From 1933 until 1951, a number of large forest fires ravaged the Oregon Wilderness. These fires are known collectively as the Tillamook Burn. As part of the recovery effort, loggers were sent into the charred remains of the wilderness to salvage any usable wood and help with the recovery process. Along a small and winding creek in the northwest corner of the state laid a camp for these loggers.
The camp was located 50 miles away from Portland, as well as any other civilization. Fires had left the road impassable, and the trip to the camp was known to take days. Still, loggers made the arduous trek through a smoldering wasteland against conventional logic because they believed that this area still had valuable resources. You may think that these loggers were idiots. You wouldn’t be only one. In fact, most people in the area made sure to let them know that they were idiots. The area became known as the place where the idiots worked. The creek became Idiot Creek. The camp became Idiotville.
It was with that story in mind that we decided to make an Erie-centric podcast. Our city has a culture of negativity. Any new development and innovation is met with eye rolling and sarcastic comments. Many residents love to pile on about our weather, economy and dwindling population. Erie loves feeling sorry for themselves. These people think of themselves as idiots for living here and others as idiots for fighting for Erie’s future. We believe that it’s worth wandering into that charred wilderness. We believe that the journey will provide us all with something salvageable.
The Idiotville Podcast, social media accounts, and idiotvillepodcast.com were made as a way to entertain, inform, and push for a positive culture change in our community. We will call out the bad decisions that are made in Erie while celebrating the efforts to rejuvenate the city. Every week, the Idiotville Podcast team sets aside hours of our personal time to provide the best content possible. We have all invested our own money to improve quality. We don’t have that million-dollar idea that will bring thousands of high-paying jobs to the region. What we have is a desire to improve Erie and a self-created forum to expound our ideas.
This is why we are happy to bring you the Erie AF T shirt. The culture of negativity has permeated the Erie populace for far too long. This town is filled with bright and resilient people. They don’t deserve to have the narrative dictated by the complainers. By wearing the Erie AF T shirt, you are saying that you are proud of our town, aware of our problems, and ready to be a part of the solution. You’re saying that you are proud to be from Erie. You realize why people would be willing to travel through that charred wilderness of the Rust Belt and be that idiot who advocates for people who only want to complain.
We are ambitious. We are educated. We are fighters, and we are proudly Erie AF. We hope that you will be Erie AF with us.
You can purchase the shirt by clicking here to go to our store.
Idiotville 