Over the years of doing the show - and through the amazing generosity of patrons, supporters, and friends - we’ve developed quite a library of books on the Pacific Northweird. There are a few that we’d like to particularly shout out.
Chet Caskey’s Spooky Spokane
This is one of our most highly recommended reads, and also unfortunately one of the harder ones to find if you are not from Spokane. Within Spokane, you can find copies at Auntie’s Bookstore downtown and at 2nd Look Books on the hill, or buy directly from the man himself on one of his ghost tours. Chet is the spiritual origin of the show, because a ghost tour of the Corbin Mansion and his gift of this book to Liz set off the entire genesis of what would become Ouija Broads. Spooky Spokane is most influential in 61: The Dryden Hall Demon and the Exorcism of Monaghan Mansion (April 23, 2018), 33: Ghost Trains/Train Ghosts (September 25, 2017), 14: Five Ghosts of the Davenport Hotel (May 15, 2017), and in early (not on the main feed, but available for free at the links) episodes #1, The Corbin Mansion, and #4, The Haunted Intersection. If any or all of those were your jam, scoot your spooky self to a local bookstore and get your hands on a copy of Spooky Spokane. (The follow-up, Haunted Hillyard, also looks fantastic.)
Weird Washington and Weird Oregon, by Jeff Davis and Al Eufrasio
These books are both like tasty tapas platters of weird stories. Most clock in at 1-3 pages at most, and the photography and illustrations are truly fantastic. Because of their breadth of information, you’ll find many Ouija Broads episode topics touched on in these books, but episodes that specifically originated with us reading Weird Oregon include 84: The Rock Who Fell To Earth (October 15, 2018), the Bobbie the Wonder Dog part of 88: A Noble and Absurd Undertaking (December 10, 2018), 96: The Witch’s Castle (March 31, 2019). and 63: The Original Flower Child, Opal Whiteley (May 7, 2018).
Speaking Ill of the Dead: Jerks in Montana History, Ed. Dave Walter
The title of this book called to Liz from the regional history section of Auntie’s Bookstore, and it has not disappointed. Speaking Ill of the Dead was the primary source for 73: Gore in Montana (July 30, 2018) and also provided important information for 98: Calamity Jane (May 2, 2019).
The Calamity Papers & Legends and Lies of the American West, both by Dave L. Walker.
Walker is one of our best sources for historical research on the facts underlying the legends of what we call the “psychological” or “legendary” West on the show. The Calamity Papers provided much of the material for the section of 98: Calamity Jane (May 2, 2019) related to the self-alleged daughter of Jane and Wild Bill, including nicknaming her “the canary’s chick.” We also hope to someday use his work as a starting point to explore the death of Meriwether Lewis and the two deaths of Sacajawea.