Florence is once again celebrating the town's strangest claim to fame — the day officials tried to blow up a beached whale and sent blubber raining down on a parking lot. The coastal Oregon town will commemorate the 56th anniversary of the 1970 exploding-whale incident with a weekend of screenings, music and community gatherings on November 14 and 15.
The original mess unfolded on November 12, 1970, when an effort to dispose of a beached whale with explosives produced a blast that became instant local legend, according to Grants Pass Tribune. Per the event organizer's own account, the animal was a 45-foot, roughly eight-ton sperm whale that washed ashore on Florence's South Jetty three days earlier, on November 9, 1970, as detailed on Exploding Whale Florence, Oregon's website. The same site notes the detonation itself went off at 3:45 p.m. on November 12, using one-half short ton of dynamite.
A Weekend Built Around Film, Bones And A Toast
The celebration kicks off Saturday with a screening of the short documentary Oh Whale at City Lights Cinemas, according to the Oregonian/OregonLive. Reporter Paul Linnman, who covered the original incident, is scheduled to attend the screening to sign autographs and take audience questions. Screening times were still being finalized at the time of the Oregonian's report and were expected to be posted on City Lights Cinemas' website.
Also open that Saturday is the Siuslaw Pioneer Museum at 278 Maple Street, which will be displaying whale bones from the 1970 incident alongside exhibits about Florence's history, running noon to 4 p.m. per the Oregonian's account. The museum's Exploding Whale Exhibit includes actual bones from the whale, as Grants Pass Tribune reports.
Sunday Moves To The Waterfront For Music And A Memorial
Sunday's gathering shifts to Bridgeport Market at 75 Harbor Street in Old Town Florence, and it's free to attend. Accounts of the exact closing time differ: KCFM Radio and Grants Pass Tribune both describe the celebration running from noon to 4 p.m., while the event's own organizer website lists the memorial and toast running from noon to “4+,” with Exploding Whale Awards at 2:30 p.m. followed by a memorial toast at 3:45 p.m.
Sunday's program is set to include representatives from the American Cetacean Society, marine-focused artisans and vendors, and live music from The Exploding Whales, a Portland-based band, according to Beach Connection. Linnman is expected to make additional appearances that day as well, per the Oregonian's reporting. Attendees can also contribute to a community memorial art installation honoring the whale, and organizers are encouraging whale-themed costumes.
From One Bad Decision To A Town Tradition
What began as a single catastrophic cleanup attempt has since grown into something bigger. The annual event has evolved into a celebration of local culture, lessons learned from mistakes and community pride, according to the organizer site's own archive. Florence has also established Exploding Whale Memorial Park to commemorate the 1970 event, a name that, per Live Science, won in a landslide with 439 of 856 votes submitted out of 124 proposed names for the park.
The anniversary celebration has become something of a recurring fixture on the Oregon Coast calendar, with the organizer's online archive cataloging coverage going back through the 55th anniversary in 2025, the 54th in 2024 and the 53rd in 2023 — the latter including a CNN item about a baseball team that chose an exploding whale as its new identity. Whatever shape this year's edition takes, Florence seems intent on keeping the memory of that 1970 afternoon very much alive.
