A 2018 reenactment at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site of a mid-19th century “Brigade” when the company employees returned to the fort after months of trapping furs in outlying areas. Both Navy sailors and the Marines trained in the use of cutlasses (a type of sabre). In the photo, the Royal Marines are in red uniforms, Royal Navy in blue. At front right, Instructor-at-Arms Jeff Richardson of Academia Duellatoria. The reenactors are conducting a partner drill.

Curious Northwest

Fort Vancouver offers sword fighting classes, minus real duels

This fall, Fort Vancouver National Historic Site is offering classes for those interested in the clash of steel.

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Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, photographed in black-and-white on a rooftop by William S. Burroughs in 1953. The young Ginsberg wears thick framed eyeglasses, a white button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up, slacks and a serious expression. Behind him in view are rooftops and a distant cityscape.

First known recording of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” is from Portland’s Reed College

Beat poet Allen Ginsberg first read his famous poem "Howl" in 1955 in San Francisco, but he was first recorded reading it on Valentine's Day 1956 in a dorm hall at Portland's Reed College. The recording was discovered in a box at Reed in 2007, and now it's been restored and released by Omnivore Recordings.


Recovering a forgotten piece of Portland’s baseball history, the Rosebuds

This summer, Portland's Wild Wild West League is resurrecting the 'Rosebuds' team name in honor of the 1946 Portland Rosebuds, Portland's first and only all-Black, Negro League baseball team. The '46 Rosebuds were owned by track and field speedster Jesse Owens, the four-time gold medalist who stunned the world at the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin.





Oregon set the stage for modern presidential debates

In 1948, Portland hosted the United States’ first-ever nationally broadcast presidential debate. The face-off, between two candidates competing for the Republican nomination, is widely seen as the precedent for today’s debates.


How Oregon’s GOP governor teamed up with hippies to throw a festival and prevent clashes in the streets

In August of 1970, at the height of the Vietnam War, President Richard Nixon was slated to come to Portland, and so were thousands of antiwar protesters. That's when some young liberal Oregonians teamed up with Republican Gov. Tom McCall on a plan to lure thousands of potential antiwar demonstrators into the woods for a weekend of rock 'n' roll and avoid a projected violent clash in the City of Roses. This is the story of Oregon Vortex 1: A Biodegradable Festival of Life.


How Oregon named a county after a Confederate sympathizer

Efforts to rename institutions with racist underpinnings such as schools, military bases and sports teams are happening across the country. In Oregon, there’s a movement to change the name of Lane County, which is dedicated to Joseph Lane, the first governor of the Oregon Territory.


A huckleberry by any other name: The story behind Westerners’ favorite wild berries

Huckleberry season is in full swing in the Pacific Northwest, and whether you forage them yourself or pay a pretty penny at your local farmer's market, these berries are a sweet staple of summer. But what if we told you huckleberries don't grow in the West? In fact, you've been enjoying native blueberries all along.

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