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Hole Lotta Mystery
15 Plays2 months ago
Mel’s Hole is a legendary hole in rural Washington said to descend far deeper than science can measure. After reporting bizarre phenomena, from resurrected animals to objects returning transformed, its discoverer Mel Waters vanished under unsettling circumstances. Government agents, unmarked vehicles, and sudden land seizures only intensified the secrecy around the site. Today, the hole remains an enigma that blurs the line between folklore, conspiracy, and the unknown.
⚠️ Content Warning: This episode includes references to abuse, trauma, and death. Listener discretion is advised.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Beneath the Evergreens'
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to Beneath the Evergreens, where murder, mysteries, and mayhem lurk in the shadows of the Pacific Northwest. I'm Jess. And I'm Anna. From haunted forests and unsolved disappearances, to true crime cases buried deep in the moss and the mist.
00:00:16
Speaker
We're digging into the dark secrets hiding under the evergreens. Each episode will explore real cases, eerie encounters, and the legends that keep the Pacific Northwest up at night. So grab your flashlight, lock your doors, and join us beneath the evergreens.
Listener Shoutouts and Engagement
00:00:55
Speaker
All right. We're officially on. Is this episode eight already? It is episode eight. We're moving. We're cruising in a groove. But I'm having so much fun. I love it. Me too. Me too.
00:01:05
Speaker
I have a shout out for today if that's cool with you. Of course it is. So I want to shout out our loyal Pennsylvania listener, Nina. She is one of the most amazing people I've ever met. And she's about to become a mom. And I am so very excited for her. And I am so appreciative of her listening to every single episode. She's amazing.
00:01:26
Speaker
I've heard all about her and she's sounds like a wonderful person and congratulations on the baby. i hope everything goes fantastic and let us know. got to let me know Anna when she has her baby and send all the pictures. Oh, you know, I will. I'm going to be an aunt. I'm so excited. I'm so excited for you. Do you know if it's a boy or girl?
00:01:42
Speaker
It's a boy. Oh, that's so, that's so fun. yeah Oh, I love babies. Well, I actually, i will give another shout out. So there's another loyal listener named Jerry.
00:01:53
Speaker
She knows who she is that, you know, has given a lot of good feedback. So I very much appreciate it. Thank you so much. And if you also want a shout out, please reach out to our email at beneath the evergreens at gmail.com or go ahead and look at our website beneath the evergreens.com. We would love to hear from you. you ever have one of those days where you're just like, what is happening? you feel like you're fine, you're stable, but everything around you is a cyclone.
00:02:26
Speaker
A little bit. I've kind of felt like that today. I think I'm mildly sleep deprived. That could be it too. i Yeah. Yeah. anyway Well, thank you everyone for listening.
Introduction to Mel's Hole
00:02:37
Speaker
This is going to be a very exciting episode because I'm going to tell you about a magic hole.
00:02:43
Speaker
You told me this over time. And my feelings have not changed. i am really concerned about this story. Yes, we're going to talk about a hole today. And it's going to be a magic hole. And this hole is owned by Mel Waters. And no this hole is not on his person, but instead on his property.
00:03:05
Speaker
hole that he claims is never ending, has magical powers, and brings him nothing but misfortune. Oh, are you so excited?
00:03:16
Speaker
Yes. I'm know, when you were a kid and you're trying to dig a hole to China. Yeah. I'm flashing back to this hole that I dug in my grandma's backyard. or grandma It wasn't that deep. four years old. I was this foot deep hole is the, the deepest thing you've ever seen.
00:03:37
Speaker
Look. Oh my gosh. It's four inches. And you're digging it with a plastic spoon. yeah Or her hands like we're dogs or something. I used to love doing that. Make the mud pies. oh Yeah.
00:03:50
Speaker
With some leaves in there too. And sticks as birthday candles. Oh, yes. Oh, the nostalgia. Oh, Pacific Northwest Falls. yeah yeah Yes. Rainy and gross and you have to do something for fun. Those mud pies came in handy.
