Mel's Hole: Washington, 1997

Summary

Sightings Episode Summary: "Mel's Hole: Washington, 1997"

Release Date: November 18, 2024
Hosts: McLeod Andrews and Brian Sigley
Produced by Reverb and QCODE

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Introduction to "Mel's Hole"

In this gripping episode of Sightings, titled "Mel's Hole: Washington, 1997", hosts McLeod Andrews and Brian Sigley delve into one of the most enigmatic supernatural phenomena reported in the Pacific Northwest. The story centers around Mel Waters, a 67-year-old resident of Washington State, whose discovery of a seemingly bottomless hole on his property leads him into a realm of unexplained mysteries and government interference.

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Mel Waters' Discovery and Initial Investigation

At approximately [00:52], the narrative begins with Mel Waters introducing himself and his predicament. Mel recounts how he purchased land on Manastash Ridge, unaware of the mysterious hole that would soon become the focal point of his life. The hole was not present when he acquired the property, indicating its emergence post-purchase.

Confronting the Shadowy Neighbor

One evening, Mel observes a shadowy figure, later identified as Jimmy Hooker, attempting to dispose of a microwave by dropping it into the hole ([00:42] - [01:29]). Feeling threatened, Mel confronts Jimmy with a rifle, leading to an unexpected exchange where Jimmy casually mentions using the hole for trash disposal. This encounter piques Mel's curiosity about the hole's true nature.

Realizing the Hole's Depth

Intrigued by the hole's apparent bottomlessness, Mel decides to measure its depth using fishing line and Lifesavers as markers ([04:00] - [10:00]). Despite deploying nearly two miles of string, the Lifesavers never melt, suggesting an unfathomable depth exceeding standard geological expectations. This leads Mel to believe he has stumbled upon a "God damned bottomless pit" on his property ([02:00]).

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Supernatural Events and Anomalies

Mel's investigation uncovers a series of bizarre occurrences that defy rational explanation:

1. Animal Behavior Changes: His dog, Kit, refuses to approach the hole, and local birds avoid the area, indicating a pervasive sense of unease ([05:00] - [07:00]).

2. Temporal Distortions: During one of his measurements, Mel experiences a radio broadcast anomaly where his portable radio shifts to an old-time hits station, broadcasting a date from 1952 instead of the current year ([09:00]).

3. Strange Apparitions: Mel dreams of the hole rumbling and a dark entity emerging, only to wake up to his dog interacting strangely with another seemingly identical dog named Buster, which mirrors a deceased pet incident earlier ([11:00] - [15:00]).

4. Government Intervention: Shortly after these events, armed soldiers appear on Mel's property, ostensibly investigating a fabricated plane crash, effectively taking control of the land and erasing Mel's ownership records ([18:00] - [27:00]).

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Government Seizure and Aftermath

Mel's account details how the government swiftly blocks access to his land, constructing a base and enforcing strict no-entry policies. Despite his attempts to assert his rights, Mel is coerced into selling the land under suspiciously favorable terms, receiving a substantial financial settlement without any clear explanation ([25:00] - [30:10]). He discovers that satellite imagery no longer shows the hole, suggesting a deliberate concealment by authorities.

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Hosts' Analysis and Discussion

Following Mel's harrowing testimony, McLeod and Brian engage in a thorough discussion evaluating the plausibility and mystique surrounding Mel's Hole.

Assessing Credibility

• Lack of Corroboration: The hosts highlight the absence of verifiable records or additional testimonies supporting Mel's claims, casting doubt on the story's authenticity ([25:25] - [32:25]).

• Scientific Inconsistencies: They examine geological impossibilities, such as the hole's purported depth exceeding the Earth's crust in that region and the improbability of materials like ice remaining unmelted under extreme conditions ([26:10] - [27:08]).

Supernatural Elements

• Black Light Phenomenon: Mel describes a "blacker than black" light emanating from the hole, a feature that adds a layer of otherworldliness and raises questions about its origin and purpose ([21:00] - [33:08]).

• Reanimated Animals: The reappearance of Buster, the deceased dog, interacting normally despite his prior death, introduces themes of life after death and paranormal resurrection ([23:00] - [32:00]).

Government Conspiracy Theories

• Erase and Control: The sudden government takeover and subsequent erasure of the hole from satellite images feed into classic conspiracy narratives, suggesting a cover-up of supernatural phenomena ([28:00] - [34:38]).

• Financial Motives: The exorbitant leasing fee imposed by the government implies an exploitation of the hole's mysterious properties for undisclosed purposes ([29:13] - [33:04]).

