Julian Smith

The counties of eastern Oregon are tired of the big liberal cities setting state policy. Their solution: secede and join Idaho.

The deluge of 1862 turned the Central Valley into a lake and destroyed nearly every bridge in the region. Spurred by climate change, the conditions are ripe for an even worse inundation.

In 1905, prospector Pablo Valencia survived a week without water as he walked—and stumbled, and crawled—more than 100 miles in the Sonoran Desert. Seventy-five years later, high school teacher Bill Broyles retraced his route and lived to talk about it.

Deep in California’s Trinity Alps, two firefighters battling a fast-moving blaze were gravely injured by a falling boulder. Their best option for survival: a four-person Coast Guard team adept at sea rescues.

She was one of the most widely traveled women of the 19th century. He was a half-wild, one-eyed scoundrel. In the mountains of Colorado, they had a moment.

Written off by government geologists, blackballed by the oil and gas industry, and nearly broke, Charlie Steen had something to prove: that huge deposits of radioactive uranium could be found near Moab, Utah. The mines he drilled would change his life—and the surrounding area—forever.

In 1952, a vicious double murder at Crater Lake stunned the nation. The FBI and the Oregon State Police came up empty-handed. Then, 26 years ago, the granddaughter of one of the victims picked up the case.

Production for The General involved guns, bombs, fires, and the blowing up of a bridge in a tiny Oregon town. When the filming was over, the comedic legend’s career was in tatters. Forty years later, the movie was hailed as a masterpiece.