iStockphoto / AndrewSoundarajan
There is growing support to relive the nation’s first-ever viral news story. It happened on November 12th, 1970 on a beach in Florence, Oregon when the town used explosives to discard of a whale carcass that had washed up on the beach.
Thee town of Florence, Oregon got overeager and used a half-ton of dynamite to explode the sperm whale carcass. Sperm whales can get big. Males can weigh 90,000 pounds and measure 52-feet long. But they used 1,000 pound of dynamite and for comparison sake, only 6,000 pounds of dynamite was used to carve out George Washington on Mt. Rushmore.
Footage of that explosion is widely believed the be the first-ever viral news story in the United States as it was filmed live and the story spread throughout the nation:
Flash forward to present day, and there has been a whale carcass on Nehalem Bay State Park (around 80 miles west of Portland) that washed up on the beach back in May. The Oregon State Parks Department already addressed rumors that they were going to blow it up, debunking those rumors, but that’s not what the people want.
Based on a Change.org petition, what the people REALLY WANT is to blow up the whale carcass and relive the glory days of yesteryear.
The purpose of the petition is stated as:
“This petition advocates for the controlled explosion of the whale carcass, not only as a practical solution to its disposal but as a public spectacle that offers a rare, educational experience to the community. The concept of disposing of beached whale carcasses through explosion, though unconventional, is steeped in history and can be a highly effective measure under expert guidance.”
There are currently about 500 signatures on the petition to ‘Explode the Dead Beached Whale in Nehalem State Park, Oregon.’ If you do your part, that could be 501 signatures and get us one step closer to blowing the Oregon whale up.
If there’s any justice in the world, this petition will pick up hundreds of thousands of signatures and the good people of the Oregon Parks Department will listen to the will of the people.