Additional Mysteries: The Nevada Connection

Brian introduces a further twist involving a second hole in Nevada, identical in dimensions but constructed with metal, and overseen by a dubious figure named Gerald Osborne, also known as Red Elk. Mel's interaction with the Native American tribe and the subsequent disappearance of both holes deepens the enigma, suggesting a network of supernatural sites with potentially malevolent forces ([30:42] - [35:46]).

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Conclusion and Listener Engagement

As the episode draws to a close, McLeod and Brian express their skepticism while acknowledging the captivating nature of Mel's story. They invite listeners to share their thoughts and experiences, emphasizing the blend of horror, mystery, and humorous elements that "Mel's Hole" embodies.

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Key Quotes with Timestamps

• Mel Waters ([00:52]):
  "I'm just squeezing myself inside out and flipped upside down all because of a God damned hole."

• Mel Waters ([01:29]):
  "But since he saw that I was armed, he apologized and set the microwave down and got the hell out of Dodge."

• Mel Waters ([20:00]):
  "That hole was doing too many things. It's almost biblical."

• McLeod Andrews ([23:33], [23:53]):
  "This story was bonkers."
  "Mel's Hole fills my life with Jo."

• Brian Sigley ([25:22]):
  "It's almost too crazy for you to have made up, Brian."

• McLeod Andrews ([32:47]):
  "I'm on this guy's side. Sounds like we can trust him."
  "The skeptical gecko is not buying poor old Gerald."

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Final Thoughts

"Mel's Hole: Washington, 1997" stands out as a quintessential Sightings episode, blending eerie storytelling with analytical discourse. While the veracity of Mel Waters' account remains questionable, the tale of a bottomless pit, supernatural occurrences, and governmental involvement offers a tantalizing glimpse into the unknown. Listeners are left pondering the thin veil between reality and the supernatural, eager for more explorations in upcoming episodes.

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Stay Tuned:
Next week on Sightings, the hosts will venture into Mexico, promising another thrilling exploration of supernatural phenomena. Will they encounter the elusive Chupacabra or something even more mysterious? Subscribe and join them on their next adventure!

Transcript

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[James McComb]

I'm James McComb reporting live from home in my bathrobe in slippers. Tonight we're talking Dunkin Poehler Peppermint coffee. Gene's here with the latest. Gene, do you copy?

[Brian]

The home with Dunkin is where you want to be.

[James McComb]

Imagine you've found the property of your dreams in a remote stretch of woodland. It has everything. Solitude, views, and one impossibly deep hole that falls into infinity. But why is it there? And where does it lead? Some mysteries, it seems, run very, very deep. Welcome to Sightings, the series that takes you inside the world's most mysterious supernatural events. I'm McLeod.

[Brian]

And I'm Brian. And today we're diving headfirst down an actual rabbit hole. A really big one.

[James McComb]

