Have you ever heard the one about Oregon's coastal dilemma involving whale guts and dynamite? Buckle up, because this isn't your typical fisherman's yarn—our latest episode unravels the true and uproarious saga of the exploding whale of Florence, Oregon. We'll escort you through the fiasco from its sitcom-worthy inception to the reverberating effects still felt in the community half a century later. Alongside the witty insights of journalist Larry Bacon and the vivid memories of local Kelly Umenhofer, we navigate the chaotic aftermath and the viral legacy of blubber raining down on an unsuspecting town.
Strap in for a wild ride as we recount the irony of a car dealership unwittingly advertising a "whale of a deal" and the surprising cultural embrace of the whale explosion, complete with festivals and artwork. Amidst the laughter, we'll explore how this misadventure prompted a policy shift in dealing with marine carcass disposal, and sparked a dialogue on the unexpected stewardship coastal communities hold over their beached behemoths.
To close, prepare to be amazed by the story of a vintage video that captured this explosive chapter of Oregon's history—a film reel that narrowly escaped oblivion in the trunk of a rental car. This tale isn't just a blast from the past; it's a testament to the quirky, enduring bond between humans and the creatures that share our environment. So tune in, and let's share a moment of humor and history as we marvel at the legacy of the whale that really went out with a bang.
Have you ever heard the one about Oregon's coastal dilemma involving whale guts and dynamite? Buckle up, because this isn't your typical fisherman's yarn—our latest episode unravels the true and uproarious saga of the exploding whale of Florence, Oregon. We'll escort you through the fiasco from its sitcom-worthy inception to the reverberating effects still felt in the community half a century later. Alongside the witty insights of journalist Larry Bacon and the vivid memories of local Kelly Umenhofer, we navigate the chaotic aftermath and the viral legacy of blubber raining down on an unsuspecting town.
Strap in for a wild ride as we recount the irony of a car dealership unwittingly advertising a "whale of a deal" and the surprising cultural embrace of the whale explosion, complete with festivals and artwork. Amidst the laughter, we'll explore how this misadventure prompted a policy shift in dealing with marine carcass disposal, and sparked a dialogue on the unexpected stewardship coastal communities hold over their beached behemoths.
To close, prepare to be amazed by the story of a vintage video that captured this explosive chapter of Oregon's history—a film reel that narrowly escaped oblivion in the trunk of a rental car. This tale isn't just a blast from the past; it's a testament to the quirky, enduring bond between humans and the creatures that share our environment. So tune in, and let's share a moment of humor and history as we marvel at the legacy of the whale that really went out with a bang.
Ah, hoi hoi. The sea was angry that day, my friends, Like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli. I got about 50 feet out and suddenly the great beast appeared before me. I tell you, he was 10 stories high, If he was a foot. As if sensing my presence, he let out a great bellow. I said, easy, big fella. And then, as I watched him struggling, I realized that something was obstructing its breathing. Somewhere I was standing, I could see directly into the eyes of the great fish.
Speaker 2:
Man what?
Speaker 1:
Whatever dude. Well, what I do next? Well then, from out of nowhere, a huge tidal wave lifted me. It tossed me like a cork and I found myself right on top of him, face to face with the blowhole. I could barely see from the wave crashing down upon me, but I knew something was there, so I reached down my hand in, felt around and pulled out the obstruction Golf ball.
Speaker 2:
Is that a tidal lift?
Speaker 1:
A hole in. What Great scene. Yeah, pretty good.
Speaker 2:
I saw that episode.
Speaker 1:
the marine biologist hey yep for sure, yeah, man. So why? I mean it's a whale of a tail.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I wonder if perhaps that may have slightly been influenced by occurrences near Florence, oregon, in the early 1970s.
Speaker 1:
Oh my, I don't know. That's a good question. That's crazy, all right.
Speaker 2:
November 9th 1970, a wayward 45 foot sperm whale, weighing in at eight tons, washed ashore near Florence and southern Oregon. Oh my, besides the odors being less than delightful and fear that the whale might burst open, local officials worried that beach goers might climb on the giant mammal corpse and fall into it. Why Extend them with?
Speaker 1:
spaces. Who's doing this? Anyway, george, fuck, all right, go on.
Speaker 2:
No, no, I just thought that was a concern. It's like someone might fall into the whale.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I mean this thing's massive. Think about how big that fucking thing is.
Speaker 2:
I mean yeah, I mean 45 feet.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it's kind of like this. You know, we see like sea lions and stuff on TV and since, like you know, portions of the country are pretty landlocked, maybe don't have zoos and such like that, when you actually see one in person, the sea lions are massive. So just a whale is on a whole different level. You know what I mean. Like it's not just long, that thing is fucking huge. So anyway, sorry.