00:04:05
Speaker
Well, actually, speaking of nostalgia, we're going to start at the beginning of Mel's Hole, which is in 1997. And I'm going to tell you the whole story of the hole.
Mel's Attempts to Measure the Hole
00:04:15
Speaker
but um both I'm sorry. I'm trying to get the puns out of the way because there's just so many that I could do, but okay. So it's 1997. this is when radio stations are a dominant source of mass media, right? if you're on the radio and your radio show is famous, you pretty much are a rock star. You're a celebrity. It was the main form of media for people in the night in 1997, particularly those in the workforce. And
00:04:43
Speaker
And among these media outlets was a show called Coast to Coast with Art Bell. you Have you ever heard of the show? I have not. i don't think I was cognizant of the world when this was popular, unfortunately. Well, I was still pretty young. I think I was eight.
00:05:00
Speaker
Yeah, eight at this time when this came out. But I will say Art Bell actually was the person that got me into conspiracy theories. I stumbled during the MySpace era. I stumbled into a post or something about Art Bell and Coast to Coast. And so I looked at the archives and I kind of fell down the well, if you will, which is actually where I first heard about this whole. Oh, so this is a lot. You've known about this story for a long time then.
00:05:27
Speaker
Oh, yes. Yes, have. But Coast to Coast itself is actually a pretty famous program. It pulled in 15 million listeners daily. Oh, my God. That's a lot of people.
00:05:38
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And Coast to Coast particularly is known for exploring paranormal topics, conspiracy theories, and and and just the unexplained in general. It also had three separate call lines. So there was a standard call line, wildcard line, and then a first time caller line.
00:05:55
Speaker
And so wildcard was just someone who would want to call in to talk about something weird. first time caller, self-explanatory. And then third was just if you want to comment on something. Interesting.
00:06:05
Speaker
Yes. And so people would call in, talk about anything from, you know, UFOs to time loops to cryptids to government conspiracies. And Art Bell was a super fan of all of these things. He ate it up.
00:06:19
Speaker
And on February 21st, 1997, fax comes in up. art can simply not pass up And the facts read, dear art i'm writing you to see if i can get some help from you or your vast audience i live in rural eastern washington near the montittash ridge on our property theres a hole like the previous owners and the owners before them we have had we have been throwing our trash in the hole apparently the whole has been there as long as anyone can remember
00:06:53
Speaker
At first, I thought it was an old well. The hole is about nine feet, nine inches in diameter. so That's wide. Yeah. Yeah. Nine inches, nine feet, nine inches in diameter. There's a stone retaining wall around it and a steel door on top to keep anyone from falling in.
00:07:11
Speaker
As I said earlier, people have been throwing their trash into the well for decades. Furniture, household trash, dead cows, moving debris, you name it, it's in there. Excuse me, a dead cow? dead cow.
00:07:23
Speaker
Oh, it gets weirder. It gets real weirder. A dead cow, moving debris, you name it.
Art Bell's Involvement
00:07:29
Speaker
The thing is, I noticed the hole never filled up, so I got curious.
00:07:34
Speaker
Actually obsessed with trying to measure the depth of the hole. I emptied three fishing reels with 1,500 yards of monofilament trying to determine the depth.
00:07:46
Speaker
Soon I was buying fishing line in bulk. So far I have sunk about 80,000 feet of line into the hole without reaching the bottom. What? Yeah.
00:07:58
Speaker
My wife works at a local university with the geology department. We hope to get some professional and scholarly help determining the depth of the hole. As far as I can tell, there is nothing particularly strange about it except for two other things.
00:08:12
Speaker
One, dogs refuse to get within 100 feet of the hole and birds do not sit on the metal door or retaining wall. And two, there is no echo when you yell into the hole.
00:08:22
Speaker
Indeed, I have never heard anything hit bottom when tossed in. Once we tossed it in an old refrigerator and we never heard it hit bottom. No splash, no crunch, crunch.
