Oakville Blobs: In 1994, Mysterious Gelatinous Goo Rained Down On Washington
Gelatinous blobs reportedly rained down on the timber town of Oakville back in the summer of 1994, kicking off a mystery that would come to be known as the Oakville Blobs. Exactly what the jelly rain consisted of had residents spooked, with several reporting that they became unwell and animals died as the Oakville Blobs rained down.
On August 7, 1994, the Oakville Blobs first arrived. They rained down from the sky in flecks of goo smaller than a grain of rice, but at such a high volume that they became visible across the ground and on shed roofs, including that of Oakville resident Sunny Barclift.
On August 19, 1994, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Tom Paulson wrote about the Oakville Blobs for
The Lewiston Tribune, stating: “Twice in the past two weeks when it has rained, small blobs of clear, gelatinous goo have fallen on and around the home [Sunny] Barclift shares with her mother, Dotty Hearn, on a 29-acre farm.
A hospital reportedly looked at the Oakville Blobs under a microscope, stating they contained some human white cells. This prompted the suggestion the Oakville Blobs were concentrated fluid waste from an
airplane toilet, but a Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson said this was unlikely as toilet fluids are typically dyed blue.
A second, more intriguing theory to explain the Oakville Blobs is that it had something to do with blowing up jellyfish. Bombs were being dropped in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Washington by the 354th Fighter Squadron at the time, and the Oakville Chief of Police Gary Greub received a tip-off that detonating a school of jellyfish might be the source of the Oakville Blobs.
On August 20, 1994, The
New York Times reported that…following an analysis by the Washington State Department of Ecology. Agency scientist Mike Osweiler who tested the Oakville Blobs said they found “a number of cells of various sizes.”
Washington State Public Health Department (WSPHD) microbiologist Mike McDowell [said] “It was very uniform. There was no structure that we could see visibly or with a microscope. I set it up on various microbiological media and attempted to isolate bacteria.”
The culture yielded two kinds of bacteria:
Pseudomonas fluorescens and
Enterobacter cloacae, both normal residents in the digestive tracts of humans and other mammals. They can also be found environmentally when waste has been deposited, and can travel in water and aerosols.
According to McDowell's sons, he believed the goo might be some kind of carrier system, but also said he didn’t have any hard evidence to support the claim. The suggestion has prompted theories of biological weapon testing.
Unfortunately, McDowell was never able to get to the bottom of the mystery as his samples went missing before he could finish his work.
https://www.iflscience.com/oakville...elatinous-goo-rained-down-on-washington-73717
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