Speaker 2:
I guess the Oregon State Highway Division, which is presently the Oregon Department of Transportation, held the delightful responsibility of figuring out what to do about the 16,000 pounds of rotting whale flesh. Oh my God. Assistant District Highway Engineer George Thornton consulted with munitions experts from the US Navy and concluded they should use dynamite to dislodge the whale, as it's done with boulders. Yeah, all right, that seems like something left for the experts, right?
Speaker 2:
Well, this is the military, and then on November 12th 1970, with the crowd gathered about a quarter mile from the Blobbery carcass, Thornton signaled for state highway division workers to set off to half ton of dynamite intended to remove the beast. So the insiders expected the explosion to result in small pieces of the whale that would be bases. Taking care of my seat-goals and crabs some dirty scavengers.
Speaker 1:
I'm gonna jump in here, my friend, because that actually does sound like a reasonable idea to an extent. You know, you're trying to do it some natural way, which go Oregon in the 70s, right, anyway. So we watched something on this recently, so I'm gonna like read something, and we'll not read it, but explain. The Oregon Historical Society recently had the original 16 millimeter footage that Doug Brazil filmed that day with Paul Inman, converted to 4K resolution, right. So this original tape is pretty legit and we watched it. You know well, did you watch it on? Yes, yes, I definitely did. Oh, I was hoping so, but they seemed I'm only bringing this up because they seemed to have propped all that. These boxes of dynamite on this video look like they could have been in a cartoon, do they not Like they're like-.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I mean, the whole thing is just eating Like they're like what are we doing here, people?
Speaker 1:
They're like crates of dynamite, say TNT, like you know, like Yo 70, sam or the Roadrunner was doing something or whatnot. One of them things were the coyote. I mean I'm sorry, but anyway, one thing that I noticed is they did actually seem to load up one side of the whale, you know. And then you know. So I mean a thought, when I seen that and knowing already, you know, hindsight is 20, 20 grand, but like it would have probably been a cool idea to like build like a sand barrier on the other side, so that way when it blew up then maybe it would have like kind of propelled it, you know, like had like shot it the other way. I think that may. Maybe I don't know anybody out there got any better ideas out of blow up a whale. Please hit us up at it. I tell stories because I'm very interested in if we could come up with a good plan. They still do this around the world, by the way.
Speaker 2:
So anyway, sorry, yeah, I did read. Larry Bacon reported on the event in the register guard and quote the beach erupted in a hundred foot high column of sand and whale. Chunks of the animal flew in every direction and spectators began to scream and run for cover when they glimpsed large pieces soaring directly overhead. I know, miraculously no one was hurt, other than a sedan that was crushed by a giant that was in the video. Yes, yeah, that would have killed somebody. Luckily, no one was occupying the vehicle at the time, but Right, hey, check this out.
Speaker 1:
I actually have something on that sedan a whale of a deal. Man recalls how family's new car was crushed by Blubber in 1970. Kelly Umenhofer tagged long on a business trip with his dad 45 years ago in the family's brand new car from Dunham Osmobile. The man, then 14, was meeting November, his father in November 12th 1970, and they were gonna go watch the whale blow up. Right, so that's the thing. So he says, quote. So I'm all excited and I went over to my dad they're going to blow it up 20 cases of dynamite. My father proceeded to say I think you misheard them. I think he said 26. Umenhofer recalled Thursday and I said no, he said 20 cases, the rest is history.
Speaker 1:
After they blew it up, everyone is watching. And then, 30 seconds later, blam, blam, blam, blam which in the video you can actually hear this blubber plopping guys, it's pretty weird. Oh, yeah, yeah. Then everyone's going. There's huge chunks of whale blubber getting thrown on us. That's what they yelled. I'd be like holy fuck, what is going on? What the fuck? I don't even know, anyway. So an overwhelming chaos ensued. So then there's people running everywhere, he says, and as it started to come down and went boom. It almost bent the car in a V-shape. This piece was so big so my dad had bought it from Old Dunham's Cadillac and their slogan at the time was come on in and we'll give you a whale of a deal.
Speaker 2:
So yeah, and then how about dude's quote that Paul Linman the blast blasted blubber beyond all believable bounds? Oh my God.
