“Voices of Gresham” podcast puts the ‘story in history’

On a hot summer day, Japanese Americans, many of whom had settled in the Gresham area, were told they were being relocated.

They had been kept over the summer at the Portland Assembly Center, not knowing of the furious construction that had been going on in the high desert of Idaho.

“We were told to pack up and hop on a train.”

That train was headed for the Minidoka War Relocation Center, one of 10 internment camps build by the United States to hold 10,000 Japanese Americans living across the west coast during World War II.

“It was a hot August day, all the blinds were drawn so we wouldn’t know where we were going. There was one solider per car as we went along the Columbia River.”

Eventually they arrived at the camp, outside Hunt, Idaho. The layout was clusters of barracks.

“It was bleak, no trees, desolate, I thought, ‘My goodness where are we.’”

These are some of the voices you will hear during the Gresham Historical Society’s landmark new podcast. “Voices of Gresham” is halfway through its 10-episode debut first season, which has been running every Wednesday weekly through the summer. The podcast takes oral histories, recordings and interviews to uncover the many historical mysteries across Gresham.

“So many people have lived these incredible lives here in Gresham,” said Host Stephanie Vallance. “What better way to tell that story than by the people who lived it.”

“So much of history is the ‘Great Man’ aspect, focusing on someone impactful like George Washington,” said Melissa Bevency, co-writer of the podcast. “But there is also this new way that has become prominent of highlighting those every day voices.”

The most recent drop was Episode 5. They can be listened to on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else you find podcasts. All of the episodes can be found online: greshamhistorical.org/voices-of-gresham-podcast, where there are also show notes, supplemental documents, information and photos. At the end of every episode is an outro by Vallance’s 9-year-old daughter.

“She loves doing the recordings, says she is famous now,” Vallance said with a laugh.

The podcast is funded via an $18,000 grant via the Oregon Heritage Commission. Part of the pitch included two seasons, so a follow up will take place by next spring.

Creating a podcast

Vallance was brought to Gresham via a Community Enhancement Grant to revamp the museum’s collection of oral histories.

As the public historian, she sorted through the existing audio, recorded back in the 70s and 80s, and conducted her own interviews in the past two years.

She had earned a master’s in public history at Portland State University, where she had befriended Gresham History Museum Director Silvie Andrews.

“I really wanted to be able to work in an arena that would help the public engage with history,” Vallance said. “I love podcasting as a medium, and storytelling is super important to me.”

She had previously worked as a producer on “Many Roads to Here,” a podcast by The Immigrant Story, so she had a foundation to build upon.

Joining the team was Bevency, a student at PSU, who has a background in vintage clothing and art history.

“I’ve always liked history,” she said. “I come from a family of antique dealers, so I would always get quizzed on the history of objects and places.”

The idea of creating a podcast resonated with her.

“You get this other side of history, where you can hear the emotional impact of what happened to people who lived through it,” Bevency said.

The podcast is built around those voices from the past, stitched together into a cohesive story by the duo. The initial six episodes of the opening season have been a series on the Japanese American experience in East Multnomah County, from the first Oregon Japanese settler Miyo Iwakoshi, aka the “Western Empress;” creating community in a foreign land; being sent to internment camps; and attempting to return home.

The podcast includes mysteries and funny anecdotes, but also doesn’t shy away from the more difficult aspects.

“Voices of Gresham” was recorded at Metro East Community Media, where it was also edited and produced.

Foundation of history

Both Vallance and Bevency found themselves following in the footsteps of researchers who came before.

Arlie Harris, Elsa Sternberg and Margaret Okrasinski were way ahead of their time, collecting hundreds of oral history interviews in the late 70s to early 90s.

“While we were researching these topics we kept running into moments where we had the same questions, hit the same dead-ins, had the same conclusions as that trio,” Vallance said. “I feel such a kinship with those women who started this process when no one else was doing it.”

“Back then the interview format was more, ‘Do you remember this, do you remember that,’ Bevency said. “Now we do more reflective work by prepping the interviews more and going deeper.”

The team is still crafting the 10 episode season. Once the series on Japanese Americans is concluded, there will be four stand-alone episodes. The first, Episode 7, is on prohibition, researched and edited by Bevency.

“It was a challenge, because with the series we had these story arcs to follow,” she said. “With the final episodes we have to maintain our identity as a podcast while staying interesting on a smaller scale.”

All of this has bene resonating with listeners, who are not only local, but all across the state, country and even international. “Voices of Gresham” unsurprisingly has many fans in Japan, but there are also listeners who hail from Europe, Canada, Mexico and beyond.

“While our mission is to be stewards of history in Gresham, we have this universality of storytelling that a lot of people enjoy,” Vallance said.

With Season 2 already being greenlit, the team is starting to think about what that could bring. Nothing is set in stone, but they have thought about a new series on growing up in Gresham while the city grew from a small farming town to the fourth largest community in Oregon.

“We are always interested in being pitched by people,” Vallance said. “There are more stories we want to tell, and we are always looking for ideas.”

If you have a story idea, or someone who would make for a good audio interview, email info@greshamhistoricalsociety.org. For anyone who has trouble finding the podcast online, there are listening sessions at the Gresham History Museum, 410 N. Main Ave., at 11 a.m. Thursdays. They are also planning on offering the first season in other formats once its completed.

“This podcast is for anyone who is interested in history or stories,” Vallance said. “We are putting the story in history.”