I am a fan of Monty Python, if you have been living under a rock and don’t know – the British comedy troupe formed in 1969 in England when Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin joined forces. Of course, I’m a fan of the movies (1975’s Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 1979’s Monty Python’s Life of Brian, and 1983’s Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life), and of course the twelve episodes of John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers remain, to this day, the funniest sitcom ever produced on television, but don’t mention the war!
However, I’m particularly fond of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, their sketch show which originally aired on the BBC from 1969 to 1974. Each episode in the first three seasons began with John Cleese, dressed in a tuxedo, saying, “And now for something completely different,” a phrase I’d like to borrow and press into service here. So,
And now for something completely different…
“Thar she blows” is a phrase shouted by crew members up in the lookout to announce to the captain and crew on the deck of a whaling ship that a whale was in sight. But they didn’t need a lookout on the beach just south of Florence, Oregon, on November 12, 1970 to spot this whale. It was a 45-foot-long, 8-ton sperm whale that had washed up on the shore. It was dead. And as such, it had begun to decompose. And smell.
The whale had begun to emit an absolutely putrid stench that repulsed beachgoers. There was no doubt, it simply had to go. But how? Because the beach in Lane County was a public right of way, and nearby roads had a speed limit of 25 miles per hour, prolonging the amount of time motorists passing by were forced to smell decaying whale blubber, the task of dealing with the whale was assigned to George Thornton, the assistant district highway engineer of the Oregon State Highway Department, and his team.
Several solutions to the problem of disposing of 8 tonnes of dead whale were ruled out immediately. The idea of simply burying the whale in the sand raised concerns the incoming tide might wash away the sand and cause it to resurface. Cutting up the corpse was considered, but, as you can imagine, there were no volunteers for that incredibly unpleasant and time-consuming task. Burning it was also deemed impractical.
So, in a quintessential example of “when-all-you-have-is-a-hammer-the-world-looks-like-a-nail” thinking, the team from the Oregon State Highway Department, lacking experience relocating whale carcasses, decided to treat it as they would a massive boulder that needed to be removed from the road. They decided to blow it up!
Now, does the title I gave this post make sense? I thought myself very clever, because there are, essentially, two meanings to it – (1) over there, there’s a whale, and (2) good ol’ George Thornton and his team are gonna blow it up! Thar she blows indeed!!
The obvious issue here was that this was no boulder. It was a whale. In their defense, the boys from the Oregon State Highway Department did place the explosives on the land side in hopes the blast would carry whale debris out to sea. Any that remained on land would be eaten by seagulls and other scavengers, or so it was thought. But no one was quite sure exactly how much dynamite it would take to reduce 45 feet of whale into bite-sized morsels of blubber that wildlife would eat. Using calculations known only to them and now lost in the mists of time, the Highway Department boys decided on 20 cases (approximately one half-ton) of dynamite.
What happened next is something Florence locals still talk about 50+ years later.
Local ABC news station KATU sent reporter Paul Linnman to cover the event. At 3:30 pm Pacific Time, spectators and Mr. Linnman were asked to move back roughly a quarter-mile for safety. At 3:45 pm, George Thornton ordered the dynamite to be detonated.
The scene was captured by KATU’s cameras (see below). The footage even contains a pre-blast interview with confident putrefying whale carcass removal mastermind, George Thornton!
Now I’ll admit I’ve watched footage of building demolitions, mainly old Vegas hotels, online; it’s somewhat fascinating. And that was the initial reaction of the 75 or so people who had gathered on the shore just south of Florence, Oregon that afternoon. But fascination soon turned to disgust and panic as large chunks of blubber sailed over their heads, landing with a squishy thud at their feet, while smaller pieces pelted their bodies – the putrid smell of decaying whale all around them and, in many cases, on them! A giant piece of dead whale at least 3 square feet in size landed directly on a brand-new Cadillac, smashing the top and blowing out the windows; Kelly Umenhofer, the son of its owner, recounted the scene 45 years later to CBS affiliate KVAL:
“So I’m all excited, and I went over to my dad: ‘They’re going to blow it up, 20 cases of dynamite,’ and my father proceeded to say, ‘I think you misheard them. I think he said 20 sticks,’” Umenhofer recalled Thursday. “And I said, ‘No he said 20 cases.’”
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“After they blew it up, everyone is watching in awe, and then 30 seconds later – blam blam blam – then everyone’s going, ‘There’s huge chunks of whale blubber getting thrown on us,’” Umenhofer said.
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“So then there’s people running everwhere scattering,” Umenhofer said. “There was whale blubber everywhere; even the cameraman left his camera and went running, as did the reporter.”
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“As it started to come down, it went boom!” Umenhofer said. “It almost bent the car in a V, and my dad goes, ‘My car!’”
When 41 sperm whales beached themselves near the same area in 1979, no dynamite was used. Lesson learned. They were instead buried in the sand. For many years, George Thornton refused to discuss the incident out of embarrassment, and when the KATU footage was circulated online many thought it was a hoax.
Today, locals celebrate the anniversary by dressing as various whale parts and then running around that very same beach. The city of Florence even established a park to commemorate the incident: Exploding Whale Memorial Park.
The state of Oregon reimbursed the Umenhofers for their car. Kelly Umenhofer later recalled that the car had been bought at Old’s Dunham Cadillac, a dealership that promised buyers “a whale of a deal.”
Looking back, it’s easy to see the story of Oregon’s “exploding whale” as an amusing anecdote of naively heroic failure. It was certainly one that found a welcome home in the national psyche. It makes a great addition to the Curiosity Category of my website, and even inspired an episode of The Simpsons (see below). And I can’t help thinking it would make a fine Monty Python sketch!