Trail Off Tuesdays: The Exploding Whale of Oregon

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Ever wondered what happens when well-meaning bureaucrats tackle an eight-ton problem with half a ton of dynamite? Welcome to the legendary tale of Florence, Oregon's exploding whale disaster.

November 9, 1970 started like any other day until a 45-foot sperm whale corpse appeared on the beach. As curious locals gathered, fascination quickly turned to disgust as the massive carcass rotted under the autumn sun, producing a stench so powerful it clung to clothing long after leaving. The Oregon Highway Division faced a colossal dilemma – how do you remove something so enormous from a public beach?

This catastrophic failure became an unexpected gift to history – one of the internet's first viral videos and eventually a tourist attraction with its own memorial park. Join us for this wild ride through one of history's most spectacular public mistakes that reminds us what happens when big problems meet bold solutions without adequate planning. What strange piece of forgotten history should we uncover next?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Transcriber's Name.
Reviewer's Namewwwintervoicescom.
Welcome back to Trail ofTuesdays, the short, strange
detour on the Clue Trail wherewe dig up the weirdest, most

(00:21):
unbelievable true stories thehistory has to offer.
Today's tale starts with a bank, and a real one.
It involves a dead well, abeach in Oregon and dynamite.
What could possibly go wrong?
This is the legendary truestory of the exploding well in

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Oregon.
It started on 9th of November1970, when a 45-foot-long sperm
whale washed ashore nearFlorence, oregon.
The whale was already dead,weighing over 8 tons, and

(01:11):
quickly began to decompose inthe autumn sun.
At first, curious locals camedown to the beach to see the
whale up close, but fascinationquickly turned to disgust.
The smell was horrific, withthe mix of rotting fish, sulphur

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and seawater that clung to theclothes and hair long after
leaving the beach.
Something had to be done, andfast.
Beach Something had to be doneand fast.
But removing a well that sizeisn't as simple as dragging it
away.
The options were limited.

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They could have buried it, butthe sand was too soft and they
feared it would resurface orstill smell, maybe burn it Again
.
This wouldn't work.
It would be too dangerous andnobody wanted a whale-sized
bonfire.
Cut it up and haul it away.

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Well, that was technicallypossible, but the idea of
carving up eight tons of rottingblubber wasn't appealing to
anyone.
So the Oregon Highway Divisionwas tasked with solving the
problem.
That was despite having no wellremoval experience, and after

(02:42):
much debate, officials settledon their solution Use dynamite
to blast the whale into small,manageable pieces, leaving the
seagulls to handle the rest.
Spoiler alert that's not how itworked out.

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The plan seemed simple on paper.
It starts with half a ton ofdynamite which would be placed
beneath the well.
Then the blast would scatterchunks far out to the sea,
leaving nothing but sand behind.
For this, a demolition expert,formerly with the military, was

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brought in.
He calculated the amount ofexplosives needed, although
later he admitted that it wasmore art than science.
And with all the preparations inplace, on the day of the event,
word spread quickly throughtown.
Hundreds of people gathered onthe dunes.
Some brought picnics and lawnchairs to watch the spectacle.

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Even local TV crews set upcameras.
This wasn't just a welldisposal, this was entertainment
.
The well was stuffed with 20cases of dynamite, wires were
set and the crowd moved back Towhat officials called it, a safe
distance Of about a quartermile and at 3.45pm, with

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reporters rolling and spectatorsholding their breath, the
plunger was pushed.
The explosion was everythingpeople expected.
For about three seconds, amassive plume of sand, smoke and

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whale parts erupted into thesky and for a moment the crowd
cheered.
But then came the blubber rain.
Chunks of well, some weighingseveral hundred pounds, shot
high into the air.
Hundreds of feet away from theblast site, one enormous piece

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crashed directly onto a brandnew car, completely flattening
its roof and destroying it.
Smaller pieces rained down ononlookers, forcing them to
scatter, and the stench wasoverwhelming.
Just imagine hot, rotting,well-kneed raining from the sky

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on a cold November day.
Beneath raining from the sky ona cold November day, Reporters
later described people running,screaming and holding jackets
over their heads for protection.
And the worst part of all thisordeal Most of the well didn't

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even budge.
The explosion had blasted somechunks into the ocean, but a
huge portion of the carcassremained on the beach, now
spread out, stinky and far moreunpleasant than before.
As reporter Paul Lindmanfamously said in his TV segment,
the blast blasted blubberbeyond all believable bounds.

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In the aftermath, cleanup crewshad to do exactly what they
hoped to avoid removing theremains by hand and with heavy
machinery.
Eventually, bulldozers buriedwhat was left of the well under
tons of sand, and the seagullsmeant to be.

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Nature's cleanup crew didn'tarrive right away.
For days, the beach was leftwith an unforgettable stench.
Later on, the Oregon HighwayDivision admitted the plan
didn't go as expected.
Oregon Highway Divisionadmitted the plan didn't go as
expected.
Officials later joked that theyused too much dynamite or
perhaps not enough.

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Either way, it was agreed thatexploding wells was not a
recommended disposal method.
In the end, the incident fadedinto local memory for years, but
in the 1990s, old TV footage ofthe blast resurfaced online and

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went viral.
Long before viral videos wereeven a thing, the story of the
exploding well became an instantpiece of internet folklore,
retold in books, documentariesand even comedy sketches.
By 2020, 50 years later, thetown of Florence embraced its

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bizarre claim to fame,officially opening the exploding
well Memorial Park.
A plaque now marks the spot,honouring not just the well, but
what might be the most famouslybad idea in a beach cleanup
history.
Since that day in 1970, no onehas attempted to remove a well

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this way again.
Today, scientists andenvironmental agencies use other
methods, like burying wellsdeeper in stable sand dunes or
toying them out to sea todecompose.
Naturally, occasionally theymight be using heavy machinery
to cut and transport the remainsfor disposal or study.

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But the Florence well left abigger mark than just a cleanup
history.
It's a story about what happenswhen big problems meet big
ideas without big planning.

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Thanks for joining me on thiswild ride through one of the
strangest stories ever to comeout of Oregon, where good
inventions, bad math and half aton of dynamite made history.
This was Exploding Well ofOregon.
If you enjoyed today's story,this was Exploding Well of

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Oregon.
If you enjoyed today's story,follow Clue Trail, leave a
review and share this episodewith a friend who loves weird
true tales.
And if you know a strange storythat deserves its moment on
Trail of Tuesdays, send it myway.
See you next time.