Speaker 1:
Peter Piper picked up pepper. You know like that is epic. When you hear this, you guys need to like. I'm telling you, look this video up. When I shared that with you from the site that did the remaster, it amazed me. It said it only had like 4.3,000, or 4.4,000 views. What does it mean? Oh, maybe I smoke a weed. Yeah, I figured it would add like 20 million. No, no, you didn't know.
Speaker 2:
And then did you see about the 20 years later? Basically, we're nearly 20 years later. At resurfaced May 20th 1990, humor columnist Dave Berry wrote Moby Yuck, oh yeah, oh my God. And an abridged version of the column was posted on an electronic bulletin board. And yeah, you know, this is 1990. This is that was a brand new thing, I believe Right there. But it's spread like wildfire or whale parts in Florence. Yes, yeah, many readers were in the impression. It just happened. And director I don't know if he's a director, but anyway Ed Schoeps of the Oregon Department of Transportation and Public Information Officer, he was bombarded with angry phone calls thinking that they just blown up this whale. You got to tell me like no, this is like almost 20 years ago.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
I didn't have anything to do with this?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, no, they talked about that on the news here, which I actually watch at CoinSix, not the KATU which filmed this. I'm sorry, guys, but they were talking about that and how like people were pretty pissed off and one of the anchors is like why it was like dead, they were trying to get rid of it and they're like well, people find ways to get mad about stuff. You know like it's very true, even back then people. But yeah, they really harassed the hell out of this ODOT fellow that's what they call the Department of Transportation that runs everything. Oh, that's so clever. Yeah, odot. Yes, I know, okay, anyway, go ahead.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I guess he told the National Public Radio in 2013 that it was the first story to go viral on the internet. Oh my gosh, huh cool. And then this happened again south of Florence in 1979, and luckily, history did not repeat itself. The Eugene Register Guard reported the possibility of blasting the carcasses to bits with dynamite was quickly passed over. Instead, the practice has been to just bury the whale corpses, which that remains a organs policy to this day.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I mean it must work. I don't know, I don't hear.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I don't know about those romantic walks on the beach. They're basically on like a blubbery carcass graveyard.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I don't know yeah any who, yeah, no. So like I've seen Dead Seals and I haven't been to the ocean that much, my people, you know what I'm saying. I mean I have and I haven't. I guess depending on how you want to look at it, but 50% of the time you're probably going to see something. I've seen a few Dead Seals on, just washed up. You know they're not like bitten into or nothing or damaged. They probably just got sick or whatever may happen.
Speaker 2:
You know shit happens but um, you see, I was born in Newport Beach, California. I spent quite a bit of time at the ocean and never saw anything like that, but the city council probably just wouldn't allow it. You know something like that.
Speaker 1:
Get out of here.
Speaker 2:
It's going to ruin the property values yeah that sounds about right.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, hey did you notice like sorry, the people's names in this story are all kind of funny, like Doug Brazil, you know, no offense, but like or that, the Barry character who wrote the article, I don't know. There's a few last names. I read that I was kind of cheese. This whole thing's like a cartoon sort of.
Speaker 2:
Um, yeah, I would not have wanted to attend. And they said everybody there was like coated in a little bit of blubber. Yeah, what the fuck? That would probably steer me away from seafood. I would think if I hadn't experienced like that. But thankfully. I have not.
Speaker 1:
Well, you could save some, make a candle, I don't know, whatever it may be. Uh, what? Uh, where do you want to go have a clubber with your breakfast? Yeah, oh, hey, there you are. You mentioned that in an episode at one point, I can't remember which one, but that's not a thing, I don't know. Is it a thing? Do you think? Maybe in Alaska? Um, hey, so what else do you got kind of going. I want to know what direction you're heading in, because I've seen a few things here.
Speaker 2:
Um, that was basically just bringing to light this wonderful Oregon event Right Over 50 years ago now.
Speaker 1:
No, I know it's amazing and that's also. There's the video on YouTube, you know, if you look this up, just look up Florence Whale, remastered I guess, and uh, but it comes up and it's. It's pretty interesting that it's a thing, guys. Uh, as long as you're not going to get all weird about it, it's not like super graphic or anything I wouldn't say. I mean, they aired it on the news, I guess. Uh, but Florence really embraces this, do they not?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, it seemed like they weren't trying to.
Speaker 1:
You know, it wasn't nobody got killed, so Right, and it's like a whole thing, like they have a fucking the Florence Exploding Whale Park there.
Speaker 2:
That dude would go? How far is Florence from my house? I?
Speaker 1:
don't know. Let's look live or not live, because it's a podcast, but we'll feel like it's live. So, florence, oregon, what hey place your bets? How far do you think it is from my house in the BG?
