- Outdoor columnist Ben Smith looks back the 1970 exploding whale story from Oregon. He says it makes him wonder how Mississippi would handle such an incident.
A couple of weeks ago on what was supposed to be a peaceful beach getaway full of rest and relaxation, my wife convinced me to go walking with her each evening along the shoreline. An evening beach walk with my bride didn’t sound too bad, but it somehow turned into exercise, and I found myself doing all that I could to keep up. The terrain was uneven by at least six inches, so it was pure hell on my hips. I thought I’d be clever by just walking above the break of the surf on dry sand. Well, that turned out to be a bad idea due to the level of difficulty. Had I stayed up there she would have certainly left me in her dust. Instead, I opted to have one leg shorter than the other for the first half of our walk then swap up on the way back. Needless to say, I was sore for a week and very happy to get back to walking on pavement around our neighborhood.
During our walk one evening, I noticed some small dead fish that had washed up to the shore. At first I didn’t think anything of it, but later on I was reminded of a story that a friend told me I should look into. The story of the exploding whale. While I had forgotten to look into it after being told about it, I was blown away (pun intended) by the story when I read about it. If you’ve never heard the story of the exploding whale, keep reading, you’re in for a treat.
The story of the exploding whale dates back to November of 1970. A forty-five-foot sperm whale, weighing eight tons washed up dead on the shores of Oregon’s south coast. That alone was enough to draw plenty of media attention. Local officials near Florence, Oregon (the area where the whale washed up) were concerned about the locals messing with it. They were worried that someone would climb on it and potentially injure themselves. That’s forward thinking if you ask me since the world wasn’t nearly as “sue happy” in 1970 as it is now. The stench of this large, dead mammal on the beach was another concern for local officials. I’ve been around the beach when a few dead fish washed up creating a stench that will burn your nostrils. I can’t imagine how bad eight tons of rotting whale flesh would smell.
Here’s where the story gets good. Instead of cutting up the whale and hauling it off, they devised an entirely different plan. Officials met with munitions experts from the United States Navy, and all agreed to use dynamite to dislodge the whale. So, not only forward thinkers but adventurers. Three days after the whale washed ashore, it was rigged up with a half-ton of dynamite. That’s a lot of boom for those of you wondering. And this wasn’t done quietly. They turned it into a spectator sport. A large crowd of folks and media waited around to watch from around a quarter mile away.
When all were ready, the signal was given for the Department of Transportation to set off the dynamite. While the so-called experts were convinced that the whale would be reduced to small bits and pieces that could easily be cleaned up by birds and other scavengers, pretty much the exact opposite happened. The dynamite set off a one-hundred-foot-high blast of whale parts and sand. Instead of the whale being reduced to small pieces, heavy chunks fell from the sky. People that gathered on the dunes to watch the spectacle were all of a sudden running in fear as whale debris rained down on them.
All I could think of was how bad these people had to have smelled after being covered in rotten whale remnants. And they had to get in their vehicles and drive home thus making their vehicles smell like dead whale. Well, all except one fellow. A giant chunk of whale fell on his car crushing the top as if Hulk Hogan had jumped from a three-story building on top of it. This poor man wasn’t driving anywhere. Thankfully, no person was injured in the blast by the raining debris, but I’m sure they weren’t all too thrilled with the Oregon Department of Transportation (they were responsible for the whale removal). The remnants of the whale had to be collected and buried afterward.
This year will be the 55th anniversary of the “exploding whale” and the town of Florence celebrates it each year. Event attendees will bring monetary offerings and dress up like whales for the event. There’s an exhibit dedicated to the whale in town that has some of the actual bones from the whale along with other memorabilia for onlookers to enjoy. They even have a whale memorial park dedicated to the event.
The good news for folks in Oregon is that even though the man in charge considered the exploding whale to have been a success, the state of Oregon no longer blows up beached whales. Just nine years after the exploding whale event, over forty more sperm whales washed ashore. However, blowing them up was no longer considered an option. Oregon now opts to just bury any whale carcasses that wash ashore. It does make me wonder how Mississippi would handle such. I can envision a couple of good ol’ boys with canisters of Tannerite on the beach now!
Ben Smith
