The First Phone Call
February 21st, 1997
Click HERE to read a transcript of the first fax.
After reading the fax on the air a couple of times, Art was finally able to get in touch with the "real" Mr. Waters. Mel mentioned that he was currently in the town of Ellensburg, WA, as a number of his buildings had collapsed during the bad winter storms experienced in that area. He had bought the property a few years previous from someone who had owned it for thirty or forty years, and mentioned that the hole was well known throughout the area. The neighbors would come and dump their garbage down the hole, because the hole would never fill up.
When asked to describe the hole, Mel said that it was round and had a stone retaining wall surrounding it. The wall went down about fifteen feet before giving way to dirt, bedrock, and darkness. He mentioned again that everyone in the area knew about the hole, and that none of them seemed to question it at all. Mel hadn't met anyone from that area who didn't know about the hole on his property.
The hole itself seemed to have no bottom to it, as whatever was dropped down into made no sound whatsoever. There didn't appear to be any water, or anything else within earshot, as no noise was ever heard coming from the hole. Another odd feature was that sound coming from the top of the hole, such as a voice, didn't seem to produce any kind of echo.
Perhaps an even more disconcerting feature of the hole was that Mel's dogs, and animals in general, seemed to have an extreme fear and dislike of it. Mel mentioned that his dogs were incredibly loyal and followed him around everywhere, even accompanying him in his truck. However, when Mel tried to get them near the hole, they would dig their pawns into the dirty and tug the opposite way on their leash. The same rang true for anyone else's pets that were brought up to the property to see the hole. Mel mentioned a story that was told to him by a neighbor involving a dead dog being thrown down into the hole by a hunter. The hunter swore that he saw the same dog, with the same collar, running around the woods later on. He was convinced that it was his dead dog, back to life and hunting again.
Mel seemed to take those stories in stride, and with a bit of a grain of salt. He felt that there must have been a logical reason why the hole never filled up, and decided to start doing some experiments to see what he could find. He mentioned that he was once a commercial shark fisherman, and had experience working with heavy duty fishing line. He ended up buying some line from a local fishing shop, and used an older fisherman's trick of attaching a roll of Life Savers candy in order to see if he was hitting water at some point. If there was water in the hole, the Life Savers would melt. He dropped down 1500 feet of line, and let it sit. When he pulled the line back up, the candy was still attached, thus meaning there was no water down that far.
Another test was attaching a small, one-pound lead weight to end of the line and lowering that down as far as it would go. After he'd hit the end of a line, Mel would attach another line to that and continue lowering it. He attached spool after spool onto the line until it reached the 80,000 feet he mentioned in his fax. 80,000 feet of line would measure 15 miles, meaning that the hole on his property was even deeper than that. That was an incredible number, and the intrigue only began to grow from there.
Art Bell's radio show was always well known for having an interesting mix of both "believers" and skeptics for just about every topic ever covered. Naturally, the audiences reaction to Mel's call was both one of interest and skepticism. Some callers offered advice on other experiments Mel could conduct, while another theorized that Mel had already hit the bottom on the hole. That caller stated that it was likely that the line was simply taught because of it's own weight, and that it was simply piling up at the bottom. Another caller suggested that the amount of weight of the line itself would be greater than the line could hold, and must have snapped before reaching the bottom of the hole. Yet another caller suggested that Mel should weigh the line used, and divide it by the value of the weight of a single roll of line. Using radar was also suggested as a way to determine the hole's actual depth. One jovial caller even suggest tossing a live cat down the hole, but Art quickly shot that one down.
As the ideas came in from the callers, Art began to suggest a few of his own. He suggested that Mel find a volunteer that would be lowered into the hole and report back to the top with what they saw. Mel, still sticking with his view of the hole as a natural phenomenon, expressed concerns of unknown dangers that could be lingering down there; things like high temperatures, toxic gas, extreme air pressure, etc. One caller volunteered to go down in the hole, under the condition that he was lowered down inside of a cage and with a flashlight. He was worried about the possibility of some creature down below that was eating the garbage. Mel did not elaborate on this, and likely wasn't interested in having anyone go down the hole, as even he would not go down due to fear of the rope breaking.
