When Oregon Blew Up a Beached Whale With Dynamite
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 5 May 2026
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1970, a 45-foot sperm whale washed up on the Oregon coast near Florence, leaving officials with a problem they did not know how to solve. The carcass was too large to move and too dangerous to leave as it began to decompose along the shoreline.
The state decided to use dynamite to remove it, but nothing went as planned. The blast sent whale blubber high into the air and across the beach, damaging cars and forcing onlookers to run for cover.
Jesse Edwards shares the wild and true story of the Oregon exploding whale.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.6 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:04.3 | Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. |
| 0:07.7 | Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand |
| 0:11.8 | new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. |
| 0:15.5 | Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the |
| 0:20.3 | biology of taun tons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. |
| 0:28.3 | Listen to Stuff to Bo Your Mind on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Lee Habib, and this is our American stories, and we tell stories about everything here on this show, from the arts to sports and from business to history. |
| 1:04.5 | And we've got a well of a tale to bring you right now. Jesse Edwards can explain. |
| 1:12.0 | On November 9, Jesse Edwards can explain. On November 9th, 1970, a 45-foot-long, 8-ton sperm whale washed ashore on the Central Oregon Coast, |
| 1:21.8 | just outside the town of Florence. |
| 1:23.9 | After all these years, it's amazing that this thing has come back to life again, but every once in a while it pops up. |
| 1:29.3 | It's an aroma that still lingers. It was one of the worst smells I've ever encountered. |
| 1:34.3 | Words cannot describe the smell. It was in my nostrils for a solid week. |
| 1:38.3 | The whale carcass remained rotting on the beach for over a week, and nobody knew what to do about it. |
| 1:45.8 | It was too big to bury and stunk too much to cut into smaller pieces, and burning it was out of the |
| 1:52.2 | question. At the time, Oregon beaches were under the jurisdiction of the state's highway |
| 1:57.5 | division, which, after consulting with the United States Navy, decided |
| 2:02.3 | to remove the whale using dynamite. |
| 2:06.6 | George Thornton was the engineer in charge of the operation. |
| 2:10.6 | Well, I'm confident that it'll work. |
| 2:13.6 | The only thing is we're not sure just exactly how much explosives it'll take to disintegrate this thing |
... |
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