15 years ago, a strange man named Mel Waters called in to the Art Bell radio program,

claiming he had discovered a mysterious and infinite hole on his property near Ellensburg,
Washington.
Quickly dubbed Mel's Hole, the strange legend of the never-ending pit and its paranormal
characteristics spiraled farther and farther. When skeptics looked more closely, they
discovered that no man named Mel Waters ever lived near Ellensburg. To this day the
hole's existence and the man's true identity remain unverified.
When Waters first called in to the program he claimed to have found a hole that by his
calculations, was greater than 80,000 feet. According to his story, he had tied fishing line
together and continued lowering it to a depth greater than 15 miles without hitting earth.
Waters then claimed that the hole had the ability to restore life to dead animals, relating a
story of a man's dead dog that was thrown into the pit, and then found walking around
alive soon after.
As the story became more elaborate, Mel's Hole captivated listeners, many of whom were
eager to verify the hole's existence. But Mel refused to tell people where the hole was, just
that it was near his property on the Manastash Ridge near Ellensburg. He was featured on
the show a number of times, until 2002, when a local paper reported that no man named
Mel Waters existed in the area. The finding just about put the story to rest, until it was
resurrected by a intertribal medicine man named Red Elk.
Red Elk appeared out of nowhere in 2008, claiming he was well-aquainted with the hole
and that it had many bizarre properties. Red Elk didn't start slow and build up, but instead
immediately claimed that the hole set fire to ice, cooked a sheep live and implanted a seal
fetus inside the cooked sheep. Even for those suspending every ounce of their disbelief,
the story had become too bizarre, and too crazy to entertain.
Today, the weird tale of Mel's Hole is roundly considered the work of mentally unstable
attention seekers, or even a ploy for better radio ratings. No evidence of any such sinkhole
has ever been found, although some adventurers still wander near the Manastash Ridge
hoping to find a supernatural, infinite pit that will bring them 15 minutes of fame la the
mysterious Mel Waters.
Fifteen years ago, a story about a mythical bottomless hole somewhere on Manastash
Ridge near Ellensburg took on a life of its own.
Ask a local person about Mels Hole today and you might get a tale that involves
paranormal activity, government conspiracies and dead animals coming back to life. Find
someone more skeptical, and you will probably get an eye roll and a solid explanation of
why it isnt true.
Those who perpetuate the myth cant, or wont, reveal the exact location of the supposedly
supernatural hole. But Jack Powell, a well-respected state geologist, points to a less
menacing, real hole near Ellensburg that likely was the inspiration. Hell also tell you the
modern, rural legend as told on AM late-night radio is geologically impossible.
The claims
It all started on Feb. 21, 1997, when a man identifying himself as Mel Waters of the
Ellensburg area appeared on Coast to Coast with Art Bell, a nationally syndicated AM
talk show. Bells late-night show featured quirky and alien- and conspiracy-filled stories.
Waters, in a lengthy conversation with Bell by phone, talked about a mysterious hole in the
ground on his rural property about nine miles west of Ellensburg. Federal government
agents seized the land with no explanation as to whether the hole was a dangerous threat
or important to national security or both. Waters said the cover story the government gave
was that it was the old site of a downed aircraft.