00:08:35
Speaker
I hope your listeners can help with possible explanations. I'm wondering if this might be the deepest hole on earth. Signed Mel Waters. Whoa.
Military Blockade and Mysteries
00:08:44
Speaker
Yes. Well, obviously this instantly captures art bell's attention and he connects with Mel almost immediately and invites them onto the show.
00:08:53
Speaker
And when Mel gets onto the show, he describes the hole a little bit more. So for over Mel has owned this property for about four years, Mel and his wife. Before that, the person that lived on the property had it for 40 years, and he purchased it from someone that had it for a roughly about the same amount of time. And for the entirety of the existence, or as far back as Mel can track trace, everyone in the immediate area has been dumping their trash in the hole.
00:09:23
Speaker
We're talking refrigerators. There was a man who used to collect old tires from all around the area and dump them into the hole. Like we're talking thousands of tires are in this hole.
00:09:37
Speaker
Dead cows because of livestock. Couches. We're talking everything you can think of is going in here. In fact, Mel was bragging about how his favorite thing to drop into the hole was old TV tubes.
00:09:53
Speaker
And I think both of us are a little too young to remember this, but apparently there was these tubes that you would put in a TV. And when they would go bad, you had to throw them away very carefully because they would kind of explode. Like they would pop if you broke them. And so he would throw those in to see if he could hear a pop and he never could.
00:10:12
Speaker
It was just this never ending Whoa. woa And at first, Mel was thinking, oh, with this retaining wall that's around it, it's stone. And it goes about 15 feet down. He can see the the stone with a flashlight. And he thought it was just an old well. But again, he was really curious because they're just dropping all of this stuff down. And it's just a never-ending tunnel. Nothing.
00:10:38
Speaker
It's not filling up. They can't see anything. Yeah. And then he realizes there's no echo at all. So when he drops something, he can hear it maybe bounce off the side, but he never hears a thud or anything when something would fall, which is weird, especially a refrigerator or a dead cow. That's a lot of weight.
00:10:56
Speaker
no splash, nothing. And in fact, he thought it was a well that he used his, he used to be a fisherman. And so he used an old fisherman's trick. In fact, he wasn't just a fisherman. He was a shark fisherman, which is kind of wild. I didn't know.
00:11:12
Speaker
Yeah. I didn't know people, whatever. So what, what I guess he would do back in his fisherman days is he would tie a balloon, onto a fishing line, and then he would attach lifesavers to it, and it he would, send it out into the unknown to, catch a shark because apparently you have to have a lot of line to do this. So he tried the same trick here to see if there was water at the bottom. So he attached the lifesavers. He put it down the hole with his fishing line. He pulls it back up after he gets to the 1,500 yards and still dry as a bone.
00:11:47
Speaker
Nothing's on it. Whoa. he alluded to earlier, he then is obsessed. Yeah. Oh yeah He's like, how deep is this thing? And so he takes a one pound weight, attaches it to the line, drops it down the hole. And he just keeps feeding more and more, more and more down the hole. He keeps just splicing reels together. he goes to a fisherman's store and he buys in bulk line, like by the 5,000 yards.
00:12:17
Speaker
and It's just ridiculous, crazy. And just for context, 3,600 yards of line is about two miles. Oh my God.
00:12:28
Speaker
Yeah. So 80,000 feet, that's 15 miles. So in Western Washington terms, that's from Bonnie Lake to Tacoma. Yeah. For any Eastern Washington, that would be Spokane Valley to Liberty Lake.
00:12:40
Speaker
That's a lot of fishing. And that's not even to the bottom of it yet. It's not even to the bottom of the boat yet. According to Mel. According to Mel. So he he... Then he goes into... Yeah, there's no echo. and then dogs refuse to approach. He has two dogs. Apparently they're attached to his side at all times until he gets to this hole. And then they wait about 15 yards away.
00:13:03
Speaker
They're like, I'm not coming closer. When he tries to force them near the hole, they dig their paws in. They're not trying to go. So that's kind of weird. Also, he's saying...
