DUNGENESS — On Monday and Tuesday, residents near the Dungeness River were shaken by a series of booms that lasted nearly 24 hours.
The area between Port Angeles and Blyn has had a reputation as a “booming” place, with tales of mysterious explosions and shaking going back to the 1980s.
The latest mystery was solved within hours.
The booms came from a propane cannon set up to protect a newly planted field from marauding fowl.
Someone forgot to turn off the cannon at sunset, when the farmworkers leave, said Patty McManus, co-owner of Nash’s Organic Produce in Sequim.
“We will never live this down,” she said.
The air cannon had been deployed to protect a field recently sown with specially bred cauliflower seed.
Though sown for a decade, it had recently been discovered by flocks of wild ducks, McManus said.
Joan Hermanson first heard the loud booms Monday night. They continued through Tuesday, leading her to do her own research.
Hermanson, who lives on Meadow Drive, said she called neighbors and authorities to try to get to the bottom of the booms.
“Somebody was doing something,” she said.
Hermanson said her first thought was that the noise, which seemed to come from the Dungeness River area, might be elk poachers.
The Sequim Police Department got multiple calls from area residents about the booms and referred them to the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputy Brian Knutson, who said he heard two booms himself, recalled reports of booms in the Blyn area, but those were in the summer, he said.
The Dungeness area is surrounded by fields, Knutson noted.
So “I had a sneaking suspicion,” he said.
The cannon will continue to be used during the day, but extra effort will be made to ensure it is turned off in the evening, when the ducks settle in for the night elsewhere, McManus said.
“It won’t happen again,” she said.
Residents near the Strait of Juan de Fuca have reported mysterious booms for decades.w
The first report of a series of booms was around Port Angeles in 1982 and were blamed on naval exercises in the Strait.
Unexplained booms were reported in Port Angeles in 2006, and in 2007, booms were heard in Dungeness, with houses shaken and a report of at least one broken window.
In 2009, Port Angeles was again shaken by unexplained booms.
In 2011, reported booms were determined to have been thunder.
Some have been attributed to military exercises, others to gravel mining explosions and still others to sonic booms from jets hidden from view by cloud cover.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
