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Mels Holes - Unsolved Mysteries of Devil's Holes
Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel%27s_Hole
Mel's Hole is a supposed geographic anomaly discovered by Mel Waters on his land near Ellensburg, Washington. Waters claimed that he lived in or near Manastash Ridge, Washington, about nine miles due west of Ellensburg, though later investigation revealed that no such person was listed as a resident. According to Waters, the hole has paranormal properties, including a possibly infinite depth and the ability to restore dead animals to life. The first references to the hole were made in a series of interviews with Waters, made by Art Bell on the American radio show Coast to Coast AM (which focuses on conspiracy theories and the paranormal). Waters initially appeared on Coast to Coast AM on February 21, 1997. He subsequently appeared on February 24, 1997, April 2000 and January 29, 2002. His most recent appearance on the show was on December 20, 2002. Description While speaking on Coast to Coast AM, Waters related several stories about the hole and its properties. He also claimed that he had discovered that the hole was in excess of 15 miles (24 kilometers) deep, which he figured out by spooling out 18 reels of 20lb test fishing line, tied end on end, into the hole. Waters claims that he attached a "triangular, one-pound, standard lead fishing weight" to the end of the fishing line. Waters also told a story of a local man who dropped the remains of his deceased dog's body down the hole. Later, the man saw his dog while out hunting and attempted to call it; however, it appeared to belong to another hunter. Waters also speculated that the hole's properties might be tied to some cosmological events, including unspecified alignments of the moon. On the September 18, 2008, edition of Coast to Coast AM, guest Red Elk, an intertribal medicine man, recounted the time he visited Mel's hole. He recounted the hole as "around 9 ft. in circumference and somewhere between 24–28 (27.5?) miles deep" and said that it was a blow hole for Mount Rainier. Location Waters has never revealed the exact location of the hole. It is possible that it is located in a region removed from publicly available satellite images due to the nearby Yakima Training Center. Despite this, several people have claimed to have found the hole.\ Just before the tenth anniversary of Mel's first appearance on Coast to Coast AM, the moderator of the Mel's Hole website declared the search for the hole was a dead end, and that it would likely never be proven to exist unless Mel came forward with evidence of its location.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DEVIL’S HOLE: For decades residents from the Manastash Ridge region have talked about one of the most unusual aspects of the sprawling landscape that haloed their hometown. Hidden nearby, on a densely forested parcel of private property, was a seemingly bottomless well that was surrounded by an aura of mystery and danger. This unfathomably deep pit was said to be about 9-feet in diameter and was shored up with hand placed bricks to a depth of nearly 15-feet until it gave way to earthen walls. The hole had been known to locals for generations — and to Native Americans before them — and had been used as an unofficial dumping ground for everything from defunct refrigerators to old tires and television tubes to livestock and pet carcasses. What disturbed those who utilized this illegal dumping ground most was the fact that no matter how heavy the object being discarded may have been, those that tossed it into the void never heard it hit bottom. This led some of the more supernaturally inclined in the region to dub the place the “Devil’s Hole,” and rumors quickly spread that this never-ending crater tunneled a direct trajectory to Hades, making it, in effect, a highway to hell. In September of 2008, an inter-tribal medicine man by the moniker of Red Elk — who’s legal name is Gerald Osborne — appeared on a radio show and claimed to have visited the enigmatic hole with his father as a young boy in 1961. According to Red Elk, the hole was well known to the indigenous peoples, as well as local and federal authorities, and was believed to be an unbelievable 24 and 28-miles deep.The medicine man also speculated that pit served as a tunnel which connected to Mt. Rainier and that it might be associated with both UFOs and vile, quasi-reptilian entities that allegedly dwell deep within the bowls of the Earth known as “reptoids.” A Washington native by the name of Jay Nickell also claimed to have stumbled across the Devil’s Hole while exploring the region as a teen.. Other folks who stumbled across the site notice an eerie sensation that would wash over them when they neared the pit. They also noted that birds and other crearures seemed to give the allegedly “evil” hole a wide berth and that the rim of the pit