Customer Reviews

Weird Oregon: Your Travel Guide to Oregon's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I live in Portland Oregon, where the unofficial motto is "Keep Portland Weird." Given that, how could I NOT check this book out from the library... Weird Oregon: Your Travel Guide to Oregon's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets by Al Eufrasio and Jeff Davis. Weird Oregon is a great mix of local lore, history, fact, and fable, tied together with a style that combines tongue-in-cheek humor with good storytelling. It made me want to hop in the car and start visiting some of the places that make Oregon a unique place to live.

Contents:
Local Legends; Ancient Mysteries; Fabled People and Places; Unexplained Phenomena; Beaver State Beasts; Local Heroes and Villains; Peculiar Properties; Roadside Oddities; Haunted Places; Cemetery Safari; Off-Limits and All But Forgotten; Index; Acknowledgments; Photo Credits

Eufrasio and Davis made sure that wherever you go in Oregon, you could take a look in this book and find something in that area. If you're on the Oregon Coast, there's a plethora of sites to check out. Fort Stevens near Astoria is the only place in the continental US where a military base was under assault during World War II. Also during the same time period, several people died near Gearhart Mountain when they found a Japanese Fu-Go balloon bomb that went off... the only people in the continental US killed due to enemy actions during World War II. And of course, you can go visit Youtube to see the infamous beached whale that was blown to bits in 1970 on the beaches of Florence. Southern Oregon has Crater Lake, complete with old Indian legends as to how the lake in the collapsed volcano came to be. Eastern Oregon has Fort Rock, the site of the world's oldest shoes. In 1938, a number of sandals and sandal fragments were found, and evidence points to the owners having been there more than 8000 years prior. Pretty much wherever you go in Oregon, you can find some weirdness there to amaze and amuse you.

A significant portion of the stories involve hauntings and paranormal occurrences. For those who are interested in these types of phenomenon, Weird Oregon will keep you busy for months if not years. The Oregon Caves Chateau has a ghost of a woman who slit her wrists on her honeymoon when she caught her husband in bed with a hotel maid. Strange things are seen in the Shanghai tunnels under the Portland waterfront that were used in the 1800's to sneak unsuspecting (and unconscious) men onto sailing ships as conscripted labor. The White Eagle Saloon in Portland is also well-known for having a few resident ghosts of former workers and "working women" who ended their earthly existence there. Whether you believe in ghosts or not, there's no denying that strange things have happened in the places covered in the book.

This book was a lot of fun to read. Some of the stories were familiar, but plenty more were new to me, and made me want to go take a long road trip to see a few of the places for myself. The only small nit on the book had to do with some of the page typesetting. On pages where the text overlaid pictures, there were a few instances where black type was set on dark pictures, making the page nearly unreadable. But that didn't take away from the overall pleasure and enjoyment of reading about the weirdness of the state. Weird Oregon is a fun history and guide book that will add plenty of color to places that you may have just driven by in the past, not knowing exactly what you were missing out on.

Now off to book my underground tunnel tour that I keep saying I'll do one day...

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

This popular series of books takes it's pit stop in Oregon. It covers everything from ghosts and aliens to sea monsters and bigfoot to odd houses, statues, and roadside attractions throughout the state. Pretty standard fair if you are familiar with this series of texts. There are uninteresting parts and some really funny attractions that leave you scratching your head. Of course for those of us that live here in Oregon, we must wonder why some locations were left out while others were included but hey, if we wanted them included then we should write our own book. Either way, some very good coverage on a wide range of weirdness. I drop the rating a star as I felt the section on hauntings/ghosts was really far too long otherwise, check it out and peruse the sections that interest you while you plan your next roadtrip to see them for yourself.

Weird Oregon is very interesting. I found out information about my home town I never knew! Even my parents and my husband's parents who have lived in the town for 30+ years never knew about the information presented in this book. This book gave me wonderful ideas of places to visit and see the "weird Oregon" for myself!

We purchased this book for a friend who lives in England and has always wanted to come to Oregon. We thought it would be a good match for him and he just loved it.

This is not a "Keep Portland Weird" type of book. It is more of a travel guide of things to see in Oregon that may have some interesting facts to go with them. I particularly liked that it hit all areas of the state. Definitely worth the purchase and the read. I put it in my living room for guests to look at.

Weird Oregon explores the history, unique places and odd tales about Oregon - from an annual UFO festival in wine country to strange property embellishments, sea monster sightings, roadside oddities and haunted lighthouses. Any collection including visitor's guides to Oregon will appreciate the color photos, lively vignettes, and local color of a different approach to Oregon's many attractions.

The book was a "spur of the moment" purchase but so far, after I read it, I passed it on to my sister then my 87 year old Dad. My Dad loved it so much, he ordered one for my 77 year old uncle. Let's just say that the book was enjoyed by all, and my uncle can't wait for one on Oklahoma!!!

Although this book was meant to explore the "Weird" and unusual places in Oregon, I found one location that was called out and mocked by the authors to be very offensive. A friend of mine lost her brother to a heart condition at the age of 17, just a few years ago. His tombstone is located on the family's private property. Her brother loved to play basketball and has a picture of a basketball on his tombstone. The authors of this book somehow sought out this grave and decided to include a picture of the tombstone in their book with the inscription "Let the games begin". I find this to be completely unprofessional and disrespectful and am ashamed for these authors. The book, I thought, was meant to celebrate the uniqueness of the state of Oregon not mock family's tributes to their teenage son that passed away. I know I am only one person but I will never support these authors after their downright rude mockery and insensitivity to my friend and her family. Please take into consideration the disregard for a family's grieving of a loss of a son by the authors in this book before purchasing.