If you took a stroll along the Tacoma Light Trail this winter, you might have taken a quick trip through a teleportation device replete with blinking lights and a suspicious amount of fur. When you exited, you may well have encountered a gaggle of concerned scientists talking about something called “Project CAT” and asking if you felt strange or had been coughing up hairballs.
You might have caught sight of some protestors, calling themselves Charlie’s Chaplains, demanding justice for a long-vanished feline. And all the while, you might have heard stories of mysterious crystals and visitors from other planets. One thing’s for sure, there are some strange goings on around Tacoma, and the story is still unfolding.
Starting With Spaceships and Slugs
It’s hard to say exactly what the aptly named “What Is That Tacoma?” is, apart from a remarkable and gloriously bizarre art project. Some of what will happen next is unknown even to its creators. Indeed, part of the fun lies in unraveling bits and pieces of a mystery that has been building for almost half a decade, with two creative types at the helm.
Steve LaBerge has long been in the business of building oddities. From a wall of colorfully repurposed TVs to a massive slug festooned with multicolored lights, his pieces bring a dose of bright otherworldliness to any street they’re on.
Paul Blanchard wears many creative hats, particularly as an advertising professional with a wildly diverse portfolio of clients ranging from Pierce County Transit to Old Navy.
Their talents intersected at the height of the pandemic, the ideal time to concoct something new and unusual. LaBerge had built a spaceship and an alien entity and was planning to place them all over town, but they needed a story to accompany them. That was when he approached Blanchard to provide some narrative pizzazz.
Blanchard and local artist Stan Shaw got together and created a comic called ONE, where the public first encountered an intergalactic librarian named One and a unique vessel known as ORB, both of whom started appearing around the city. There was also an exploratory probe in the form of the aforementioned giant slug (formally known as Space Lab of Unknown Genesis), which once sat in front of the now-closed Alma community space.
The story continued to get bigger and stranger with the appearance of the shadowy organization known as The Guild of Independent Tacoma Scientists (GITS). These individuals moved the ORB around but also put up warning signs and caution tape, adding another layer of mystique.
For all its intergalactic trappings, this project has some distinctive real-world roots. Blanchard explained that he also likes to weave in elements of local history as he builds the story, such as the famous Mount Rainier UFO sighting of 1947 and the Tacoma trolley accident of 1900.
A Time of Transition
At its inception, the whole endeavor was designed mainly as a creative exercise and a mood-booster. As Blanchard put it, “In a way, I felt the whole thing was a public service designed to help people deal with a difficult time [for both] spectators and creators.” It also had a proud cult fanbase, with what he described as “tens and twenties of fans” following the fun on social media. By 2021, the project had slowed down, ONE wrapped up, and the art was put in storage.
A few years later, LaBerge came up with a new idea, this time involving teleportation. Along with the return of GITS, there would be new characters, new plots, and even more curious concepts to explore.
The Riddle-Filled Return of What Is That Tacoma?
The next set of stories started cropping up last year, this time focusing on Dr. Thomas Cross, a turn-of-the-20th-century scientist and artist whose experiments may have resulted in Project CAT (short for Catastrophic Attempt at Teleportation).
This is also when “Charlie’s Chaplains” entered the scene, demanding answers from GITS. Like any good mystery story, everyone’s motivations are suspect, and there are any number of conspiracies and cross-conspiracies at play. As Blanchard put it, there’s a constant question of “Who’s lying?”.
And then, of course, there’s the Hermes Crystal, which is said to have arrived aboard the ORB. Rumor has it that this was what powered the teleportation device, and it soon became the subject of a town-wide treasure hunt.
After a long search, the artifact was “discovered” at Crystal Spirit, a local shop specializing in gems and minerals. Blanchard explained that while he knows who has the Hermes Crystal, he doesn’t know whether they will turn it over to GITS or keep it for their own.
Like so many incredible artistic endeavors, it’s clear that What Is That Tacoma? is taking on a life of its own. The more you learn about it, the more questions are raised. With such fantastical, twisting tales unfolding, it’s well worth keeping an eye on where things will go next. Just make sure to leave your feline friends at home.
Head over to the Facebook page to catch up on the story thus far and stay updated on the next round of abnormal activities.