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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 and we've got a well of a tale to bring you right now. Jesse Edwards can explain. On November 9th, 1970.
A 45-foot-long, eight-ton sperm whale washed ashore on the central Oregon coast. just outside the town of Florence. 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. It's an aroma that still lingers.
It was one of the worst smells I've ever encountered. Words cannot describe the smell. It was in my nostrils for a solid week. The whale carcass remained rotting on the beach for over a week. Nobody knew what to do about it.
It was too big to bury. dunk too much to cut into smaller pieces. in burning it. was out of the question. At the time, Oregon beaches were under the jurisdiction of the state's highway division.
which, after consulting with the United States Navy, decided to remove the whale using Dynamite. George Thornton. was the engineer in charge of the operation.
Well, I'm confident that it'll work. The only thing is we're not sure just exactly how much explosives it'll take to disintegrate this. Things so the scavengers, seagulls, and crabs and whatnot can clean it up. Is there any chance it might be more than a one-day job? Uh if there's any large chunks left and uh We may have to do some other cleanup, possibly set another charge.
Thornton was chosen to remove the whale carcass because his supervisor had gone hunting that day. A charge. Of half a ton of dynamite would be was selected. As word spread across town, Crowds began to gather. I'm thinking we got big trouble here.
Twenty cases of dynamite. Walter Umenhofer. A military veteran with explosives training happened to be in the crowd. He warned the crew. With the 20 cases of dynamite.
was an overkill. Twenty sticks would have sufficed. But his advice went unheeded. This guy says, anyhow, he said, I'm going to have everybody up there on the top of those dunes, far away. And I said, yeah, and I'm going to be the furthest SOB down that way.
They made a big spectacle of waving their hats, their hard hats in the air and clear everybody away and all this, all clear. The dynamite was buried under the whale on the leeward side so that most of the mammal would be blown towards the sea. The crowds of people that had come to see the whale be blown to bits were pushed back a quarter of a mile to safety. The dynamite. was detonated at 3.45 p.m.
What you're hearing are the chunks of rotten whale blubber. raining down on the spectators. Uh Walter Ummenhoffer saw it all happen. And they touched that sucker off, and let me tell you, that thing went up, and it was the biggest mushroom cloud you've ever seen. And it was red, and white, and black, and it was nothing but.
guts and blood and gunk. Carried by strong coastal winds, a cloud of putrid whale fluids moved inland.
So everybody all of a sudden start realizing that, oh my God, here it comes in this mist. We were covered, we were permeated with redness. And the smell. And those who witnessed the explosion agree that the next few moments seemed to last forever. It soon became apparent.
that what should have been little pieces of whale Turned out. to be big ones. And this stuff starts hitting the ground. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And all of a sudden you realize, my God.
I could be killed by whale barber here. And I'm watching this one piece. There's a big piece up there, and it's kind of flubbering and floating around. And we ran. We literally ran and it just absolutely stopped.
and it came flat down. A cup. Right on top of Walter Amenhofer's 1969 Oldsmobile. It was a neat car. I just got it from Dunham's and it was a regency.
And like I say, the funny thing about their slogan is it was a whale of a deal.
Well, I got a hell of a whale of a deal. Yeah. Within two days, the state of Oregon wrote Walter a check. the full retail value of his car. The blast blasted blubber beyond all believable bounds, yet only some of the whale was disintegrated.
The majority of the whale carcass remained on the beach. for the Oregon Highway Division to clean up. Due to damage that was caused to local property, Whales that are found beached in Oregon are now buried where they're found. And you may be wondering what happened to the man who decided it was a good idea to use 1,000 pounds of dynamite to blow up the beached whale. George Thornton.
Is there any chance it might be more than a one-day job? Uh if there's any large chunks left. In his official report back in 1970, He declared the operation a success. Which helps to explain what happened to his career just six months later. He got promoted.
For our American stories. I'm Jesse Edwards. And great job, as always, to Jesse Edward, who always manages to find these quirky. And yet, ultimately, American stories. And I just loved hearing the voices and the sound effects.
My goodness. I just keep thinking about the smell. the Exploding Well of Florence, Oregon. that story here. on our American story.
Lee Habib here, and I'd like to encourage you to subscribe. Our American stories on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app. Spotify Or wherever you get our podcasts. Any story you missed or want to hear again can be found there daily. Again, Please subscribe to the Our American Stories podcast on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, or anywhere you get your podcasts.
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