Unusual Events
Several unusual events occurred in the department's history. In 1958, the division changed its slogan to the unintentionally funny "Oregon Freeways. ..Symbol of 2nd Century Progress" and in 1967 ODOT celebrated its 50th anniversary, even though it was by then fifty-four years old. On November 12, 1970, the department gained notoriety after they attempted to dispose of a rotting beached sperm whale by using half-a-ton of dynamite to blast it off the beach, as one might remove a boulder. They were given responsibility for this task because Oregon beaches were designated as highways when the division was initially formed. This became known as the exploding whale incident.
Read more about this topic: Oregon Department Of Transportation
Famous quotes containing the words unusual and/or events:
“Every woman who vacates a place in the teachers’ ranks and enters an unusual line of work, does two excellent things: she makes room for someone waiting for a place and helps to open a new vocation for herself and other women.”
—Frances E. Willard (1839–1898)
“I have no time to read newspapers. If you chance to live and move and have your being in that thin stratum in which the events which make the news transpire—thinner than the paper on which it is printed—then these things will fill the world for you; but if you soar above or dive below that plane, you cannot remember nor be reminded of them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)