Mel’s Hole

9 Jun

In the late 1990's a story emerged of a bottomless hole near Ellensburg, Washington. In February 1997 a man named Mel Waters called up the radio show “Coast to Coast with Art Bell,” and recounted a fascinating story about a mysterious hole on his rural property.

The Properties of Mel’s Hole Near Ellensburg, Washington

Mel claimed the hole had many paranormal properties:

Locals dumped rubbish in it for over 150 years but it never got close to filling up.

A man dumped his dead dog in the hole only to find it again alive.

Mel claimed to have lowered a weighted fishing line down the hole, going through several rolls of heavy duty fishing line to a length of more than 80,000 feet without it reaching the bottom of the hole.

A black beam had been seen emanating from the hole by neighbors of Mel’s.

Others claimed when portable radios were brought near to the hole they began to play old music from a bygone era.

Metal kept near the opening of the hole would change into different types of metal or other substances.

Infinite depth: The hole was said to reach the Earth's mantle and have an infinite depth.

Healing powers: It was claimed that the hole had the power to heal physical ailments, including cancer.
Time manipulation: Some legends state that time moves differently near the hole, with experiences of time dilation or contraction.
Supernatural events: Some stories include strange and unexplained events happening near the hole, such as objects disappearing or reappearing.

Mel Waters and the Government Agents

Several weeks after discussing the mysterious hole on the radio show Waters called back in claiming that Federal government agents had come to his property and seized the land with no explanation. Waters probed the agents for information asking whether the hole was a dangerous threat or important to national security or both.

The only information the government would give is that it was the old site of a downed aircraft and civilians needed to stay clear of the area. Waters claimed federal agents forced him to lease the land to the government and that these payments gave him the ability to move to Australia.

Waters went silent for a few years eventually calling the show back from a location that was verified to be in Australia to give Art Bell and listeners an update on his situation.

Where is Mel’s Hole?

map of the location of Mel's hole near Ellensburg, Washington — The reported location of Mel’s Hole: Manastash Ridge near Ellensburg, Washington. Photo credit: Google Maps.

Several people other then Mel report having seen the mysterious hole but never publicly release its exact location. All they would say is it was nine to 10 miles southwest of Ellensburg on the Manastash Ridge.

An intertribal medicine man named Red Elk from the Kittitas Valley, also known as Red Elk McQuaide, claims that back in 1961 his father took him to a hole near Ellensburg to dump some rubbish and claimed that it was bottomless.

According to his accounts, he visited the hole in Washington State and experienced various supernatural events, including healing and time manipulation. Red Elk's claims added to the notoriety of the legend of Mel's Hole and helped it gain attention in the late 1990s through radio call-in shows.

Is Mel’s Hole a Hoax?

Skeptics claim that Mel's hole is just an urban legend based on a real life mineshaft on private property northwest of Ellensburg fenced with barbed wire and not too far from some Washington state owned land. Local news reporters investigated public records and could find no evidence of a Mel Waters owning property in Kittitas County.

Mel's claim that the hole could be 80,000 feet or deeper seems unlikely given the deepest hole ever drilled into the earth is in Russia at a depth of only 12,672 feet. Experts claim that it is not physically possible for a hole to be that deep as it would collapse into itself under the intense pressure and heat.

mels hole: an underground river may be taking Mel's fishing line away from the hole — An underground river may have been carrying Mel’s fishing line away from the hole making it appear deeper than it is.

Others suggest that maybe Mel is telling the truth but perhaps his fishing line reached an underground river and was carried down stream giving the appearance of still dropping downwards but actually being carried along horizontally.

It is impossible to prove that Mel’s hole is not some paranormal anomaly potentially connected to aliens or some other misunderstood force. Until the actual hole can be found and studied by scientists we may never know exactly what the hole's true nature is.