(CNN) -- A gray whale that spent nearly seven weeks in a northern California river died Tuesday, a sad ending to attempts to get her back to sea.
The stranded leviathan spent about 54 days in the Klamath River, 50 miles south of the Oregon border, said Jim Milbury of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The 45-foot whale beached herself on a sandbar Monday evening after behaving oddly, Milbury said. Rescuers tried to help her back into the water, but she died before dawn Tuesday.
The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito will do a necropsy on the animal to determine the cause of death.
The whale became an attraction in the town of Klamath, a few miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. Her 6-month-old calf was presumed to have made back its way back to the Pacific Ocean in late July.
The Native American Yurok Tribe had assisted NOAA and Humboldt State University in monitoring the creature.
"To have such a large animal in our presence for so long was a great gift, but now nature has taken its course," tribal Chairman Thomas O'Rourke Sr. said in a statement.
Attempts to coax the adult whale back to the sea included the playing of a recording of killer whales, a predator, and a flotilla of ships to create a barrier wall that would encourage her to head to the mouth of the freshwater Klamath River.
Thousands of people a day watched the whale near the U.S. 101 bridge, O'Rourke said. "She was a little boost to our economy." Del Norte County's unemployment rate in June was 13.8%.
The whale was buried near where she died, remembered by a song and a couple of prayers, O'Rourke told CNN Tuesday afternoon. "The whale is another miracle of our maker."
"We tried to put her away with respect," he said. "The whale became a part of this town."
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