November 12, 1970. That was the day the Oregon State Highway Division decided to blowup a 45-foot, 8-ton sperm whale using dynamite. A half-ton of dynamite. Why did they decide to do that? Well, according to reports, it’d been so long since a whale had washed up on an Oregon beach no one could remember how to dispose of it at the time. So this plan was devised. Some would could call it faulty one, but all the same the hope was that the mammal would be blown into small enough parts that scavengers would take care of the rest.
When the whale was exploded, it began raining whale parts, sending onlookers scurrying, knowing full well the blubber blast could actually land them in a world of hurt if they happened to get hit by a falling whale bone or some other giant animal part.
One piece actually smashed an Oldsmobile in a nearby parking lot. The report by Paul Linnman, of Oregon’s KATU news went viral before there was such a word for content seen far and wide on the internet. It sort of made his career, as he comments in the video below. You can check out both versions to get a better understanding of Southern Oregon beach history at its finest.