Speaker 2:
Umm.
Speaker 1:
Three hour drive Whoa three hours and 26 minutes.
Speaker 2:
Okay.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so that's a thing. Umm, we should, yeah, we'll. There's a train that goes there. That would be cool. Yeah, dang, look at that.
Speaker 2:
You know I did. I mentioned it to a couple people and only our good friend Dave, friend of the show. He'd heard about the and I think he said he'd even seen the video. So hopefully he. It's pretty epic. Like listening to our take on it.
Speaker 1:
Right, I hope everybody does that's kind of. Well, yeah, yeah absolutely Right, Not just Dave. You know, we want you all to.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, we want you all to like, follow and like the show and visit bitlocksupplycom and pick you up and I tell a story shirt, it makes you look smarter. I heard Umm, sorry, so check this out. So Just you know, if you wanted to visit OregonCostcom or visit theOregonCostcom excuse me, I misspoke. There is such a thing as Exploding Whale Memorial Park Because of this event. It's a real thing. This riverfront park provides access to the Sislua River I don't know how to say that, I apologize In historic Old Town Florence, named by residents to memorialize the notorious Exploding Whale incident that took place on the Oregon Coast in the 7th. Yeah, the park offers views of the river and bridge and the sand dudes on the south side of the river, which I'm assuming is where the whale exploded, and they do. They have like a little cute picture of a whale Not exploding, though, but it says Exploding Whale Memorial Park. And then also, you know, if you were ever kind of wondering if there was any sort of an event based around this, you would be in luck. Owen, I need more. Alright, so about last year in 2023, they help every year for the anniversary date, november 12th, they have a or whatever it may be, but this is when they had it. They hold a celebration for the occurrence. They call it so. On their page they say it's that time of year again when the community of Florence and cult Exploding Whale lovers across the globe memorialize the famous Whale occurrence and they have a whole thing like where you can go down Exploding Whale a piece of history, I guess a chunk of history, they call it. Don't miss a visit to the Exploding Whale exhibit at the Cislop Pioneer Museum, across the street from homegrown, at D78 Maple Street. Now, go check that out, guys. Apparently they have a thing there, you know, and yeah, there's a whole whale trail and all sorts of stuff.
Speaker 2:
I feel like that. It's probably a good family vacation.
Speaker 1:
I wonder, like I mean the yeah, I don't know. So there's a festival around this, apparently, and that's just as interesting as the occurrences they call it. I would think you know there's so many things you can do with whales. I just know that a lot of them are, you know, kind of illegal now and stuff right. Like I mean, you can't like kill them. Obviously that's not a good thing and I agree with that. It's hard to kill a whale. Yeah, it would be, yeah, I'd imagine. So I don't plan on attempting it and I wouldn't want to.
Speaker 1:
No, not the whales. B? Yeah, I love orcas. Orcas are my favorite animals. I'm called them my spirit animal. I'm not, I don't know. That's the thing. Um, I'm just joking, I don't know. Nonetheless, one thing you know you can make candles with whale blubber. I'm sure the Inuits have all sorts of neat things that you can actually do with it. I mean, there are meals they make out of it, I assume. Oh, and do you know of any? Or I'm just this off top.
Speaker 2:
Fresh out of whale recipes Okay you know, that's probably good. That's one thing I have not tried. Well, it's not one, but that is something I've never tried Okay.
Speaker 1:
Another thing that you can do with with whale is well, they used to all time is scrimshot art. Have you ever heard of that?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, actually just last week a gentleman came into the shop and we came into the shop and was looking for a pipe and he, you know, just kind of said like, oh, everything's glass now, man. So it's really the most part. You know, it's harder and harder to find.
Speaker 2:
Wood, metal and he brought up that he used to do antlers and he would scrimshaw different you know, mostly like wildlife, on types that he made out of. And so he's telling me this and I, you know he said like I don't want to brag, but I did really nice work, I put a lot of time into it and I just, you know, give them away. And it made me think years ago the shop was on in a different part of town. I mean, this is literally like 12, 13 years ago there was a gentleman in and he asked if I could look at some pipes he made, just to get my opinion. I was like absolutely, and he brought in these scrimshaw antler pipes and you know they're beautiful.
Speaker 2:
I mean there's color on them too and everything. And then just, and I mean these had to. I've seen stuff like that sells for a few hundred dollars anyway, just for all the time and the artwork that's into it. And when I told him, you know I was really impressed with the work, he just said it was around the holidays. He's like here Merry Christmas, and gave me one with a rainbow trout on it, just beautiful. I still have it. And I told him about this and he said wait, but this was here. And I said no, no, we were up on grand and he was like that was me.
