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Underground History: Balloon Bombs Remembered

Michael (a.k.a. moik) McCullough, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58371763
The monument to the victims of the Bly balloon bomb.

The fears of a Japanese attack on the mainland United States actually came true during the second World War.  But no one knew it at the time. 

The discovery of a balloon bomb near Bly, Oregon in the spring of 1945 resulted in the deaths of six people. 

That case and others were kept under wraps by government censors at the time. 

Our Underground History segment with the archaeologists of the Southern Oregon University Laboratory of Anthropology (SOULA) focuses on the balloon bombings this month.  Niles Reynolds of the Klamath County Museums and Todd Kepple, Chair of the Oregon Heritage Commission, are our guests, along with our SOULA regulars, Chelsea Rose and Mark Tveskov. 

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Geoffrey Riley is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and has hosted the Jefferson Exchange on JPR since 2009. He's been a broadcaster in the Rogue Valley for more than 35 years, working in both television and radio.
April Ehrlich is an editor and reporter at Oregon Public Broadcasting. Prior to joining OPB, she was a news host and regional reporter at Jefferson Public Radio.