In this episode, we meet Mel Waters from Washington State in 1997. He discovers a mysterious hole on his new property and sets out to uncover how far it plunges into the earth. But he quickly realizes something else lurks within the depths and it's about to change his life forever. Find out how on this episode of Sightings. My name is mel waters. I'm 67 years old. And while I'm not one to air my dirty laundry, I gotta tell someone how my life's been turned around, squeezed inside out and flipped upside down all because of a God damned hole. Yeah, you heard me right. A hole in the ground. See, I bought this land out on Manastash Ridge. Well, technically my wife Lacy did and she ain't my wife no more, but. But we, we were married at the time, so that's kind of beside the point now. But it's all to say this land was owned fair and square. And now the government's took it right out from under me. And I didn't get one say in the matter and never asked for one iota of the whole damn thing because swear on my life, all I wanted was to. Of course, I didn't know about the hole when I bought the place. The land was a whole heap of acres about a dozen miles from Ellensburg. Pretty much out in the sticks. And that was. That was just the way I liked it. There were a couple outbuildings, good hunting space, and a trailer I could use for sleep in, since Lacy and I was already on the rocks by that point. There was also room to test my plants, of course. And I'm not talking marijuana, mind you. I'm not some kind of reefer, but I do like fiddling with Native American medicinal plants. As Lacy used to say it, I was trying to save the world or some baloney. Real supportive, she was. Anywho. So that's all to say, the hole wasn't a selling point for me. I hadn't even the faintest wisp. It existed, in fact, until after we moved in. But come sunset, I heard a truck on our drive and saw a shadowy figure traipsing through my woods with a big old box in his hands, just walking around like he owned the damn place. So I grabbed Kitt, that's my shepherd mix, plus my rifle and a flashlight, and went out to see what the shadow man was up to. I tracked him to a clearing I hadn't been to before. I saw him step up to some shadowy berm and lift that big box up in the air. And since I didn't know what the hell he was doing, I raised my rifle and told him to drop the box and get his hands up. But that fool just stood there, box in hand, and shouted back at me. And since my hearing isn't the best, I told him to say it again. And I finally heard his words. I'm Jimmy Hooker, your next door neighbor. I didn't mean to intrude. I'm just using your hole, that's all. And I didn't know the first thing about what he meant by that, of course. So I asked what he was holding, and he told me it was just a busted microwave and he was just planning to toss his trash down the hole like everyone else in the area had done for decades. But since he saw that I was armed, he apologized and set the microwave down and got the hell out of Dodge, saying on the way out that he and his wife would bring a casserole for me on one of these days. Of course, now I wanted to know what the thing was. So I slowly walked toward that shadowy brim. But Kit didn't follow. He started growling and stood fast, unwilling to come any closer to the thing. So I flipped on my flashlight and shone it on the thing, and that's when I started to feel a little weird. It's hard to describe but it's almost like when I'm out at night and surprised by the moon. Just sort of eerie, I guess. But I kept stepping closer and once I could finally see the hole with my own eyes, I felt a shiver. My first thought was that it was an ancient well. The thing was about 10ft wide with a thick stone brim surrounding it and steel grates to keep anything from falling in. I shone my flashlight down there and the beam couldn't find a bottom. Then I shouted, down there. But there wasn't even an echo. And honestly that was downright weird. I'd had wells before and this sure shit wasn't like any of them. So I threw a rock down and listened for a splash, but there was nothing. So I tried a bigger rock. Still nothing. Then I threw Jimmy Hooker's microwave down there and somehow I don't know how, that hole didn't even make a peep. So that's when I realized I had a God damned bottomless pit on my property. And it turns out that wasn't even the half of it. So the day after I learned about the hole, I called the guy who owned the land before us. His name was McLean and he was a decent enough fellow, even if he should have told me about the bottomless pit and all. He laughed when he heard what I was calling about and told me that hole had been there long before he bought the land some 40 years ago. And when I told him about the neighbor trespassing to dump his junk there, he said that was just the way things were around here. Everyone used the hole and letting them continue was the neighborly thing to do. Then he hung up. I think he moved to Barbados or something, so I don't blame his brevity. After the call, I finally decided to do the neighborly thing and apologized to Jimmy Hooker for scaring him with my gun. Turns out he was a great guy and he shared some whiskey and told me about the hole. He said it had been there since his great great grandfather lived in the area and that some folks even said the hole was older than the whale bone stuck in the tree in Ellensburg. Now I didn't know anything about any whale bone in a tree, but that sounded more than old timey enough to me. So I asked if Jimmy knew anything else about the hole besides its being the county garbage disposal, but Jimmy shook his head. He did hear once that someone saw a black light shooting up out of it, but he hadn't seen it himself, so he wasn't fit to comment. But other than that he and everyone else just used it to toss their things. And the hole just never seemed to fill. Someone even threw a refrigerator down there, and where it was, it never hit the bottom. That night, I sat on my P.O. worried that nothing about this hole added up. I mean, Kip was scared to go near the thing, and he was right near the smartest, bravest creature I knew. Then there was the fact that the hole apparently had no bottom, which struck me as awful fishy. And then the story of the black light shooting out of it. Well, that sounded straight up biblical. And though I certainly didn't want to deal with anything biblical, I still was itching to figure out how deep the thing was and why it allegedly never filled up. So the next day, I went to the tackle shop near the river and got the heaviest duty fishing line they sold. I. I used to be a commercial fisherman, and I know my way around line. So I took a handful of spools