was lined with the bones of small animals. Over the years visitors would come and go, but none of them would make a mark quite as deep as the next owner of the property… a man named Mel Waters. MEL WATERS BUYS A HOLE: Waters, who claims he and his wife bought the property sometime in 1993, discovered the hole soon afterwards and — much like all those who came before him — used it as a convenient (if environmentally unfriendly) rubbish bin. It wouldn’t be long, however, before he became irresistably drawn to this strange hollow. In particular Waters became fascinated by the its’ inexplicable ability to “devour” all that was thrown within. In the summer of 1996, Waters’ decided that his first experiment would be to ascertain just how deep this crevice actually was. Being, by his own admission, an avid marine angler, Waters had a plethora or high test fishing line. So, in an effort to discern the depth of the pit, he rigged the line to the center of the opening and attached what he referred to as a “triangular, one pound, standard lead fish weight” to a long spool of fishing line and lowered it into the black depths of the hole… it never reached the bottom. Waters attached spool after spool of to each other, but he was always thwarted in his attempts to find the base of the pit. He even took to tying a roll of Life Savers to the end of the line to see in there was water at the bottom, but the candy always returned topside dry as a bone. Eventually, determining the depth of his mystery pit would become an obsession with Waters, even to the detriment of his own marriage. After spending countless hours spooling out an extraordinary 18 reels of 5,000-foot, 20 lbs test and coming up empty handed, he came to the conclusion that the hole must be in excess of 80,000-feet deep. It was then that Waters discovered that the hole had even more extraordinary — and frankly terrifying — properties. DEAD DOGS AND DEATHLY SILENCE The first thing he noticed was the fact that whenever he would shout down into the well there would be no echo. Waters also noted that his own dogs dug their paws into the dirt to prevent him from dragging them to close to this portal to the unknown As if a dearth of echoes and whimpering guard dogs weren’t creepy enough, according to Waters, there was a fellow who claimed that his dead dog had resurrected — à la Stephen King’s classic “Pet Sematary” — after he had tossed the canine’s remains in the Devil’s Hole. In Waters’ own words: “This could be an apocryphal story, but one guy claims he threw his departed canine down into the hole… and the guy that did it swears the dog actually came back to him… he was a hunter and he was out there hunting and he saw the same dog, he had the same collar, he had the same little metal thing on his collar there and he said it was the same dog and he says he knew he had threw the dog into the hole!” The tale of the resurrected dog had such an effect on Waters that he claimed that instructions were incorporated into his will that his remains be disposed of into the pit following his demise. One can only hope that his benefactors (or the local authorities) show better judgment whenever that day occurs. 
WATERS HITS THE AIRWAVES In the winter of 1997, Waters sent a FAX to a man who was, at the time, the preeminent disseminator of paranormal information, radio presenter and Coast to Coast AM founder, Art Bell. Bell became intrigued by Waters and his “never ending hole” and on February 21st, 1997, Waters was invited to speak on Bell’s hugely popular late night program. Bell and Waters discussed some of the more the scintillating secrets — though not the precise and clandestine location — of the Devil’s Hole and it soon became apparent that millions of listeners were enthralled by Waters and his unusual tale. Within a few short hours this weird cavity graduated from local legend to legitimate paranormal phenomenon. The story proved so popular that Waters again spoke to Bell just three nights later. BLACK OPS AND BIG HOLES Within months of appearing on Coast to Coast, Waters and the Devil’s Hole — which would soon be re-dubbed “Mel’s Hole” by Bell’s enormous fan base — would gain a significant amount of notoriety. Waters claimed that he was beset by a series of odd events not long after he went public with his information regarding the hole. The first strange incident occurred while Waters was on his own property en route to the Devil’s Hole. Waters planned to continue his research when he was suddenly stopped by a pair of men identifying themselves as “government agents.” These agents — one in plain clothes and two in military regalia — informed him that there had been a plane crash nearby and that the area had been cordoned off. The plainclothes further stated that no one but military personnel would be allowed into the restricted area. Waters then noticed men wearing yellow hazard suits milling around behind the trio that were blocking his