00:13:13
Speaker
Not only do the birds not sit on the retaining wall, they also just avoid flying over the area in general. they will divert and go around. o And then he gets into a story about a man who tossed his dead dog into the hole. Which, why are we tossing dead thing dead animals? Can we have a burial? do you not have a shoebox? Well, honestly, the thing that's been going through my head this whole time is, why are we just throwing things in a hole?
00:13:38
Speaker
where I know environmentalism wasn't that popular in the early 1900s. Why are we not disposing of some of these things in more proper manner?
00:13:50
Speaker
So I have a little bit of knowledge of this just because I don't know why I know this, but... People with a lot of property, especially in rural areas, sometimes you don't have access to garbage like we have it in the cities. And so the way you dispose of it is actually to burn it or bury it.
00:14:10
Speaker
Don't quote me on that, but I'm fairly certain. And i feel I've recalled someone telling me this, but I don't think that's uncommon if you have a farm. I think it is common to have like a trash pit.
00:14:22
Speaker
Huh. I feel like... And that is what... Yeah, this is what this has been used for. Forever. For over 50 years at this point. Saving a good deal in garbage collection.
00:14:33
Speaker
Yes. So... He goes into how this dead dog was tossed into the hole. And apparently... A couple days later, the man who tossed this into the hole saw the dog that he tossed in. call Same collar, same everything, going through the woods.
00:14:49
Speaker
He saw it. It was alive. It was going through the woods. And when he tried to call out to this dog, it just was not into it. He wouldn't come around, but he saw the dog. And he was, petrified that he threw his alive dog and somehow it got out.
00:15:05
Speaker
Kind of a weird story. A little eerie. Yeah. So now after he's kind of explained all this and said, yeah, I'm now at like 80,000 feet, which is 15 miles, Art says, wow, we need to figure out how to test the depth of this. And so callers start pouring in. They're saying you should use radar to test the depth.
00:15:23
Speaker
You should use a laser to test it. They also are asking, hey, maybe you just have so much line that it's giving you a false impression that you have a tight line still. Because I guess...
00:15:34
Speaker
What Mel was trying to do with this weight is once it would hit bottom, there would be the line would go slack, right? Because it's resting on something. And so they're saying, well, maybe you've just added so much line to this and it's piled up so much at the bottom of this hole that it's still pulling tight to you because there's just an excess amount of line down there that weighs more than what's on the top.
00:15:56
Speaker
And he's like, I guess that could be a thing, but I highly doubt it. It's still really taught. Never have I felt any slack at all and there's no water or anything. So I just don't think that's what it is. And so they're like, you need to actually put someone in the hole.
00:16:15
Speaker
And Art goes to it his audience and says, hey, do I have any volunteers that would go into this hole? Into Mel's hole, in fact. Maybe, you know, just climb on into Mel's hole. And there are actually some volunteers. Yeah.
00:16:30
Speaker
And so Art's like, would you be interested in connecting with a few of these listeners, having to come, them come to your property and help you out with this? And Mel is kind of like, maybe, i don't know. He's a little uninterested. He's a little hesitant.
00:16:43
Speaker
Art's also like, man, you can make a killing off this. You should, you know, connect with, know, the media, get them to your, hole and have them, you know, record this, do a little video session. you could really make a lot of money here. And he's, again, he's noncommittal. And so what they decided to do at the end of this episode is first of all, figure out how much weight is actually on this line, because the line does have a max weight that it can, and it's 25 pounds. And so maybe if you figure out how much weight is dangling, then you can come up with is it plausible that you just have an excess amount of line down there? And that's why it's so tight.
00:17:25
Speaker
And then they also discuss, you know, next time you call, how about we get media out to the hole and send a volunteer that will go down there? And so like, yeah, yeah, I'll think about it.
00:17:37
Speaker
He agrees. And then the legend of Mel's Hole is born. o This becomes like a sensation. the media is actually all about it. It's a headliner, especially because this went out to 15 million people. Could you imagine that? Yeah. And 1997.
