It’s been a little while since we have talked about things that may or may not exist or that have a bit of an urban legend and paranormal tint to them. The time has come to talk about Mel’s hole.

Mel Waters

In 1997, a man by the name of “Mel Waters” went on a radio show called Coast to Coast AM with show host Art Bell. Waters told Art Bell that he owned a rural property approximately nine miles west of Ellensburg, in Kittitas County, in Washington state. This may have been true. What he said next is questionable.

He said that on his property, there was a bottomless pit. Waters claimed to have measured the depth and that it was over 80,000 feet deep! In case you’re wondering, a fishing line and a weight is what he used for measurements. He also claimed that it could revive dead creatures. Waters appeared on Art Bell’s show multiple times in 1997, 2002, and 2006.

The Mysterious ‘Bottomless Pit’

If you’re wondering why “Mel Waters” is always in quotes, here’s why. Apparently, after his claim hit the airwaves, journalists and news reporters looked up both the area and the man who claimed to own it. As we do in this country when somebody makes a claim this powerful. It’s just the American way- we all gotta get involved. Much digging yielded the information that nobody under that name “Mel Waters” lived in the area that he claimed to be in. The area remains unlocatable, or more likely, hidden. Some claim it was never there. Some geologists claim that something like Mel’s Hole could never exist because it would collapse in on itself.


Others, however, claim that it’s there. One of those is a man by the name of Red Elk. Gerald R. Osborne or Red Elk is a biracial (Native American/White) “intertribal medicine man.” Red Elk, currently in his sixties, said he was shown the locale by his father who told him it was bottomless. In 2012 he told reporters that he had been there multiple times since 1961 and that “alien activity” occurred there on a base owned by the United States government. Red Elk also claims that the hold is camouflaged and that’s why often people cannot find it.

Whether if any of this is true, apparently the government seized the land and forced Mel Waters to lease the land to them. He apparently moved to Australia from those funds.


Even to this day, some locals claim to have seen it and others just dismiss the thought without saying anything about it. I guess it’s just another one of those things that we may never know. What we do know is that you can listen to the calls from Mel Waters, himself and decide what you think.