Hi, you have reached the Alice Obscura podcast line.

Leave me a message about a strange, unusual or surprising place that happens to be near

where you grew up or where you have known.

Hi, my name's Katie and I'm calling about the bronze statue of a goat in downtown Spokane

is also a machine operated vacuum and you have an entry about the goat on the website

but it doesn't mention that the goat was actually welded by the welding nun sister Paul

at a turn bowl and I just think it she has such a fun story and the goat is such a staple

and such an icon in Spokane my hometown and I would love for you guys to do just a deeper

discussion of the famous garbage goat thanks so much.

Katie thank you for the call and you are absolutely correct we have an entry on the website

for the garbage eating goat it was added by user badgers of doom but there was no mention made

of the welding nun sister Paula Mary Turnbull just a pretty big oversight so I think we're going

to take this episode and we're going to correct that but first we're going to need to explain

the garbage eating goat itself.

The goat is a sculpture made out of copper and brass it's got metal ears metal horns

a little metal beard it's all welded together and as Katie mentioned it also this is really the

best part about it it also has a vacuum inside of it a vacuum that entails every single piece

of trash you feed it paper plastic food apparently mittens if you're not holding onto them

and this strange trash vacuuming goat has been helping keep riverfront park in Spokane

Washington clean for over 40 years ever since it was first installed for the 1974 world's fair.

Well I saw the goat the year it went up you know for the for the expo.

This is Tom Keefe he's in his seventies now and he can remember that fair the theme of the

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