back to the hole, attached a roll of lifesavers to the end of the line, and started dropping it all down. Oh, and if you're wondering about the lifesavers, it's just an old trick I learned back in the day. Drop a roll, and if they hit water, they melt. Simple. But soon enough, I'd put down all four spools I'd bought. That's almost two miles of string, which seemed deeper than any hole had any business being. And when I pulled the line back up, which took me well near a couple hours, the lifesavers were untouched. So I went back into town and got more line. Then I set up a lawn chair and portable radio, attached a one pound lead weight to the end of the first spool, and started fishing, Figuratively speaking, knowing the line would go slack once I finally hit the bottom. As I sat there letting out spool after spool, a few strange things happened. Kit came around after a while and again wouldn't go within 100ft of the hole. Even when I tried to fetch him, he dug his paws in and ran back to the trailer. It was right around then I noticed that the birds, you know, the common crows and sparrows that are everywhere in those woods, wouldn't come within 100ft of the hole either. I even set out a bit of my sandwich to try and draw in one crow that kept staring at me from afar, but it didn't budge an inch. But the wood. Weirdest thing was when I was about 10 spools in and my radio suddenly cut to static before switching to old timey hits instead of the usual news. I thought it had just flipped to an oldies station until the announcer came on and said it was July 19, 1952. Mind you, it was actually August 3, 1997, but after another minute or so, the radio went right back to the news. I'm used to news of today, that is. It's almost nightfall when I finally run out of line again. So I did the math in my head and realized I'd let out over 80,000ft of line at that point, which seemed downright impossible to me. Nothing on earth was that deep. Nothing. But there it was. I was just packing it in for the night when I heard approaching footsteps. It was Gary Plank, another neighbor I'd met at the fishing shop. And he was carrying something wrapped in a tarp. Teary eyed, he told me it was his chocolate lab named Buster that had suddenly passed and Gary couldn't bear to bury him on his land, so he wanted to drop it in the hole just in case, he said. Well, I didn't know what he meant by that. So I took my hat off and paid my silent respects to a dog I'd never met as he tossed the poor thing down into the black. That night, I could barely sleep. And when I finally did nod off real quick, I dreamt I was still out there putting more line down that damned hole. And then the ground suddenly started rumbling and something huge and dark shooting out and turned the sky to black. And before I could run, before I could do anything, I woke up. Then I realized that Kit was outside yapping. And usually he's not the type to raise ruckus. So I grabbed my gun and stepped outside to see what the hullabaloo was. And it's the damnedest thing. He was jumping around playing with another dog, a chocolate lab with just about the shiniest coat I'd ever seen in my life. And the thing ran up to me and I got a look at its collar and saw that of all the name of all the dogs, its name was Buster. Buster, like the dead chocolate lab that went into the hole that evening. And that. That scared the wits right out of me. After the Buster incident, I stopped going near the hole. The dog ran off too soon for me to catch it. And I never had the heart to tell Gary what I'd seen. So that secret just disappeared down into the deep. Just like the trash that folks keep dumping in there. Before I knew it, a couple years passed and I'd settled into a quiet life in the woods. Lacy and I had had one last bat and finally decided to split. So I bought the land from her, and now I could do what I wanted with it. That meant spending most of my time with my plants and hunting here and there. But hard as I tried, that hole never let go of me. I felt it gnawing at my brain more and more with each passing month. So much so that I couldn't even sleep without wondering what was down there. So much so that finally, I'd had enough. I hadn't seen my neighbor Jimmy Hooker, for a spell, so he looked awful surprised when he opened his door and found me on his porch. I said I wanted his help, and he was happy to oblige because it was the neighborly thing to do. Plus, he owed me for dumping all his crap in my hole. So we soon found ourselves standing over the thing, trying to figure out what to do. Jimmy suggested right off that we send a person or animal down there to see what happened. But I worried about high temperatures, toxic gas, or extreme air pressure, especially if we went down the full depth of the thing. Then Jimmy recommended we start by dropping down some ice. Surely we could see if heat were a problem using ice. So that's what we did. We filled a pair of buckets with ice. One of them sat next to us on the ground as a control, and the other went down, down, down. A thousand feet it went, which was just about as much rope as we could string together without it straight up snapping from all the weight. And when we pulled the whole thing back up, the ice from the hole hadn't melted one bit. The ice on the surface, on the other hand, well, that was half melted from just being out of the freezer, being ice and all. But that wasn't the weird part. The ice we sent down, even though it hadn't melted a bit, wasn't cold to the touch anymore. And when I picked it up, it didn't melt in my hands. Clearly, the hole had done something to it by, like, changed its molecular structure, altering it physically in some impossible way. And because I'm no fool, I was suddenly very worried about what else it was capable of. Jimmy, on the other hand, well, he wanted to keep going. So it was a few days later when he pulled up my drive with a big old cage on the back of his truck. And my heart just about fell into my stomach when I saw that inside that cage was a little lamb. Of course, Jimmy had a whole herd of sheep on his property, so it wasn't uncommon for him to be transporting them this way to that. But I knew, just knew that this lamb was destined for that hole. And sure enough, it was. The lamb started screeching the moment Jimmy began moving it toward the hole. It's like it knew it was coming. And it was so worked up, I worried it was about to give itself a heart attack. But as Jimmy set up his rig and raised the crate holding the lamb right over the hole, the lamb suddenly shut up as if it had finally resigned itself to its fate. Then, with a mechanical whir, Jimmy's rig did its thing, and the lamb slowly dropped down into the dark. It