Art went on to ask Mel if he would jump down the hole if he ever contracted any form of serious terminal illness, to which Mel stated that he would indeed. He brought up the fact that he even has a dying wish of being thrown down the hole post death in his will. Art suggested that Mel not do that, but that he should consider renting out his property to the government to dump dangerous material down the hole, if it was truly bottomless. Mel then mentioned that he sometimes would drop old television tubes down the pit in hopes that he could hear them exploding, which he never did. Art warned Mel that he shouldn't bring up such things like that on the air, because he could get in trouble for possibly poisoning the local water supply. To that, Mel said that there had never been any issues with the water, despite all of the different types of refuse dumped throughout the years.
Mel had a very interesting story to tell, and told it in a very believable and relaxed way. He came off as someone who was genuine, and more interested in just getting the word out about the never-ending hole on his property. Art was always great at "sitting on the fence" and allowing his guests to sink or swim with the audience on their own. It was, at first, just an odd story about a guy measuring a hole. But little did anyone know, that would not be the last time Art's listeners would hear from Mel Waters and his mysterious hole.
When asked to describe the hole, Mel said that it was round and had a stone retaining wall surrounding it. The wall went down about fifteen feet before giving way to dirt, bedrock, and darkness. He mentioned again that everyone in the area knew about the hole, and that none of them seemed to question it at all. Mel hadn't met anyone from that area who didn't know about the hole on his property.
The hole itself seemed to have no bottom to it, as whatever was dropped down into made no sound whatsoever. There didn't appear to be any water, or anything else within earshot, as no noise was ever heard coming from the hole. Another odd feature was that sound coming from the top of the hole, such as a voice, didn't seem to produce any kind of echo.
Perhaps an even more disconcerting feature of the hole was that Mel's dogs, and animals in general, seemed to have an extreme fear and dislike of it. Mel mentioned that his dogs were incredibly loyal and followed him around everywhere, even accompanying him in his truck. However, when Mel tried to get them near the hole, they would dig their pawns into the dirty and tug the opposite way on their leash. The same rang true for anyone else's pets that were brought up to the property to see the hole. Mel mentioned a story that was told to him by a neighbor involving a dead dog being thrown down into the hole by a hunter. The hunter swore that he saw the same dog, with the same collar, running around the woods later on. He was convinced that it was his dead dog, back to life and hunting again.
Mel seemed to take those stories in stride, and with a bit of a grain of salt. He felt that there must have been a logical reason why the hole never filled up, and decided to start doing some experiments to see what he could find. He mentioned that he was once a commercial shark fisherman, and had experience working with heavy duty fishing line. He ended up buying some line from a local fishing shop, and used an older fisherman's trick of attaching a roll of Life Savers candy in order to see if he was hitting water at some point. If there was water in the hole, the Life Savers would melt. He dropped down 1500 feet of line, and let it sit. When he pulled the line back up, the candy was still attached, thus meaning there was no water down that far.
Another test was attaching a small, one-pound lead weight to end of the line and lowering that down as far as it would go. After he'd hit the end of a line, Mel would attach another line to that and continue lowering it. He attached spool after spool onto the line until it reached the 80,000 feet he mentioned in his fax. 80,000 feet of line would measure 15 miles, meaning that the hole on his property was even deeper than that. That was an incredible number, and the intrigue only began to grow from there.
Art Bell's radio show was always well known for having an interesting mix of both "believers" and skeptics for just about every topic ever covered. Naturally, the audiences reaction to Mel's call was both one of interest and skepticism. Some callers offered advice on other experiments Mel could conduct, while another theorized that Mel had already hit the bottom on the hole. That caller stated that it was likely that the line was simply taught because of it's own weight, and that it was simply piling up at the bottom. Another caller suggested that the amount of weight of the line itself would be greater than the line could hold, and must have snapped before reaching the bottom of the hole. Yet another caller suggested that Mel should weigh the line used, and divide it by the value of the weight of a single roll of line. Using radar was also suggested as a way to determine the hole's actual depth. One jovial caller even suggest tossing a live cat down the hole, but Art quickly shot that one down.
