Town file
Newport, Oregon
Newport, Oregon (Lincoln County, Oregon) is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 51, "A Murderous Pact Unravels" (3 January 2018). Small Town Murder episode 51 visits Newport, Oregon, a beach town in Lincoln County on the Pacific coast, about two and a half hours from Portland.
- Town
- Newport
- County
- Lincoln County
- State
- Oregon
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 51
- Approximate location
- 44.621, -124.044
Episode 51 / 3 January 2018 / 126 min / full
A Murderous Pact Unravels
"James says they are flying across the country to Newport, Oregon, a beach town on the coast in Lincoln County, zip 97365" about 0:06:33
The case: Murder of Walter Thomas Ackerson Jr. (March 24, 1990). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2018
- Population
- 10,260
- Median age
- 43.6
- Median household income
- about $40,500 a year
- Median home value
- $236,400
- Two-bedroom rent
- $817 a month
- Cost of living
- 112
- Religious
- 21%
- Property crime
- ▲ almost twice the national average
- Violent crime
- exactly average
History, in brief
- Native Amans lived in the area first; by 1856 ships came to supply the military garrisons. about 0:12:02
- Oyster beds were discovered in 1862 and oysters and crabs were exported to San Francisco. about 0:12:24
- On 4 July 1866 about 400 people held a 90th Fourth of July celebration, raised the Aman flag in the middle of town and prayed; about 300 local tribesmen came to watch. Newport was then a lumber and fishing village, and the speakers said it would be the San Francisco of Oregon. about 0:13:07
- During World War One the area had the largest spruce mill in the world, in nearby Toledo; the wood for Howard Hughes's Spruce Goose is said to have come from there. about 0:15:39
- In the 1930s the area got over one million dollars of the five million needed from the federal government to build bridges on the Oregon coast, as Depression works projects. about 0:16:54
- The Yaquina Bay Bridge opened on 3 October 1936, is 3,200 feet long and 133 feet high, and is the most recognisable of the bridges on Route 101. about 0:17:20
- Town slogans include 'the friendliest', 'your vacation days, do something new', 'the coast you remember' and 'Dungeness crab capital of the world'. about 0:10:17
- Randall Woodfield, the I-5 killer, is from Newport. about 0:18:20
- The Oregon Coast Aquarium housed Keiko, the orca from the Free Willy film, from 1996 to 1998 before he was sent to Iceland. about 0:27:17
The reviews read out
"James read reviews of the town's crime: mostly petty crime, vandalism and drunk tourists, such as people urinating in an alley."about 0:27:40
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- Eddyville, Oregon13 miles
- Alsea, Oregon28 miles
- Dallas, Oregon41 miles
- Tillamook, Oregon59 miles
- Springfield, Oregon66 miles
- Colton, Oregon87 miles
Everything here is as told in the episode, on the date it went out; figures and places may have changed since. Endings are covered: open an episode and use the spoiler switch to read them.