12. The Exploding Whale
In 1970, a huge whale carcass washed up on a beach in Oregon. It was so large the Oregon Highway Division thought it would be too difficult to cut the body up and haul it away. Just imagine the undertaking of a local highway division trying to dismantle a massive whale. They also thought about burning the carcass, but blubber creates a very smoky and hot flame, so it would have been dangerous and unpleasant to undertake on a beach.
The Highway Division turned to engineer Paul Thornton for advice on how to handle the carcass’ removal. In his “wisdom,” Thornton decided to blow up the whale carcass. With explosives. On a public beach. In Thornton’s defense, he believed the carcass’ pieces would rain down into the ocean where sharks and other marine wildlife would eat them.
What actually happened is that the carcass exploded without any clear trajectory and spread whale pieces everywhere. Pieces of dead whale rained down on bystanders and their cars. While some of the pieces did land in the ocean, as Thornton predicted, many did not. The entire debacle was captured on video, although it’s heavy viewing. A giant exploding whale’s worth of viewer discretion is advised.