The Oakville Blob

On August 7, 1994, at roughly 3:00 am, in Oakville, Washington, it began to rain. Rain is quite a common sight for the people of Oakville, however, it soon became clear that it wasn't raining water, but a gelatinous, transparent, blob-like substance. 


By that afternoon, nearly everyone in town contracted mysterious, flu-like symptoms that lasted 2 to 3 months. Many residents described having difficulty breathing, vertigo, blurred vision, and nausea. Several cats and dogs fell ill and died.

Officer David Lacey was on patrol when the globules began to fall, at first he thought it was regular rain, so he turned on his windshield wipers, but instead of washing away it smeared across his windshield. He was left with no other choice but to pull over and clean it off. That’s when he noticed that it was everywhere. David described the substance as “very mushy, almost like if you had jello in your hand.” He became ill shortly thereafter.

Another resident named Dotty Hearn stepped outside just as it stopped raining. She noticed an odd substance everywhere, which at first she thought it was hailstones. But when she touched them, she noticed that they were in fact mushy, gelatin-like blobs. Later that day, Dotty began to feel ill. Just an hour after she started having symptoms, she was found on bathroom floor, very weak, but still conscious. Dotty stayed in the hospital for three days. She was diagnosed with a severe ear infection. Her daughter, Sunny Barclift, detailed her symptoms as feeling cold, profuse sweating, and a very pale appearance.

Barclift sent in a sample of the blobs to the hospital, thinking that perhaps the globules had some connection to her mother’s sudden severe illness. One of the lab technicians examined the substance and discovered that it contained human white blood cells. The sample was then sent to the Washington State Department of Health to be further examined. A microbiologist at the department named Mike McDowell, noted that the substance contained two types of bacteria, one of which can be found in the human digestive system.

There is much speculation about the Oakville blobs. Based on McDowell’s findings, some say that it was merely frozen waste from an airplane, however, all waste from airplanes is required to be dyed blue. The Oakville blob substance was perfectly clear. Pilots are also forbidden to release any waste while in flight. Another theory is that Navy bomb tests at sea destroyed a school of jellyfish and their parts were caught up in the atmosphere only to fall like rain over Oakville. It’s an interesting theory, but it fails to account for the presence of human white blood cells. Residents of Oakville and many other people believe that it was the result of the military testing a biological weapon. Many residents claimed they saw multiple, low-flying aircraft over head prior to the incident.

What were the Oakville blobs? Were they simply jellyfish caught up in the atmosphere? Were they, perhaps, waste from an airplane? Or did the government experiment on the people of Oakville? You Decide!

And if you ever see a clear blob fall from the sky, tell us all about it—since you probably won’t be leaving your house for a while…