took a while for the line to run out. A few hundred feet, Jimmy said. And once it was fully extended, all we could do was wait. As we stood there, I worried what Jimmy would do next. If that lamb came back up alive and well, that would be the best scenario for the lamb, of course. But maybe Jimmy would retool his rig so it could drop it down even further. But as the cage drew closer and closer, I realized nothing was moving inside it at all. Even closer, I saw that the lamb was collapsed on the floor. I suppose there's no need to draw out the tension or anything, so I'll just say it. The poor lamb was dead. Its eyes had gone hazy white and its mouth hung open. But aside from that, I couldn't tell what it killed. But Jimmy had a plan to get to the bottom of what happened. He unrolled the tarp and pulled out some tools, which I quickly realized were butchering knives. He was going to dissect the thing right there on the forest floor. Now, I'm not really a squeamish person, but given the choice, I'd rather not stare at blood and guts. But it was the damnedest thing. When he cut that lamb open, it didn't bleed at all. In fact, the thing's insides looked completely, impossibly cooked. Then, as he pushed aside what I thought was probably the liver, something glistened to my eye. It looked like some kind of tumor, slick, wet and pulsing. Ever so slowly, as if it was alive, I instinctively took a step back and Jimmy chuckled under his breath and said, well, well, that right there's a first. Then he cut into the thing and, well, something emerged. It crawled right out of the inside of that lamp, all covered in goo. I couldn't figure out for the life of me what the thing looked like. Only that it seemed almost like a baby seal. But with these eyes that. Good Lord, the eyes looked human. And it sat there a minute, staring at Jimmy and me, looking at us with those awful eyes. Intelligent Eyes, I swear it. And I was too shocked to do anything, to move even so, all I could do was look back into those eyes until it finally, mercifully, jumped right back down into the hole. Then, as soon as it had vanished from view, a black light. I don't. I don't know what else to call it shot up out of the hole, blacker than black, going straight up into the sky like a searchlight, reaching farther than I could see. Then, just a second or two later, it was gone. Neither Jimmy nor I said anything for a long while. Then finally he said out loud exactly what I was thinking. Well, shit. That was something. Something as you could probably imagine. I didn't sleep well that night. I just couldn't get the image of that thing out of my head. Was it truly from deep inside the earth, or did the hole somehow lead to another dimension altogether? The whole thing set my head spinning. And that's not even counting the black light that shot up into the sky. By morning, I swore to myself I'd never go near that hole again and vowed to build a fence around it so no one else could either. So I drove into Yakima to get some supplies. And even though I was only gone about four or five hours, the road to my property was blocked when I got back. Blocked, I ought to say, by armed soldiers. It looked like they were setting up some kind of base smack on the middle of my land. Construction equipment was moving in and out in the distance. I saw a couple big tents and armed men moving this way and that. Of course, they had no right being there, none of them. So I got out of my car and went up to the first soldier I saw and asked him what the hell was happening here. You know what he told me? That there was a plane crash. Of course, that was a load of shit, because if a plane had crashed, there'd be smoke and I couldn't see any at all. So this had to be about the whole. Then had the government seen that black light that shot up out of it the day before? Had they known about the hole all along? Had they been watching me all along? I wanted answers. I wanted them now. So I demanded to speak with the officer in charge. I stood there waiting for what felt like forever, until this guy in his sweaty dress shirt comes walking up. He wasn't an officer, so I reiterated that I wanted to talk to the man in charge. But he replied that was him, and told me I couldn't access my property until the plane crash was fully investigated and wreckage retrieved. I tried to push back, saying I had my rights and all. But this guy had the nerve to step up to me and tell me he could very easily find a drug lab on property if I made things difficult for him. And even though I obviously had nothing to do with illegal drugs, I'm sure he'd find some way to make my native American plants look like. So I had no choice but to back down. As I stepped away, the man told me not to come back until they contacted me. And when I asked him how he even knew how to reach me, he smiled. He said, we know how to contact you, and left it at that. I didn't know what else to do, so I went to Jimmy's place. He practically expected my arrival, having seen the commotion and all. So he poured me some whiskey and said the whole circus had to be about the hole. It just had to. But despite all that, the government still had no right to take my land. So he suggested we gather up a group of locals and march on the soldiers. This area had a real libertarian kick, I'll tell you that. But I shot the idea down. Later, Jimmy made up a guest room for me, even though I didn't ask for it. And just as I was getting ready to go to sleep, half tipsy from all the whiskey, Jimmy's phone rang. And apparently it was someone asking for me. So I answered, and it turned out to be the real estate agent who brokered my purchase of the land. And he apologized for the late call, but said someone was interested in buying my land and that it was an extremely generous offer. I asked him if I had any choice in the matter, and he sat silent a moment, then finally said, I honest to God, don't think you do. And that was that. The next day, I left town with kit and a box of things that were handed to me by a couple soldiers. I wasn't even allowed to set foot back on my land. And even though I was, and still am, sore about the whole thing, the offer was indeed generous enough to make up for flipping my entire life upside down, enough that I can make a comfortable new life wherever I want. So that's what I planned to do. I know, of course, that my history owning that land would probably be erased. For all I know, I've been erased, too. I know for sure that the hole's been erased, at least from prying eyes. That's because I went on a website, one of those new ones that show maps taken from satellites up in space. And my land, that hole, is just a big empty spot, like it was never even there.

