Mysterious Pacific Northwest

We're Back... well almost! We just wanted to get on the airwaves and let you know we are definitely coming back with fun, new, and exciting episodes next week! We love you guys and appreciate your patience! -Love Jen & Sarah

In the summer of 1902, escaped convict Harry Tracy sparked one of the largest manhunts in Pacific Northwest history after breaking out of the Oregon State Penitentiary in a violent escape. Moving through Oregon and Washington, he hijacked boats, took hostages, and repeatedly slipped through law enforcement after a series of deadly gunfights. For weeks he stayed ahead of posses until he was finally...

What happened to DeOrr Kunz Jr.? In July of 2015, a two-year-old boy vanished from Timber Creek Campground outside Leadore, Idaho and was never seen again. Search crews combed the Idaho wilderness for days. Helicopters circled overhead. Dogs searched the forest. Volunteers moved through creek beds, ravines, and abandoned mine shafts deep inside the mountains. But investigators found nothing. No fo...

For the final episode of  The Long Road to Oregon , we’re taking a step back. After following the trail through its stories, its people, and everything it carried with it, this episode is a reflection—on the series, the history, and what stayed with us after spending so much time on that road. It’s also a look back on two years of the show, how our storytelling has evolved, and what comes next. Th...

For the final episode of  The Long Road to Oregon , we step back from the trail itself and look at what was left behind. Not just the miles traveled—but the lives changed along the way. The families who made it, the ones who didn’t, and the places that grew from a journey that was never as simple as it’s often remembered. This episode reflects on the road west—what it required, what it cost, and w...

The journey beyond the trail with the Denny Party—families who didn’t stop in Oregon, but continued north in search of something more. From a difficult landing at Alki Point to the first uncertain days of settlement across Elliott Bay, this episode explores what it meant to arrive… and realize the journey wasn’t over. This is the story of early Seattle—its beginnings, its challenges, and the peopl...

For this episode of  The Long Road to Oregon , we’re looking at a version of the trail many of us remember a little differently. Before the research, before the real stories—for a lot of us, it started with The Oregon Trail. Decisions, supplies, river crossings… and the message we all remember. This episode looks at what the game got right, what it left out, and how that version compares to the re...

For this episode of  The Long Road to Oregon , we follow one of the most infamous stories of the overland journey—the Donner Party. What began as a hopeful crossing turned into a fight for survival in the Sierra Nevada, where early snow, starvation, and impossible choices reshaped every life in the camp. This episode traces the full story—from the decision to take the Hastings Cutoff to the winter...

For the next episode of  The Long Road to Oregon , we follow the story of the Whitman Mission—a place many emigrants passed through at the end of the trail, and where rising tension, disease, and cultural misunderstanding came to a breaking point in 1847. This episode looks beyond a single version of the story, tracing what led to that moment and what followed—through firsthand accounts, historica...

This episode of  The Long Road to Oregon , we’re tracing the trail through the homelands of the sovereign nations who lived along its length—Otoe-Missouria, Pawnee, Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Shoshone, Nez Perce, Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla, Chinookan peoples, and many more. This episode honors their history, their endurance, and the world emigrants entered long before the trail had a name. Sover...

For this of  The Long Road to Oregon , we’re following the women who walked the trail long before it became history. The women who delivered children between river crossings, drove wagons when tragedy struck, held families together through sickness, storms, loss, and miles of dust. Their stories, woven through diaries and memories, shaped the trail just as deeply as any wagon wheel. Women of the O...

We’re launching a brand new Oregon Trail series—digging into the real stories behind the wagon ruts, the dangerous shortcuts, the lost parties, and the moments where hope and survival collided on the road west. Our first episode drops this week, starting with the Meek Cutoff, often called Oregon’s “other Donner Party.” A massive wagon train. A promised shortcut. A deadly desert passage. And a wint...

For our next episode on  The Long Road to Oregon , we’re digging into one of the harshest realities emigrants faced on the trail: cholera. The sudden sickness that moved through camps without warning, took lives in hours, and left miles of quiet graves along the roadside. This chapter follows the real stories, the medical truth, and the families who tried to outrun a disease they didn’t understand...

