Mel's Hole Part 1

Astonishing Legends vor 4 Jahren

0:00

2:08:33

One of the most enduring and pervasive tropes to ever capture the
human imagination is the concept of a "bottomless pit." On
Friday, February 22, 1997, a man calling himself "Mel Waters" had
faxed Art Bell, the much-beloved and sadly now-passed host of the
highly-rated, paranormal-themed radio talk show, Coast to Coast
AM, claiming to have one on his property. Mel said his property
is about nine miles west of Ellensburg, Washington, adjacent to
Manastash Ridge. He and his neighbors and the property's previous
owners had thrown their trash into the hole for decades. The 9'
9" in diameter hole had received everything from household waste
and furniture to building debris to dead cows for as long as
anyone could remember, yet it never seemed to fill up. Mel became
self-admittedly obsessed with determining the depth of this
curiosity. Being a former semi-pro shark fisherman, Mel had
lowered three reels of 20 lb. fishing line with a one-pound
weight at the end. After 1500 yards of monofilament and not
hitting bottom, Mel began buying the fishing line in bulk reels
to continue his experiment. When he expended 80,000 feet (24,384
m) of line and still not reaching the end as far as he could
tell, Mel contacted Art to get explanations from his vast
audience or ideas about what to try next. Aside from an
undetermined depth, not much else was particularly strange about
the pit to Mel except that dogs refused to get within 100 feet of
it, and birds wouldn't sit on its stone retaining wall or metal
cover. Also unusual was that no echo from the hole could be
heard, nor anything crashing on its floor even when objects as
unwieldy as refrigerators or television CRT tubes were tossed in.
This description of what Mel thought might be the deepest hole on
Earth intrigued Art, and he called Mel for an interview that
night. During the discussion, Mel also relayed some other
fascinating folklore he'd heard, such as a hunter tossing his
deceased dog, only for it later to be seen running around but not
answering his call. Another neighbor had told Mel that he once
saw a "blacker than black" beam shooting up into the sky from the
hole on a recent evening. This could just be another puzzling and
amusing anecdote from one of the usual characters calling into
the show, except Mel contacted Art on February 24 with some
startling news. Mel claimed that the day after his first call,
the land where the hole was located had been seized by armed
military personnel who denied him access with veiled threats
while heavy equipment was brought in. Mel Waters would call in
for an update interview two more times in April 2000 and January
2002, but for 1997, the mystery of Mel and his hole would pause
with a purported offer from the US Government that he couldn't
refuse. Join us for Part 1 of this "Best of Art Bell" saga as we
dive deep into the legend of "Mel's Hole."

Visit our webpage for a lot more information on this episode.