Thar she blows!

In honor of the 56th anniversary of Florence’s odiferous exploding whale, Popular Science added some details. The whale came ashore on Monday, Nov. 9, 1970, at the entrance to the Siuslaw River, then washed onto the sand dunes. The foul odor was overwhelming, and no one was willing to wait the approximately two years for the eight-ton carcass to be nothing but skeleton. It was decided that dynamite was the solution. On the morning of Thursday, Nov. 12, 20 50-pound cases of dynamite were placed in holes dug under the whale by workmen. By then the stench was positively staggering, yet previously someone had held their nose long enough to steal the whale’s lower jaw. Assistant District Highway Engineer George Thornton‘s plan was that the detonation would send pieces of the whale into the river, and hence out to sea. Instead, the rotting chunks, muscle, fetid blood, etc. went flying, smacking and splattering on a beachful of onlookers.

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