[Brian]

Sightings will be back just after this.

[McLeod Andrews]

Welcome back to Sightings, where.

[James McComb]

Oh, you know what?

[McLeod Andrews]

Forget the intro. This story was bonkers. I'm making my skeptical gecko call right now. Mel's Hole is absolutely insane and also happens to be kind of hilarious to say. It's also filled with melting lambs.

[Brian]

I'm already struggling to keep a straight face here.

[McLeod Andrews]

You're failing. We're both laughing.

[Brian]

I kind of wish it had been called, like, Mel's Bottomless Pit instead or anything. Anything but Mel's Hole. But it is Mel's Hole.

[McLeod Andrews]

But that fills my life with joy. Mel's Hole fills my life with Jo. So, Mel's Hole, let's dive in. Not the actual hole, the metaphorical rabbit hole, and figure out what's real and what's not in this story. I just read. And I have to say straight off the bat, my opinion. This one seems almost too crazy for you to have made up, Brian, because I know you and you're a rational human being.

[Brian]

Thank you for the vote of confidence in my creative abilities, though.

[James McComb]

Well.

[McLeod Andrews]

Well, okay. You know what I mean. We've got this bottomless hole, dogs coming back from the dead, crazy seal creatures erupting from dead lambs, and black light shooting up into the sky and the government. It's insane.

[Brian]

It is. But all of it happened allegedly, if we were to believe the word of one Mr. Mel Waters.

[McLeod Andrews]

Well, I have to admit, Mel Waters sounds insane.

[Brian]

He does. He does. And not helping matters. His story is only known because of his interaction back in the late 90s with this really famous supernatural radio show called coast to coast am.

[McLeod Andrews]

And that show was known for crazy callers.

[Brian]

It was. And I'm sure it's going to come up many more times over the course of this series because it seems to be the source of a lot of weird stuff. But for the sake of this show, let's give Mel the benefit of the doubt for the time being. Yeah, sure.

[James McComb]

So we have this guy, Mel Waters.

[Brian]

Mel Waters, right. And in 1997, he faxes this radio show, asking for listener input on the bottomless pit that he discovered on his land in eastern Washington. And the host, Art Bell, starts chatting him up and really digging into the story. And we get the details about him dropping fishing line down the hole, how his dogs won't go near the hole.

[McLeod Andrews]

But just for clarity, give me the rundown of this hole again.

[Brian]

It was a gaping hole. Yeah. It was nine and a half feet wide. It had three and a half foot Stone retaining wall around it. And that stone apparently went down 15ft. But beyond that, hell itself, maybe, because according to Mel, this hole was at least 80,000ft deep. Allegedly.

[McLeod Andrews]

Okay, well, now, I'm no geology expert, but is the Earth's crust even that thick?

[Brian]

Yeah. So in that part of Washington, the crust is apparently 65,000 to 130,000ft thick. So plausibly, Mel could have gone down 80,000ft and just been in rock. Beyond that rock, of course, would be magma. And I guess if Mel had hit magma, he would have figured that out pretty quick. It's worth noting, though, that apparently at that depth, the temperature of the rock would still be 1300 degrees Fahrenheit, which, of course, would melt any fishing line.

[McLeod Andrews]

I'm going to play devil's advocate here, which seems fitting given the depth in the earth we're talking about. So in the story, Mel sent down.

[James McComb]

That bucket of ice and it didn't melt.

[Brian]

Yeah, he didn't send it down 80,000ft, obviously. But I suppose since this is a wild story, this could have been magic hole.

[McLeod Andrews]

Mel's magic hole.

[Brian]

So at least 150ft down, it didn't melt the ice. There have been others, though, who have called into that radio show and commented and said that with 80,000ft of line, the weight of the line itself would have just kept the line taut. So even if Mel had reached the bottom of the hole at, say, 3,000ft, that much line would have made it appear as though, you know, he was still sending fresh line down.

[James McComb]

Oh, and it was just piling up.

[Brian]

Yeah.

[McLeod Andrews]

How do you even get 80,000ft of line?

