How about this...

Tahkenitch Landing Campground

Gardiner, OR

Last week, a camping club pulled into the campground for three nights.  The members of the club have monthly campouts at various locations around the state.  During this month’s event, the members caught over 100 Perch (it’s a fish, for those of you that are unfamiliar).  Consequently, on Saturday evening (7/13), the club held a fish fry.  There were about 20 – 25 members present for the feast and yours truly was invited to dinner.  The food was potluck, but I was allowed to attend without having to bring a warm dish.  The fish were splendid and the accompanying grub was wonderful.  After dinner we sat around and visited.  Most of the members of the club are retirees who live in and around Florence, Oregon.  During the after dinner socializing, one member asked if I had ever been told about the “Exploding Whale” episode in Florence.  I had never heard the story, so I got the skinny on the exploding whale and the aftermath.  Since then, I have conducted some research into the story and this is what I have learned:  

Excerpts from the Wikipedia article “Exploding Whale”

“The term exploding whale most often refers to an event at Florence, Oregon, in 1970, when a dead sperm whale (reported to be a gray whale) was blown up by the Oregon Highway Division in an attempt to dispose of its rotting carcass. The explosion threw whale flesh over 800 feet (240 m) away. This incident became famous in the United States when American humorist Dave Barry wrote about it in his newspaper column after viewing a videotape of television footage of the explosion. The event later became well-known internationally when the same footage circulated on the Internet a few decades later.”

“On November 12, 1970, a 45-foot (14 m) long, 8-short-ton (7,300 kg) sperm whale beached itself at Florence, Oregon, on the central Oregon Coast.^[1][2] All Oregon beaches are under the jurisdiction of the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department,^[3] but in 1970, Oregon beaches were technically classified as state highways, so responsibility for disposing of the carcass fell upon the Oregon Highway Division (now known as the Oregon Department of Transportation, or ODOT).^[4] After consulting with officials from the United States Navy, they decided that it would be best to remove the whale the same way as they would to remove a boulder. They thought burying the whale would be ineffective as it would soon be uncovered, and believed dynamite would disintegrate the whale into pieces small enough for scavengers to clear up.”

“Thus, half a ton of dynamite was applied to the carcass. The engineer in charge of the operation, George Thornton, stated—on camera, in an interview with Portland newsman Paul Linnman—that he wasn't exactly sure how much dynamite would be needed. (Thornton later explained that he was chosen to remove the whale because the district engineer, Dale Allen, had gone hunting).^{[5] [6]”}

“Coincidentally, a military veteran from Springfield with explosives training, Walter Umenhofer, was at the scene scoping a potential manufacturing site for his employer.^[1] Umenhofer later told The Springfield News reporter Ben Raymond Lode that he had warned Thornton that the amount of dynamite he was using was very wrong—when he first heard that 20 cases were being used he was in disbelief. He had known that 20 cases of dynamite was far too much dynamite to be used. Instead of 20 cases they needed 20 sticks of dynamite. Umenhofer said Thornton was not interested in the advice. In an odd coincidence, Umenhofer's brand-new Oldsmobile was flattened by a chunk of falling blubber after the blast. He told Lode he had just bought the Ninety-Eight Regency at Dunham Oldsmobile in Eugene, during the "Get a Whale of a Deal" promotion.^[1]”

“The resulting explosion was caught on film by cameraman Doug Brazil for a story reported by news reporter Paul Linnman of KATU-TV in Portland, Oregon. In his voice-over, Linnman alliteratively joked that "land-lubber newsmen" became "land-blubber newsmen ... for the blast blasted blubber beyond all believable bounds."^[5] The explosion caused large pieces of blubber to land near buildings and in parking lots some distance away from the beach, one of which caused severe damage to Umenhoefer's parked car. Only some of the whale was disintegrated; most of it remained on the beach for the Oregon Highway Division workers to clear away. In his report, Linnman also noted that scavenger birds, whom it had been hoped would eat the remains of the carcass after the explosion, were all scared away by the noise.”

“Ending his story, Linnman noted that "It might be concluded that, should a whale ever be washed ashore in Lane County again, those in charge will not only remember what to do, they'll certainly remember what not to do." When 41 sperm whales beached nearby in 1979, state parks officials burned and buried them.^[7]”

“Linnman's implication that the highway department had made a mistake was not subscribed to by Thornton, who later that day told Eugene Register-Guard reporter Larry Bacon that "It went just exactly right. ... Except the blast funneled a hole in the sand under the whale" (causing some of the whale chunks to be blown back toward the onlookers and their cars, he went on to say).^[8]”

“Thornton was promoted to the Medford office several months after the incident, and served in that post until his retirement. When Linnman contacted him in the mid-1990s, the newsman said Thornton felt the operation had been an overall success and had been converted into a public-relations disaster by hostile media reports.^[9]”

“Currently, Oregon State Parks Department policy is to bury whale carcasses where they land. If the sand is not deep enough, they are relocated to another beach.^[10]”

I think you should watch the event yourself: http://www.katu.com/news/local/107530948.html?tab=video.  This news article and video are from the original report from November 12, 1970.  Apparently, exploding beached whales are not uncommon.  The article in the Wikipedia on “Exploding Whales” identified other instances of spontaneous and planned explosions of whales.

And now, for something completely different…! 

A few weeks ago, on a Sunday afternoon, as I was driving south on Hwy 101, returning from a grocery run to Florence, Oregon, I noticed a huge column of smoke rising in the distance.  It looked like the smoke was coming from an area near the Tahkenitch Landing Campground.  As I got closer to the campground, it was evident that the fire was close but not a threat to Irv or the campground.  Tahkenitch Landing Campground is on the east side of U.S. Hwy 101, between mile posts 203 and 204.  The fire was on the west side of U.S. Hwy 101, between mile posts 206 and 207 (2.5 miles south of the campground).  The area of land involved in the fire was a clear cut section of land on a ridge line just west of the highway.  It appears that the fire involved only the south side of the ridge line in the clear cut area.  I drive past this area every time I drive to Reedsport.  The fire was intense, the smoke voluminous and the damage to some equipment was complete destruction.  By the time I was able to get a picture of the burned area, the loader that the loggers used to lift the cleared logs onto the trucks had been removed and the only evidence of the fire were the blackened trees on the hillside. 

  

It took almost two weeks to get the equipment removed from the damaged area and the logging company has yet to begin recovering downed trees from the undamaged area on the north side of the ridge line.

The campground has been busier since the beginning of July.  Every time I think that Tahkenitch Landing will be empty of campers, there are three or four arrivals.  The campground during the months of May and June was empty, at times, sometimes for multiple nights, sometimes only one campsite was in use.  But the hot weather enveloping much of the Western U.S. had not touched the Oregon Coast.  Consequently, many folks from California and Oregon and Washington are escaping the heat to celebrate the cool, damp temperatures of the Central Oregon Coastal regions and the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area.  Often the early morning fog/mist is covering the lake (see pictures) and when I conduct my early morning walkabout through the campground, I can see my breath.  Eat your hearts out Phoenix, Arizona, and other places in the U.S. where people are wondering why it is so damned hot.  Early morning temps are consistently in the mid 50’s (F) and day time temps, when sunny, are a beastly 70 or 72 (F).  I knew there was a reason for my volunteering this summer…

Here are a few of those early morning pictures…can you feel the cool????

When are you coming to visit???  There are only 10 more weeks or so before I leave, at the end of the summer.  Come on down/up!!!