Hear podcast stories about the Columbia River Gorge:

All audio is 7-12 minutes unless otherwise noted.

Included are:

1. Columbia River was a wild, frothy, dangerous place once - It was known for spectacular scenery and phenomenal fishing; we've traded that for a placid, lake-like waterway and cheap hydroelectric power
2. ​America’s first highway rest area had marble walls - Legendary Crown Point Vista House looks out over the Columbia River and was the highlight of the Columbia Gorge Scenic Highway — built when roadbuilding was as much an art as a science. 
3. ​There may have been people living in the Gorge during the Great Ice Age Floods - 14,000-year-old people coprolites found in cave - The discovery pushed back the date of the earliest known humans in what's now Oregon until before the end of the last ice age; scientists actually recovered DNA from the samples.
4. ​Did Oregon's biggest river save the world from Naziism? - Power from Bonneville Dam in 1930s was turned into warplanes, other aluminum war materiel in the 1940s; it also made the development of nuclear weapons and energy possible.
5.  "Woody Guthrie and the Columbia River Songs" (30 minutes) - This podcast is a remarkable remembrance and celebration of one of America’s best known protest folksingers who went to work for a very short while for the federal government. When Woody toured the Columbia River and the Pacific Northwest he said he “couldn’t believe it, it’s a paradise”, and that inspired him to write 26 songs, that are now considered iconic for the region, in just 30 days. When folksinger Woody Guthrie strolled into the Bonneville Power Administration in 1941, he played a song or two on his guitar, filled out some paperwork, and was hired by the federal government to write narration songs for BPA movies like “The Columbia“.  And then, just as abruptly as it began, this odd-couple story came to an end. The folk singer’s 30 days at BPA is considered one of the single most productive bursts in his fruitful songwriting career. We track down the man who rediscovered this complicated history and get to the heart of what caused the federal government to hire a “scruffy radical folksinger” to write songs about the promise of dams in the Pacific.  (30 minutes)
6. Mt Hood's Deadliest Disaster (1986)
7. ​“Graveyard of Oregon Trail” still said to be haunted - Laurel Hill (Rhododendron Village) was the most dangerous part of the Barlow Road, the overland route for Oregon Trail emigrants; casualties were many in the 1840s, and ghost stories are plentiful today. ​The old village is easy to find and well worth a visit; from Highway 26 after passing through Welches, turn north on Lolo Pass Road and go straight onto Autumn Lane.
8. ​Oregon Trail - Is legendary Blue Bucket Mine still out there in Oregon mountains? According to the legend, a group of kids from a lost wagon train found some strange yellow rocks in 1845, three years before the Gold Rush hit. Miners have been looking for the kids' play spot ever since.
   Note: the ill-fated Donner Party took this same side trail.
9. Oregon Trail Road trip - Thought the Oregon Trail was all covered wagons and pioneers? Think again! Join us as we take a road trip down the very last leg of the Oregon Trail. We’ll get to know the trail in ways you never expected – and maybe even see an elephant or two!  ​(30 minutes)
10. Crag Rats Rescue  – Listen to the Crag Rats podcast about the oldest mountain search & rescue team in the country. In the summer of 2013 a father and son set out on their first camping trip together. They did what millions of people do every year and headed to Mt. Hood. For the 10-year old boy, it was a dream come true and he was prepared, but then the trip took a turn they never saw coming. In this episode we hear from two Crag Rats and the father of the boy, to learn just what happens when things go wrong in the wilderness.   (30 minutes)​​
11. JAPANESE HISTORY IN THE HOOD RIVER VALLEY (45 minutes) 

Hear these stories by clicking HERE.