[Brian]

You rob a line factory or something? I don't even know. And it also raises the question in my mind, why didn't he just. Radar or sonar, Some kind of. There are technological tools you can use beyond fishing line to figure out how deep something is. Right.

[McLeod Andrews]

I imagine a sonar gear would be pretty expensive and hard to get your hands on. So this, this. This tracks him going out and getting a real long rope.

[James McComb]

Tracks and.

[Brian]

Yeah. To jump back to what happened in real life. So Mel goes on the radio and he talks about this hole and how he's sending all this fishing line down and people are asking him questions about it. And the show ends. And then a few days later, he calls back again and he says that the government commandeered his land. Since he went on the radio and started talking about it just like it happened in the story. So he came home from a trip to Costco, and all of a sudden he can't get on his land.

[McLeod Andrews]

Which seems like a stretch to me for two reasons. First, is the government actually listening to this radio show? And second, what would they want with.

[James McComb]

A hole to hell?

[Brian]

Well, it is a magic hole.

[James McComb]

Fair enough.

[McLeod Andrews]

What better ally could there be than Satan himself?

[James McComb]

Fair enough. Ye.

[McLeod Andrews]

But occupying the land and blocking Mel's access seems a bit drastic of an intervention.

[Brian]

It does. And allegedly, according to Mel, they were so desperate to obtain this land that they leased it indefinitely from him for $250,000 a month. Wow, that's $3 million a year.

[McLeod Andrews]

That's crazy, because I would think that they would use eminent domain or something.

[Brian]

Yeah, I agree with that. But I guess $250,000 and a 1 way ticket out of town is the going rate for a bottomless pit, you know? So Mel up and moved with his dogs to Australia. And I have to say, that is where things start getting really weird.

[McLeod Andrews]

Oh, since this story isn't already weird enough.

[Brian]

Not even closed, according to Mel. So he gets to Australia and he's making $3 million a year to lease his hole.

[McLeod Andrews]

I'm not touching that.

[Brian]

And apparently what he decides to do with that is give all of that money to a wombat rescue.

[McLeod Andrews]

Just the wealthiest wombats you ever saw.

[Brian]

Dripping in diamond.

[McLeod Andrews]

Womb dripping in diamonds.

[Brian]

I don't know. Apparently wombats were a passion of his that he neglected to mention at any other time. I thought plants were his thing, but the point of this is he was paid off by the government. They erased any evidence that he ever owned the land.

[McLeod Andrews]

Okay, spooky.

[Brian]

Yeah, it's classic Mo for these kind of stories. But I want to pause here for a second, McLeod, and get your read on this whole thing. Where are you at?

[McLeod Andrews]

I'm just. I feel like I'm in the middle of a labyrinth. I think Mel is a good storyteller.

[Brian]

Well, things are about to get more complicated because I have to admit that I did a little bit of condensing for this story. Everything that happens in this story happened. It didn't happen at one hole though, because apparently there were two of them.

[James McComb]

I quit. Ow.

[McLeod Andrews]

And I spilled my coffee.

[James McComb]

Oh, for real? Yes, I quit.

[McLeod Andrews]

Brian. What to. Where was the other hole? What's going on? Okay, just guide me.

[Brian]

So there were two holes and this feels like a terrible joke waiting to happen. I wanted to keep things simple in the story, and so I just had the hole in Washington. But what actually happened was after Mo went to Australia, he eventually came back to the United States and was contacted by this Native American tribe in Nevada who had heard about his plants and heard about his story, and they said, you need to come down here because we got a hole just like yours. So this hole in Nevada was the exact same dimensions as the hole in Oregon, but its retaining wall was not made out of stone. It was made out of some kind of metal. And apparently there were markings on this metal brim, implying that some kind of thing was supposed to connect to or attach to this hole. It's kind of unclear.

[McLeod Andrews]

I swear to God, if you mention aliens, not.

[Brian]

But it comes to mind, I suppose. But in this hole in Nevada, that is the hole where they ended up putting the lamb down and brought it back up. And that is where the baby seal creature decided to make his special entrance.

[McLeod Andrews]

The baby seal with human eyes, which. I'm sorry, I'm having trouble getting behind.

[Brian]

Yeah, it is a lot. But Mel said it was like being in the presence of a miracle.

[McLeod Andrews]

More like a nightmare.

[Brian]

Yeah.

[McLeod Andrews]

So I feel like I've got whiplash from all of this. We have two holes, not one, and they're both bottomless, so they must intersect somewhere, I guess.

[James McComb]

I don't know.

[McLeod Andrews]

And both holes are bananas. And the only thing we actually have to go on is the word of this guy who called into a radio show.

[Brian]

Yeah. Give him credit, I suppose, for telling a really cool story.

