Visitors’ curiosity soon gave way to repulsion as the whale decomposed. The whale had begun to emit a putrefying stench that repulsed beachgoers. Just this month, Florence unveiled a new park to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the incident: Exploding Whale Memorial Park. Exploding Whale Memorial Park. Alternately, someone had a dynamite idea. The Oregon Department of Transportation used 20 cases of dynamite to blow it up. But Thornton needed a more potent blast. According to KATU, the city sought input from community members through a “Name the Park” contest and “Exploding Whale Memorial Park” was the winner. Whether it's a person, a place, a custom, or something else entirely, tell us about it. It's one of those real-life stories that just sounds too strange to be real. But as locals beat a retreat, it became obvious that further action would have to be taken. “Except, the dynamite cases funneled down into the sand and directed the explosion straight up.”.It’s safe to say that state officials learned their lesson from this historic event.
The smell of putrid whale oil engulfed the scene.
One writer for the.Oregon came up with a combustible solution for their dead whale problem.Haliep/iStock via Getty Images (Whale) // revenaif/iStock via Getty Images (Explosion).Don Johnson and Barbra Streisand in September 1988.Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas co-starred on,NBC Television/Hulton Archive/Getty Images,Get exclusive deals, product news, reviews and more with the Mental Floss Smart Shopping Newsletter. And it didn’t help that highway engineers didn't provide a countdown before detonation on the afternoon of Thursday, Nov. 12, 1970, said Bacon.“All of a sudden there was this hundred-foot geyser of blood, blubber and sand going up into the sky,” Bacon said. Exploding Whale Memorial Park is nestled on the banks of the Siuslaw River, and has a nice walking path and put-in access for canoes and kayaks. “I had probably [worked there] about a month, and it was an exciting story.”.Back then the coast was managed by the State Highway Division, and agency officials figured the best way to get rid of the immovable mammal was by blowing it up with half a ton of dynamite. Today, locals celebrate the anniversary by dressing as various whale parts and then running around that very same beach. To guide him through the process, he hired manager and record executive Danny Goldberg, who in turn enlisted Chas Sandford, a songwriter who had worked with Stevie Nicks and John Waite. Just this month, Florence unveiled a new park to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the incident:When 41 sperm whales beached themselves near the same area in 1979, no dynamite was used; they were instead buried in the sand.
(He could sing, play guitar a little, and write.) Soon, a group of session players, including bassist Mark Leonard and keyboardist Bill Champlin, materialized. The park is named in honor of the 1970 explosion of a rotting sperm whale on the Oregon Coast just outside of the city's limits.But, in Bacon’s opinion, this story continues to live on for one reason: It is just so unbelievably bizarre.There have been few things as divisive in Portland's history as the debate over whether to add fluoride to the drinking water.OPB’s new "All Things Considered" host once worked at "Saturday Night Live," loves coho salmon and has feelings about rain.Is there something about Oregon or Southwest Washington which you find curious? Each door is filled with a surprise Pocket Pop! “It stuck to your clothes and everything.”.What might be the hardest part to believe in this story is that the engineer behind the blast, George Thornton, thought the effort was a success.“It was kind of funny because I interviewed him afterward, and he said it went exactly right,” Bacon said.
But it most definitely happened and.Larry Bacon, 79, was a new reporter at The Register-Guard on that fateful day in 1970 when Oregon highway officials blew up a rotting sperm whale on a beach near Florence, Ore.“It was an exciting day for me because I was a new reporter for The Register-Guard,” Bacon said. By Tim Binnall.
Officials were flummoxed — how do you bury an 8-ton titan? A widely reported case of an exploding whale occurred in Florence, Oregon in November 1970, when the Oregon Highway Division (now the Oregon Department of Transportation) blew up a decaying sperm whale with dynamite in an attempt to dispose of its rotting carcass. State policy now is to bury, not blow up, dead whales that end up on the beach.The legend of flying whale bits is an enduring one. Nov. 12, 1970 is an auspicious day in Oregon history. It was a whale. That's thanks, in part, to.Florence, Ore., Mayor Joe Henry poses in front of the sign welcoming visitors to the Exploding Whale Memorial Park. For the uninitiated: Nearly 50 years ago, a gigantic, dead whale washed up onto a Pacific Northwest shore and really stunk up the joint. In a spectacular denouement, a giant piece of whale at least 3 square feet in size landed directly on a brand-new Cadillac.Incredibly, no one was injured. When 41 sperm whales … It was 1986, and Johnson was one of the hottest television stars of the era, starring as Miami cop Sonny Crockett on the hit NBC drama,Johnson's problem was not with the show, or with his shoulder pads, but the fact that he was beginning to.Johnson had always kept one eye on the music scene, using some of the proceeds from his acting jobs to pay for demo recordings. To be on the safe side, 20 cases—or approximately one half-ton—of explosives were used. In 1970, a deceased 45 foot, eight ton whale washed ashore near Florence. He consulted with Navy munitions experts who theorized that, with an explosion, the whale would be reduced to chunks that would head toward the Pacific Ocean.
Bacon’s car was parked next to it.“People were retching,” Bacon said. Seagulls that had been expected to feast on the remains were scared off by the explosion and remained wary of the area for some time.For years, Thornton refused to discuss the incident, slightly bashful about the consequences of attempting to blow up a whale. Be a part of it!retired Oregon Coast reporter Larry Bacon,What do you find curious about the Northwest? A large portion of the whale remained; it was eventually moved using a bulldozer and buried on the beach.