path. Waters, angered at being denied access to his own property, demanded that they let him pass and that’s when these so-called agents got down to brass tacks. According to Waters the agents proceed to inform him that if he did not follow their instructions he would be falsely accused and arrested for concealing a meth lab on his land. It is presumable that the evidence of this lab would have been manufactured if necessary. It goes without saying that the military officers from the area wholeheartedly deny such allegations. Ken Cooper, a spokesman for the Army’s Yakima Training Center, dismissed the entire incident to the Tri-City Herald in 1997: “What I understand is, this Ellensburg guy said he had some property on Manastash Ridge, and he was going up there to visit it and was stopped by soldiers…the Army’s not hiding an aviation accident, nor an 80,000-foot-deep pit. We’re just training, just like we always do.” While this may well be the case, one can’t dismiss the possibility that these denials are being handed down from a higher authority or that — assuming this is a classic “black op” — Cooper and his cohorts simply aren’t in the “know” about this incident. Regardless of the veracity of either Cooper or Waters statements, the latter claimed that following this threat the agents then made and even stranger (and exceedingly lucrative) offer. If Waters agreed to lease the government his property into perpetuity he would be given a hefty monthly stipend of $250,000 to live off. There was just one caveat… he had to leave the country… immediately. Waters, whose marriage was ending badly, decided against bucking the system and accepted their offer. A lover of wildlife, Waters used the generous leasing fees he had accrued to start a wombat-rescue operation and for the next two years he would live a fairly contented life in Australia. As satisfied as he was down under, Waters was finally overwhelmed by homesickness and in December of 2000 he boarded a plane and — against specific orders from still unknown representatives of the U.S. Government — returned to the States. Once there things would take a frightening turn. First off, his liberal leasing fees were immediately cut off, indicating to Waters that he had been under constant surveillance. Secondly, while riding on a bus to Olympia, Washington soon after his plane touched ground in America, Waters testified that he had witnessed a dispute between a fellow passenger and police officers. The officers allegedly removed Waters from the bus under the pretense that he had to sign a police statement confirming what he had seen. That would be the last thing that he would remember for almost 2-weeks. Waters swore that the next thing he could recollect was stumbling around San Francisco in a stupor no less than 12-days after he was removed from the bus, with no clue as to how he got there. He further asserted that he had been physically beaten and that his rear molars had been extracted during his “black out.” As if all of this weren’t enough to send conspiracy theorists into a tizzy, Waters further claimed that he had IV tracks on his arm. This convinced him that he had been drugged by the police or — more likely than not — government agents dressed as police. As if his life weren’t already in enough of a tailspin, Waters soon found that not only had his stipend been suspended, but that all of his assets had been frozen and that his Australian rescue facility had been dismantled. Perplexed and fearing for his own life, Waters phoned his nephew who wired him enough cash to take a bus back to Manastash Ridge. Once back on his property, Waters was served with legal documents by what he referred to as “men in black types,” who indicated that his ownership of the land was in question due to “modifications” that had been made to the property and that the government would officially be taking control of the land. One of Waters neighbors got a hold of him days later and told him that he had seen large black vans outside of Mel’s house during his absence and that dark-clad men had been ransacking the place.Waters felt sure these were also shady black op agents. As if things weren’t bad enough for Waters, he was officially presented with divorce papers and, even worse, diagnosed with esophageal cancer almost immediately afterwards. Now at the end of his proverbial rope, Waters once again contacted the one sympathetic voice he could find, Art Bell, and in April of 2000, Waters once again spoke about his misadventures. He related his harrowing tale to the inquisitive masses and even recounted a story told to him by an old neighbor regarding the huge Stonehenge-like monoliths that were once said to halo the hole. Could these alleged monoliths indicate that it was an ancient place of worship? Waters began to believe that it was and this led him to the next leg of his fascinating journey. 
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