As the ideas came in from the callers, Art began to suggest a few of his own. He suggested that Mel find a volunteer that would be lowered into the hole and report back to the top with what they saw. Mel, still sticking with his view of the hole as a natural phenomenon, expressed concerns of unknown dangers that could be lingering down there; things like high temperatures, toxic gas, extreme air pressure, etc. One caller volunteered to go down in the hole, under the condition that he was lowered down inside of a cage and with a flashlight. He was worried about the possibility of some creature down below that was eating the garbage. Mel did not elaborate on this, and likely wasn't interested in having anyone go down the hole, as even he would not go down due to fear of the rope breaking.
Art went on to ask Mel if he would jump down the hole if he ever contracted any form of serious terminal illness, to which Mel stated that he would indeed. He brought up the fact that he even has a dying wish of being thrown down the hole post death in his will. Art suggested that Mel not do that, but that he should consider renting out his property to the government to dump dangerous material down the hole, if it was truly bottomless. Mel then mentioned that he sometimes would drop old television tubes down the pit in hopes that he could hear them exploding, which he never did. Art warned Mel that he shouldn't bring up such things like that on the air, because he could get in trouble for possibly poisoning the local water supply. To that, Mel said that there had never been any issues with the water, despite all of the different types of refuse dumped throughout the years.
Mel had a very interesting story to tell, and told it in a very believable and relaxed way. He came off as someone who was genuine, and more interested in just getting the word out about the never-ending hole on his property. Art was always great at "sitting on the fence" and allowing his guests to sink or swim with the audience on their own. It was, at first, just an odd story about a guy measuring a hole. But little did anyone know, that would not be the last time Art's listeners would hear from Mel Waters and his mysterious hole.
Facts & Notes from Call #1
-Mel Waters owned property on the Manastash Ridge in eastern Washington.
-He had owned and lived on the property for 2-3 years, though was currently in the town of Ellensburg, WA.
-The previous owner of the property had lived there for 30 to 40 years, and was well aware of the hole.
-The property is on or near local Native American land.
-The hole was known to have been there since before even the previous owner lived there.
-Local people had been dumping garbage, dead animals, and large items into the hole for years.
-There was a 3 1/2 foot thick, 15 foot deep retaining wall made of stone around the hole.
-Having been a shark fisherman in the past, Mel used a trick of attaching Life Saver candy on the end of a line to test for water. He placed the candies on the end of 1,500 feet of line and the candy was still intact when pull back up.
-Mel was able to lower 80,000 feet (a bit over 15 miles) of fishing line with a 1 pound lead weight on the end.
-One caller noted that the deepest trench in the ocean is only 36,000 feet, and current mining could only reach 16k feet.
-No sound comes from the hole, and no echos emanate from sounds above it.
-Animals, dogs especially, are terrified of the hole.
-A hunter claimed that his dead dog returned after having been thrown down the hole.
-Mel wants his body to be thrown into the hole when he dies, and he would jump in it if he was terminally ill.
-Art suggests that Mel rent out his property to the government for a fee to dump dangerous materials.
-Mel mentions that he threw TV tubes down the hole, Art warns him that he could get in trouble for that.
-He had owned and lived on the property for 2-3 years, though was currently in the town of Ellensburg, WA.
-The previous owner of the property had lived there for 30 to 40 years, and was well aware of the hole.
-The property is on or near local Native American land.
-The hole was known to have been there since before even the previous owner lived there.
-Local people had been dumping garbage, dead animals, and large items into the hole for years.
-There was a 3 1/2 foot thick, 15 foot deep retaining wall made of stone around the hole.
-Having been a shark fisherman in the past, Mel used a trick of attaching Life Saver candy on the end of a line to test for water. He placed the candies on the end of 1,500 feet of line and the candy was still intact when pull back up.
-Mel was able to lower 80,000 feet (a bit over 15 miles) of fishing line with a 1 pound lead weight on the end.
-One caller noted that the deepest trench in the ocean is only 36,000 feet, and current mining could only reach 16k feet.
-No sound comes from the hole, and no echos emanate from sounds above it.
-Animals, dogs especially, are terrified of the hole.
-A hunter claimed that his dead dog returned after having been thrown down the hole.
-Mel wants his body to be thrown into the hole when he dies, and he would jump in it if he was terminally ill.
-Art suggests that Mel rent out his property to the government for a fee to dump dangerous materials.
-Mel mentions that he threw TV tubes down the hole, Art warns him that he could get in trouble for that.