Speaker 2:
And so yeah, this gentleman had you know, 12, 13 years ago, given me one of the. Hadn't seen him since.
Speaker 1:
That is crazy.
Speaker 2:
And so he was just going to buy. He said he he drops them and his wife didn't really like them spending money on it. So he's going to buy a little like $6 import, you know. And I just said like no, sir, let me buy you. There's an artist, gabe Lewis, unassembled glass, just awesome, like beautiful Montana made. He puts a little ring of Montana copper in every pipe. Okay. And so I said you know, it's like a $60 pipe. If he has something, that would get really elaborate and they're well worth. And this gentleman just said, oh, you know, like I can't afford that, that's six guys. No, no, let me buy it for you. You know it's a late holiday present for what you gave me, bang, however, many years ago. So it was a really cool interaction that was stuck and it made me yeah, I still had it, you'd seen it at the sheriff's office.
Speaker 1:
It never smoked out of it. I know exactly what you're talking about, that's so sorry.
Speaker 2:
When you asked about scrimshack I kind of went on a tangent.
Speaker 1:
But it's pretty cool. Okay, what? Okay, guys. So what is scrimshack? I was trying to set up like so that's great, Dude. See, I tell stories, man. You know that's the show. So you know, sometimes we just tell stories Always, always some good stories from Mr the Mick, Mick Michael over there. Oh, for real, no, that's legit, I love that. So what is scrimshaw? Scrimshaw is a type of art that was popular among the sailors of the 1800s. Sailors created scrimshaw by engraving, or engraving beautiful designs into bone or ivory. The most common material used were the bones or teeth from sperm whales, which is the one that was blown up, and so I was just kind of wondering you know which is really cool and these are neat. You should look it up one of these times, guys. It was the way they killed time on their voyages and it's like you know, you can buy scrimshaw from the time, but you cannot do it these days, from what I understand, Cause you know, it's super legal.
Speaker 1:
So, but anyway, like I wonder if any. But but what if, like, when something like that happens, like I introduced some scrimshaw, I don't know. Good question that nobody probably will answer for me. What do you think, owen?
Speaker 2:
I don't see how it would be like using whale stuff or whatever, but I can't see how just etching something on there.
Speaker 1:
Well, that's why it's illegal. But I think the term usually is people probably don't think of people doing it on antlers and other things like that, but it is a thing and but it started with whalers, you know, killing time and such.
Speaker 2:
Well, you guys, I've seen them online. I looked it up after I'd never even heard the term until, and it didn't hadn't come back up until you mentioned it the other day. So I don't think they're commonly known.
Speaker 1:
No, it's an art form. Yeah, commonly known. Right, right, it's from the 1800's at Scrimshaw it's a hell of a word, you know, sounds like a board game, it does you wanna go play some Scrimshaw? Yeah, yeah, anyway. Well, there you go, goulash.
Speaker 2:
A Goulash. I love Scrimshaw with a Goulash.
Speaker 1:
I'm sorry, I was stoner. Yeah, it's okay. No, so whales are pretty cool, though I don't advise anybody to blow them up, even if apparently, they called the Navy for advice. You know, that was kind of funny. I wonder where the mix up happened with the amount you know or whatever. Nonetheless, here we are in the year 2024 talking about this thing that happened in 1970, november, right. So I don't have anything else on this shit. Man, I love this, though. This is hilarious.
Speaker 1:
I really want people to go look at this video. It's amazing and the clarity is great. It's got like a cool, warm feel to it. From what I understand, they actually like almost lost the footage to this video. They left it at a hotel, in a rental car In Eugene. Yeah, there's like a story. I have it written down, but I feel like just telling you about it's better, almost. So, like, basically, they, you know, after the event, they they put it went back to their hotel and they were going to grab back to Portland and then they'd have the video. You know, because that's how that shit worked in the 70s we didn't have the internet, guys, and anyway, they left the reel in the goddamn rental car and they had to go back into, like Eugene or something, and grab it. So we almost never would have seen this event.
Speaker 2:
It was that close, guys, I don't. I shudder to think of what existence would be like without that.
Speaker 1:
I know it's amazing, but by chance you know, and it is really cool, though I don't know. I think it's like just pretty neat to watch that old ass clip and how big of an event this was and then try to just think about what it would have been like to get almost smacked with some whale blubber, I suppose. On that note, guys, I hope everybody out there has a lovely day or night. And yeah, like share, follow please, and if you want to subscribe, that'd be great. So everybody have a good day.