Oregon. After the airing of a news story on the mysterious craft, pieces of its past came out, including the designer and builder of the boat.. Richard Ensign was an engineer living in Hubbard, Oregon, a small town situated about 25 miles south of Portland, who would spend two years and about $10,000 constructing a concrete sailboa ...
The Remains of Multnomah Greyhound Park; Wood Village, Oregon As a suburb of Portland, Oregon battles over the fate of its former racetrack property, the skeletal hulk sits empty surrounded by otherwise modern homes and shopping centers. Greyhound racing in the Portland area began in 1933, organized by the Multnomah Kennel Club. From 1933 to 1955, races were held at Multnomah Stadium near downtown Portland - today the site of Providence Park and home to the Portland Timbers soccer team - and for the 1956 at Portland Meadows, a track used primarily for horse racing. In 1957, the Multnomah Kennel Club opened the track at Woo ...
The Wreck of the Jamie K A 52-foot fishing vessel lays amongst the rocks in Cape Blanco, Oregon. At 1:40 am on the morning of July 21st, 2015, the Coast Guard received a mayday call from the fishing vessel, Jamie K. The boat, carrying 10,000 pounds of shrimp, had lost navigation and power after hitting rocks during an attempt to navigate a rocky area called "Little Hole" while trying to reach a good fishing area. After beginning to take on water, strong winds pushed the boat into the rocks at Cape Blanco. After hitting the rocks, the four-person crew put on their survival suits and climbed into their life raft. A Coast Guard ...
Astoria, Oregon's Goonie Trails a disconnected network of footpaths traversing Astoria's forested hillside that are as fluid as the city's evolving cartography. Astoria, a relatively small city of 10,000 people, is the northernmost town on the Oregon Coast. Being the rainiest urban environment in the United States (and second most in the US only to the Hoh Rainforest on Washington's Olympic Peninsula in total rainfall) and built upon a hill surrounded by rivers on three sides, Astoria has both fluidity and tragedy in its very fabric. Having at one time lived in the town for 6 years, I was always fascinated by just how ...