Waters claimed federal agents forced him to lease the land to the government. The lease
payments allowed him to move to Australia, he said.
Waters said the hole had paranormal properties, despite the fact locals dumped their
garbage there for years. He said a rural resident tossed his dead dog into the hole only to
see it later alive outdoors with a hunter. The dog wouldnt come to him.
Waters indicated he was acquainted with Central Washington University where his wife
worked for a time. He said he lowered a weighted fish line down the hole, and he ran out
of several reels of heavy line at more than 80,000 feet without it touching bottom.
Waters told Bell others had seen a black beam coming from the hole and still others
claimed portable radios held close the holes entrance would play programs and music
from the past. Metal held close to the holes 9-foot diameter opening would change into
other metals or substances.
These details tantalized Kittitas Valley listeners who made the show the talk of Ellensburg
in the next few weeks.
Checks by local news reporters later found no public records indicating a Mel Waters lived
in Kittitas County, had a wife who worked at CWU or owned rural property.
Waters later called into Bells show a few times again, on Feb. 24 and, reportedly, again in
2000 and twice in 2002. The show, over the years, rebroadcast the segments as the Best
of Art Bell, again generating interest.
Most recently, Seattles KOMO TV station broadcast a news segment about the continuing
mystery surrounding Mels Hole on Feb. 7. The segment included comments from Red Elk,
an intertribal medicine man living in the Kittitas Valley, who contends his father showed him
the hole around 1961 and told him son that it was bottomless.
The location
Waters, and those who have searched for the hole and claim to have found it, have never
revealed publicly the exact location. All they would say is it was on Manastash Ridge,
some nine to 10 miles southwesterly of Ellensburg.
Re-enter state Department of Natural Resources geologist Jack Powell of Ellensburg, who
was among those listening during one of the earliest Coast-to-Coast AM shows with Mel
Waters. He was driving back home from an out-of-county task.
It got my interest in a funny kind of way, said Powell, 62, remembering back when. I
knew Art Bells stuff is basically Sasquatch and UFOs and the like, but it was sort of
entertaining.
Powell, who has worked as a exploratory geologist for petroleum companies, taught
geology at CWU for 11 years and has worked with the DNR for more than 20 years,
thought he knew where the hole was.
He grew up in the Kittitas Valley and, as a kid, played around an old gold mine shaft that
went down at an angle into a field northwest of Ellensburg.
At most, the shaft on the valley floor was likely 90 feet deep or more, Powell estimated. It
may have been as much as 300 feet deep when it was an active mine.
The debunking
When Powell heard on the radio show that Mels Hole was said to be on Manastash Ridge
and more than 80,000 feet deep, well, he couldnt listen any longer.
He knew the deepest mine shaft in the world was 12,672 feet deep and the deepest known
cavern was 7,188 feet.
The Russians drilled the deepest bore hole that went down 40,230 feet in 1989.
If they had said (over the radio) it was on the north side of the valley, well, I might have
stayed with the program for a while longer. I was thinking the hole I knew about was
somehow being made into Mels Hole, said Powell, who has 30 years experience
exploring the geology of Eastern Washington, and especially Lower Kittitas County and
Manastash Ridge, in detail.

Geologically and physically, its not possible for a hole to be that deep, Powell said; it
would collapse into itself under the tremendous pressure and heat from the surrounding
strata.
He concluded whoever Mel Waters was, he probably knew about the hole northwest of
Ellensburg thats on private property, fenced with barbed wire, and is not too far from state
DNR lands.
I suppose this Mel Waters used the real hole as a kind of inspiration for making up his
mysterious one on Manastash Ridge, Powell said.
The believers
After listening to the radio show Powell didnt think much about it for quite a while until
2001 when he was contacted by a member of a Seattle-area discussion group that was
studying Mels Hole. The caller was part of an online chat club.
They were hoping for geologic information about our area as part of their coming here to
search for Mels Hole, Powell said.
He agreed to talk to them in the interests of giving them accurate information about the
local geology, he said.
The group visited on a Saturday, and Powell said he gave his standard lecture, a scientific
overview in laymans terms of the geology of Kittitas County and some specifics about
Manastash Ridge.
He also guided the group to the old mine shaft and told them it was the inspiration for the
mythical Mels Hole. The hole on Manastash Ridge doesnt exist, he said.
They thanked me and served me up some pie they had, said Powell about dessert the
group ordered from the Copper Kettle Restaurant. But they wouldnt let go of the
possibility of Mels Hole.
That group later formed the Seattle Paranormal Society.
Powell acknowledged that Mels Hole has become a surprisingly long-lived legend based
on no evidence at all.
It looks like its indelible now; you cant disprove a negative. Its probably with us forever.