Friday, May 11, 2007

Refuge EEEKS

Friday Fright blogging

[Article] Here’s a story that should give you the willies on many levels, and I am not talking the good willies.

First of all, in 1930 they established a wildlife refuge in this place. Then, just 12 years later in 1942 it became a practice bombing range (and where else would you choose to bomb other than a wildlife refuge? Aren’t there any other choices?).

OK. Now it’s a bombing range, so what else is done with the area? They also decide to use it for chemical warfare training, so the place becomes populated with vials of toxic agents, such as mustard gas, chloroform, chloropicirin, pure phosgene or cyanogen chloride. There were chemical weapons as well as incendiary devices possibly intended to destroy the chemicals. And you thought that bombs and nesting birds were a bad combo! We’re now looking at a hellish triple threat.

OK, now fast forward to the present. The area is back to being a National Wildlife Refuge, and is also used to attract tourists who like to hunt crystals there. A Boy Scout who was hunting crystals found a vial, which broke and made him ill. Authorities have now found 130 vials of yellowish liquid on the site, but of course it’s impossible to know what is still there and what’s been taken home for souvenirs. One of Oklahoma’s few tourist attractions just got a hell of a lot more interesting, but not in a good way.

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6 comments:

Nava said...

"The so-called chemical agent identification sets were not designed to be lethal, but could be 'extremely dangerous', Fox said"

Nothing to worry about, then.
If you're exposed to one of them nice nostalgic souvenirs, it's not like you are going to die. You just may become extremely dangerously ill, but that's OK, right?
Time for that 'All Clear' signal.

Blueberry said...

Hey -- the big whiny babies should toughen up and learn to trust the government.

I can imagine the T-shirt: "I visited the wildlife refuge and all I got was a bad skin rash, some souvenir mustard gas, and this lousy T-shirt. Didn't find any crystals. This is the last time I go to Oklahoma for a vacation"

Nava said...

That's a lot of text for a T-shirt.
It would fit better on protective overalls...

Peacechick Mary said...

"Refuge" obviously means something else to the govs. They have a separate dictionary of which I have a copy. It reads:
Refuge - A place to drop all the crap you want in complete disregard for mankind and it's environment.

They are not only NOT on the same page as the rest of us, they use a different book.

John Good said...

Yikes. . .

Michael Bains said...

"A different book" indeed...