Washington State’s Most Frightening Mystery is Mel’s Hole

Somewhere between Ellensburg and Manastash Ridge is something out of Stranger Things: A mysterious, never-ending hole that seemingly doesn’t have a bottom.

We've previously listed "Mel's Hole" as the number one myth in Washington.

The University of Washington produced a video story on the phenomenon of "Mel's Hole"

In February 1997, Mel Waters called the overnight Art Bell radio program, well known for its usual topics of the paranormal.

He claims he lived with a hole, with a diameter of 9 feet on his property.

“The hole has always been there”

The dogs wouldn’t go anywhere near the darn thing…they do not want to go anywhere near the hole - Mel Waters

Mel sent thousands and thousands of yards of fishing line (with a 1 lb lead fishing weight) that couldn’t find the bottom. He has guessed that the hole is more than 80,000 feet deep and that’s seemingly not even the bottom.

There is a legend that a hunter dropped his dead dog into the hole and it mysteriously came back to him - alive!

Mel himself said it's in his will that he wants to be tossed into the hole when he dies.

Mel says he, his neighbors and friends threw his trash into a hole. After a while, Mel Waters wondered why the hole never filled up.

The deepest known hole in the world is in Russia: The Kola Superdeep Borehole SG-3 which reached a depth of 40,230 feet.

A few years after the original 1997 phone call to Art Bell, Mel followed up with another call to the show and said the US Government found out about the hole, leased his land, and gave him a huge amount of money to gain exclusive access. Mel took the money and moved to Australia.

Here's the audio of Mel Waters sharing the story of "Mel's Hole" to Art Bell (story starts at 1:04)