Editing Oakville, Washington (section)

===Oakville blobs===

On August 7, 1994, a resident reported that a translucent, gelatinous substance had rained down in the night; she expressed concern that it may have caused her and her mother to become ill, and speculated it may have been the reason her kitten died.<ref name="Weird">{{cite book|last1=Davis|first1=Jeff|last2=Eufrasio|first2=Al|last3=Moran|first3=Mark|title=Weird Washington: Your Travel Guide to Washington's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets|date=2008|publisher=Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.|pages=94–95|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yxyulCHkLTwC|isbn=9781402745454}}</ref> When the substance, colloquially known as "Oakville blobs," appeared again, samples were collected and tested by a local doctor, who initially stated that the substance contained human blood cells.<ref name="Weird" /><ref name="Paulson">{{cite news|title=What are these ... blobs|first=Tom|last=Paulson|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=YV8zAAAAIBAJ&dq=oakville%20mystery&pg=1798%2C3705243|newspaper=[[The Free Lance-Star]]|date=August 20, 1994b|access-date= October 21, 2012}}</ref> Further testing by the Department of Ecology refuted these results, as tests showed that there were no nuclei present.<ref name="Weird" />{{Dubious|date=January 2025}} Several theories were given by residents, including wondering whether the substance might have been waste from a commercial plane toilet or whether it may have been particles of deceased jellyfish that had evaporated and been incorporated into a rain cloud.<ref name="NY Times" /> The blobs were also found to contain two species of bacteria.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What were the 'Oakville blobs'? |url=https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/what-were-the-oakville-blobs/ |access-date=2023-01-31 |website=[[BBC Science Focus]] |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Miller |first=Nick |date=2022-05-17 |title=What Were the Oakville Blobs and What Caused Them? |url=https://www.discoveryuk.com/mysteries/what-were-the-oakville-blobs-and-what-caused-them/ |access-date=2023-01-31 |website=[[Discovery Channel (British and Irish TV channel)|Discovery UK]] |language=en-US}}</ref> There are no remaining testing samples of the blobs.<ref name="OBPFO">{{cite news |last1=Van De Venter |first1=Karlee |title='Oakville blob' phenomena featured on Netflix show of the unexplained |url=https://www.chronline.com/stories/oakville-blob-phenomena-featured-on-netflix-show-of-the-unexplained,338044 |access-date=April 15, 2024 |work=The Chronicle |publisher=[[Tri-City Herald|Tri-City Herald (Kennewick, Washington)]] |date=April 9, 2024}}</ref>

The incident received coverage in several media outlets, including ''[[The New York Times]]'',<ref name= "NY Times">{{cite news|title=Mystery Blobs were once alive|last=The New York Times|author-link=The New York Times|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2519&dat=19940820&id=bZtiAAAAIBAJ&pg=3943,6442421|newspaper=[[Observer-Reporter]]|date=August 20, 1994|access-date=October 21, 2012}}</ref> and a segment was produced about the event for an episode of ''[[Unsolved Mysteries]]'', ''[[Monsters and Mysteries in America]]'',<ref name="Weird"/><ref name="OBPFO"/>