[McLeod Andrews]

Absolutely. Hats off. Kudos. Sure. But, I mean, is there any shred of credibility here? I mean, was Mel Waters even a real person?

[Brian]

Yeah, that's debata. People have tried to find records of the man or anyone like him owning land in the part of Washington that he said he did, and there's nothing. But he did say that the government erased all evidence of his ownership of.

[McLeod Andrews]

The land, which, again, is incredibly convenient.

[Brian]

Yes, I agree. And then there's other elements of Mel's story that to say stretch believability is an understatement. Tell me what you think of these.

[James McComb]

Okay.

[Brian]

All right. Number one. When he was in Australia, he claims that he used some of his medicinal plants that he was growing near the hole in Washington, and apparently, miraculously, he cured AIDS with it.

[McLeod Andrews]

Okay, okay.

[Brian]

And then.

[McLeod Andrews]

No, I don't need. No.

[Brian]

And then Mel said that when he went to the hole in Nevada, right before that happened, he had been diagnosed with terminal esophageal cancer and given six months to live. But after visiting the hole and seeing the magic seal human creature thing, he was cured. He was cured.

[McLeod Andrews]

And there's no one else who can corroborate any of his stories. Not even these Native Americans. Not the neighbors who would throw their junk in his hole. No one.

[Brian]

No. No. And that's the one thing. Well, that's not the one thing. That's weird to me. You know, you would think that something like this would be talked about and word would spread and everyone would be talking about this guy's awesome hole in the middle of the forest. Instead, we've got crickets. And no one's been able to find anyone who needs to know about this hole except for one guy. And, well, this guy's a special, special guy. It sounds like his name was Gerald Osborne, but he allegedly goes by the name Red Elk even though he claims no Native American heritage.

[McLeod Andrews]

I'm on this guy's side. Sounds like we can trust him.

[Brian]

And that's not all. He allegedly wears a piece of an alien spacecraft on his necklace.

[McLeod Andrews]

Okay, yeah, I'm there. I'm 100% there. Totally on board with Gerald Osborn.

[Brian]

So he claims that he went to Metal's Hole a whole bunch of times over the years. But in 2002, a newspaper wrote an article about an effort to locate this hole and that he led. And Mr. Red Elk could not locate the hole that he'd been to many, many times.

[McLeod Andrews]

Of course, he couldn't find it. Guy wandering through the woods with his.

[Brian]

Divining rod, an alien necklace.

[McLeod Andrews]

Like, oh, shoot, I swear it was here. The aliens must have moved it. So I'm gonna preempt any questions you might ask and just say that the skeptical gecko is not buying poor old Gerald.

[Brian]

Well, for Mel, too. Is it the whole story is that the hole itself.

[McLeod Andrews]

I wanna believe Mel because it's just bonkers. But weirdly enough, it's the curing aids and curing cancer that I'm like, the hole's doing too many things.

[Brian]

So he took it one step too far.

[McLeod Andrews]

One step too far.

[Brian]

Yeah. No, I agree with that. And it makes me won. I mean, well, it's a cool story, which is probably why it's kind of part of the canon of the weird and unexplained. By this point, it's kind of a famous story, right?

[McLeod Andrews]

Yeah. Yeah, I understand why it became canon. Cause it's just so entertaining. It's a neat story. And a hole in the ground is maybe somehow more something you can wrap your brain around. More than aliens, I guess. We've all seen holes.

[Brian]

Any hole's a goal, right? I'm sorry. I'm gonna fire myself from the show. This time. It's my turn. Oh, Brian but in all seriousness listeners, if you have seen Mel's hole or if you know what's going on here, we want to know about it. So hit us up using the really cool comments feature on Spotify or find.

[McLeod Andrews]

Us on socials id. So I almost hate to ask, but where are we heading next week?

[Brian]

We are actually heading out of the country next week. We are going over the border just past Texas into Mexico.

[James McComb]

Chupacabra.

[Brian]

That's a good guess. That is not it. So I guess listeners, you're gonna have to hang out until next week. Same time, same place and you will find out where in Mexico we are going on Sightings. See you then.

[James McComb]

Bye.

[Brian]

Sightings is hosted by McLeod Andrew and Brian Sigley. Produced by Brian Sigley, chase Kinzer and McLeod Andrews written by Brian Sigley Story music by Madison James Smith Series music by Mitch Bain Mixing and mastering by Pat Kickliter of Sundial Media Artwork by Nuno Cernanus. For a list of this episode's sources, check out our [e-mail] Sightings is presented by Reverb and Qcode. If you like the show, be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you're first to hear new episodes every week. And if you know other Supernatural fans, tell them about us. We'd really appreciate it.