On November 9, 1970, a dead sperm whale washed ashore near Florence, Oregon. At 45 feet long and weighing approximately 8 tons, the massive carcass presented local authorities with an unusual dilemma: how do you dispose of a whale?
The Oregon Highway Division decided that half a ton of dynamite would do the job perfectly. What happened next became one of the most infamous government decisions in local history.
The Dilemma
The Oregon Highway Division, tasked with removing the decomposing whale from the beach, considered several options. Burying it seemed impractical due to the whale’s size and the risk of tides uncovering it. Cutting it up appeared gruesome and time-consuming.
Then someone suggested what seemed like an ingenious solution: blow it up with dynamite. The theory was that seagulls would clean up the smaller pieces, while the rest would wash back out to sea.
The Big Boom
On November 12, 1970, at 3:45 PM, the explosives were detonated. What happened next became legendary. The explosion was far more powerful than anticipated. Instead of disintegrating the whale into small pieces, the blast launched massive chunks of blubber high into the air.
Spectators who had gathered a quarter-mile away suddenly found themselves running for cover as whale debris rained down from the sky. One particularly large piece crashed through the roof of a brand new Oldsmobile.
The Aftermath
When the smoke cleared, the scene was chaotic. Large chunks of whale were scattered across the beach and parking lot. The smell was overwhelming. Seagulls fled the area in terror rather than cleaning up as predicted.
Most problematically, the majority of the whale carcass remained largely intact, now sitting in a crater of sand. The highway division ended up having to bury the remaining whale parts—the very solution they had tried to avoid with the explosion.
Media Sensation
KATU-TV reporter Paul Linnman’s coverage became legendary. His deadpan narration of the chaos, including the famous line about the demolished Oldsmobile—“The car…will never smell good, no matter how many times it is washed”—turned the story into comedic gold.
When the internet emerged, the video went viral, accumulating millions of views and cementing the exploding whale as perhaps the most famous example of government problem-solving gone wrong.
Legacy
The incident became a case study in what not to do. Modern practice involves either towing carcasses out to sea or methodically dismantling them on-site.
The Oregon exploding whale stands as a monument to human hubris and the unpredictable consequences of seemingly simple solutions. It reminds us that sometimes the most obvious answer isn’t the best one, and that consulting experts before making explosive decisions is generally advisable.