For Episode 1 of  The Long Road to Oregon , we’re going back to 1843 to follow the first great wagon train west. This is the story of the families who gathered on the edge of Missouri, joined their wagons, and carved the earliest deep ruts toward Oregon. The beginning of the trail as we know it. Episode 1: The Great Migration of 1843 is out now everywhere you stream podcasts! #thelongroadtooregon...

We’re starting something new. As we reach two years of  Mysterious Pacific Northwest , we’re taking a moment to look back—at where this show began, the stories we’ve told, and how much it’s grown. And from there, we’re stepping into something that’s been a long time coming. The Long Road to Oregon  is a series rooted in a story that feels familiar to so many of us—but the deeper we went, the more...

On Christmas Eve 1945, a fire tore through the Sodder family home in Fayetteville, West Virginia. By morning, five children were missing. No remains were ever found. The explanations didn’t match the evidence. And the questions left behind have lingered for nearly eighty years. This week, we’re diving into one of America’s most unsettling unsolved cases — the disappearance of the Sodder children,...

In this episode, we ride deep into the gold-laden gulches of early Montana—where law was scarce, tempers were quick, and justice was often measured in rope. From the boomtown chaos of Bannack and Virginia City to the haunting hangings beneath Helena’s “Old Hangman’s Tree,” this story follows the rise of the Montana Vigilantes: citizens who took justice into their own hands amid robbery, murder, an...

This week we head to Attu Island, one of the most remote and forgotten battlefields of World War II. A place of brutal fighting, heavy loss, and the ghost stories that followed. Was it truly haunted… or does history itself linger in places like this? Listen now to: The Haunted Battlefield of Attu wherever you get your podcasts. #MysteriousPacificNorthwest #Podcast #TrueHistory #WWIIHistory #Alaska...

Our newest episode takes you deep into Anchorage’s Fourth Avenue during the chaotic pipeline boom years — a place where women looked out for each other long before the city realized a serial predator was hunting in their streets. This is the story told through their experiences, their warnings, and the city they tried to survive in — pieced together through survivor accounts, historical records, a...

Set against the storm-lashed backdrop of early 1900s Aberdeen, Washington, this narrative traces the rise and ruin of William “Billy” Gohl, a sailor-turned-union leader once branded the “Ghoul of Grays Harbor.” Once feared as a mass murderer blamed for dozens of waterfront deaths, Gohl’s story is reexamined through a century of mythmaking, corruption, and labor strife. Drawing on modern research t...

BONUS EPISODE !! We’re going Inside the Mysterious Pacific Northwest for a special AMA episode—sharing more about us, the podcast, and some behind-the-scenes moments  From how we choose our stories to the moments that have genuinely unsettled us… nothing’s off limits  So grab your coffee, settle in, and come hang out with us   Listen now wherever you stream podcasts #MysteriousPacificNorthwest #Po...

In 1962, Seattle built the future. The Century 21 World’s Fair brought more than 10 million visitors to the Pacific Northwest to see rockets, computers, monorails, and a strange bubble elevator called the Bubbleator. It also gave Seattle one of its most iconic landmarks — the Space Needle. In this episode, we explore the history of the fair, the strange attractions people have forgotten, and the m...

Hycroft Manor, the grand Edwardian estate once home to war hero General Alexander McRae and his wife Blanche, has long been the jewel of Vancouver’s Shaughnessy district—and one of its most haunted. From glittering 1920s masquerade balls to its wartime years as a veterans’ hospital, the mansion absorbed the lives and losses of everyone who passed through its 30 rooms. Today, seven ghosts—including...

“Please don’t talk… just listen.” Those were the words that echoed through Minnesota in the early ’80s — the voice of a killer hiding behind tears. This week,  The Infamous Files  pulls back the curtain on the Weepy Voice Killer and the women whose stories refuse to be forgotten. The Infamous Files: The Weepy Voice Killer is out now, everywhere you stream Podcasts! #truecrime #theinfamousfiles #we...

The Klassen case is a chilling exploration of domestic violence, legal controversy, and the enduring impact on families and communities. It raises critical questions about the intersection of law and morality, the controversial provocation defense, and the gap between judicial decisions and public expectations of justice. Beyond the courtroom, it highlights the power of survivor advocacy and the l...