When a whale dies in the ocean, an ecosystem grows around its sunken carcass. It’s an epic burial at sea, something ...

Oregon is known nationally for its trees and outdoor recreation, but what about the exploding whale? In November 1970, a dead sperm whale washed up on a beach near Florence on the Oregon Coast. To get ...

On Monday night, Florence Mayor Rob Ward, standing before a small crowd at Exploding Whale Memorial Park, flanked by two people dressed in whale costumes — one dead, the other smiling — officially ...

Happy botched whale corpse disposal day to you and yours. Just last year, Florence Mayor Rob Ward stood in front of a small crowd at Exploding Whale Memorial Park to announce that the whole month of ...

The sleepy town of Florence, Oregon, became the setting for one of the most bizarre news stories in American history. An eight-ton sperm whale washed ashore, measuring a whopping forty-five feet in ...

The word “meme” didn’t exist when Paul Linnman and Doug Brazil—a KATU-TV reporter and cameraman, respectively—chartered a flight from Portland to Florence one cool November day in 1970, and the notion ...

In 1970, a 45-foot, 8-ton sperm whale washed ashore near Florence, Oregon. The Oregon State Highway Division decided to dispose of the carcass using dynamite. Florence will celebrate the 55th ...

The grim task of clearing hundreds of washed-up whale carcasses was under way in New Zealand Tuesday, with the beach closed over fears the bodies will fill with gas and explode as they decompose. The ...