7 Of The Most Eccentric Towns In Oregon

Oregon is so quirky that a long-running alt-comedy series, Portlandia, was based on its largest city. But Portland, though full of thrift shops and board game cafes, has no monopoly on eccentricity. Some of the state's smallest settlements have the biggest oddities—those that were not crafted by hipsters, but by state officials, enemy aircraft, and purely natural forces. From a coastal community once covered in whale flesh to a forested outpost with a Japanese bombing site to a remote retreat with naturally painted hills, behold seven of the most eccentric towns in Oregon.

Florence

When a 45-foot sperm whale washed up dead on Florence's shore, state officials chose to clear the carcass with dynamite. A half-ton charge was detonated on November 12, 1970. Rather than disintegrating into a billion tiny pieces to be scavenged by shorebirds, the whale exploded into colossal chunks that covered the beach and beachgoers, crushed a car, and so startled scavengers that few touched the rotten flesh. As a whale of a gaffe, it could not exactly be swept under the rug (though it was eventually swept off the beach). Thus, officials embraced their embarrassment by founding Exploding Whale Memorial Park, where Exploding Whale Day is held each year on the blubbery blunder's anniversary.

But an exploding whale is not the only eccentric animal you can celebrate near Florence. See a stellar pack of Steller sea lions at the Sea Lion Caves and a darling cluster of carnivorous cobra lilies at the Darlingtonia State Natural Site.

Gold Hill

An explosion is one thing, a vortex is another. From Florence, make your way inland to Gold Hill, whose claim to fame is a mysterious marvel called The Oregon Vortex. There, at a former gold assay office on a hill, the laws of physics seem to be broken. Brooms stand on their own, balls roll uphill, dimensions (such as people's heights) shift, and the office is lodged downhill at a baffling angle, having been allegedly pushed by the aforementioned "vortex." According to its website, the vortex is a "spherical field of force, half above the ground and half below the ground" that manipulates encircled objects. According to skeptics, the off-kilter office, dubbed the House of Mystery, simply forces a perspective of strange phenomena. This optical illusion is called "gravity hill."

Appropriately, The Oregon Vortex's House of Mystery is a mold for the Mystery Shack, which centers on the supernatural Disney show Gravity Falls. Creator Alex Hirsch set the titular town of Gravity Falls in Oregon, having been inspired by the real Oregon town of Boring. Hirsch imagined that Boring might be the opposite of boring. Find out for yourself after visiting Gold Hill.

Newport

From Gold Hill and Boring, venture to the decidedly not boring city of Newport. Start with Ripley's Believe It or Not! and its hundreds of oddities. You can gawk at shrunken heads or flip between laser beams or stroll through a garden bedecked with a giant gorilla made from recycled tires and a 3,500-pound octopus bench carved from a redwood tree. Real sea creatures can be seen behind glass at the nearby Oregon Coast Aquarium, which was home to Keiko of Free Willy fame. Or they can be seen (and smelled) up close and personal at the Sea Lion Docks, which, like the one near Florence, is a de facto preserve of said pinnipeds. Some Newport sealife can even be touched thanks to the Tidepool Touch Tank at the Hatfield Marine Science Center.

Mount Angel

You might not expect to find Ripley's-esque oddities at a Catholic monastery, but that is the case at Mount Angel Abbey. Located on a bluff overlooking the city of Mount Angel, this abbey, which is run by Benedictine monks, hosts a museum with everything from an eight-legged calf to the "world's largest pig hairball." If you need a drink after viewing that freakshow, the monks have you covered with the Benedictine Brewery. Yes, they brew beer—and they do so "in the spirit of a centuries-old monastic tradition" using water from their own well and hops from their own land. The Benedictine brewers run a taproom in Mount Angel and annually sponsor Mt Angel Oktoberfest, whose 60th edition is scheduled for September 11 to 14, 2025.

Brookings

There was only one manned aerial attack on the contiguous United States during WWII and it happened near Brookings, Oregon. On September 9, 1942, Imperial Japanese Navy pilot Nobuo Fujita dropped incendiary bombs on Mount Emily, about 19 miles east of Brookings. Thankfully, the fire he started was quickly extinguished and caused no casualties. Twenty years later, as an unprecedented act of reconciliation, Fujita was formally invited to Brookings. Upon arrival, he gifted the city his 400-year-old samurai sword. Fujita's Sword is preserved at the Chetco Community Public Library while the bombing site is preserved as the Wheeler Ridge Japanese Aerial Bombing Site and is accessible via The Japanese Bomb Site Interpretive Trail.

Mitchell

Mitchell is an underpopulated city in Oregon's least populous county. But what it lacks in population it makes up for with scenery—eccentric scenery. Ancient eras are color-coded in the nearby Painted Hills, which trace millions of years of geologic history via red, tan, orange, grey, and black bands. Those ornate hills mix with unique fossils as part of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. After exploring John Day, travel to the city of John Day, which sits east of Mitchell and boasts a human-made marvel called the Kam Wah Chung State Heritage Site & Museum. Once a Chinese medicine shop, Kam Wah abounds with offbeat elixirs and artifacts.

Yachats

The quirkiness of Yachats' name is matched by its attractions. One of many etymological theories states that "Yachats" is an Indigenous word for "dark water at the foot of the mountain." Sure enough, Yachats sits at the foot of the Oregon Coast Mountain Range and is awash with dark water wonders with even darker names. These are Thor's Well, which swallows seawater like an oceanic drainpipe; Devil's Churn, which churns giant waves like a deep-sea monster; and Spouting Horn, which shoots saltwater like a basaltic blowhole. A much lighter structure also shoots water around Yachats. It is an interactive and partly underground art installation called Bazalgette the Whale that occupies tiny Whale Park.

Though you might be tempted to visit Portland for authentic Oregon eccentricity, OR's OG oddities are in small communities. Hit up Florence to celebrate a 55-year-old whale explosion; become stuck in a long-bewildering "vortex" in Gold Hill; observe Ripley's relics in Newport; get drunk like a medieval monk in Mount Angel; see a 400-year-old samurai sword in Brookings; hike marvelous million-year-old mounds in Mitchell; and avoid being sucked into sea swirls in Yachats. Portland's cafes have nothing on those marvels.