00:17:53
Speaker
This is like the hot goss, you know what I mean? ah So then I couldn't find the exact date on this. I believe it's April. So this, the first call was in February. The next call I believe was in April, but some reports say it was just a
Suspicious Offers and Mystical Plants
00:18:09
Speaker
few days later. So still in February, maybe into March, but I think it was April.
00:18:17
Speaker
Well, a second fax arrives at coast to coast and art, you know, is sent for a loop. And this is what the fax reads. Earlier today, Art, you're receiving this fax simultaneously with a fax I attempted to send you earlier today. I don't know why earlier today is repeated twice, but that's fine. Much has developed since my first fax.
00:18:41
Speaker
I'll try to explain as rationally as possible what has transpired since my earlier fax. Around 1 p.m., I drove to Yakima to shop at the Costco there. On my way back, I decided to stop at the property.
00:18:54
Speaker
When I got there, my access road was blocked by military personnel that were armed. I noticed that several pieces of yellow gear has entered and exited my property based on the direction of their tread.
00:19:07
Speaker
It says thread, but I'm going to insert tread. I asked one of the guards, what's going on? He said there was a plane crash on the property. I said, well, that's strange. I told him there's no smoke.
00:19:19
Speaker
I didn't see anything in the distance. He asked who I was. i let him know that I own the property. I then asked to talk to the officer in charge. A non-uniformed man came up to my suburban and let me know that I wouldn't have access to my property until the crash has been completely investigated.
00:19:37
Speaker
Hmm. i mentioned the the yellow gear and the lack of smoke and that there were and that they were on my property and i was told by this man that it's not necessarily my property and that it would be very easy to find a drug lab on my property while i got the well i got the drift and i asked if i could leave He said, sure, don't come back until we contact you. I asked if he wanted to contact me, a way to contact me, and he said they know how to contact me.
00:20:06
Speaker
I said, I suppose you don't want me to talk about this to anybody. He said nobody would believe it anyways. And that's that's about it for now. Oh, I talked to one of my neighbors earlier today and he told me something very interesting. He said that a time ago he was driving up to the hole at night and thought he saw the most bizarre thing.
00:20:26
Speaker
He said he saw a beam of solid black coming out of the uncovered hole. I said, what do you mean? He said he saw something blacker than black coming out of the hole, like a searchlight reaching into the sky as far as he could see.
00:20:42
Speaker
Oh my God. Digest that. Holy shit. So of course, Art, like myself, needs more information. yeah So he immediately calls Mel and is like, hey, what is actually going on?
00:20:57
Speaker
So apparently, actually, right after the first call, and this is where like reports kind of differ a little bit, but Within the months following the first call, there was a lot of helicopter activity around the Menashtash Ridge in Ellensburg.
00:21:14
Speaker
Okay. Mel is thinking that this is just drills. Also, this area is very close to ah a huge military base, practice field. This is where they did military desert storm practice, all that other kind of stuff. So it's near an area where helicopter exercises wouldn't necessarily be uncommon. Mm-hmm.
00:21:32
Speaker
It's also a very rural area where people hike a lot. So maybe it's search and rescue. Well, he's saying that the helicopter activity was a lot. And actually, a before he went shopping, the day before he went shopping, he was at the property trying to put more line down the hole. And he saw that helicopters started kind of circling his property.
00:21:57
Speaker
And he thought it was weird. He watched him for 20 minutes and he's like, oh, it's probably just search and rescue. And so it was very odd. The next day where he came, he ghosts back to his land. He tries to see something.
00:22:10
Speaker
He reaches the roadblock. And then, he explained, ah the military, there's some type of military government force blocking his path. And he is saying, you know, I'm a veteran of the army.
00:22:21
Speaker
I know what army uniforms look like. I know what Navy uniforms look like because there's slight differences between all of them. Back in 1997, there was a huge difference between the Navy and everybody else. So everyone kind of, when you're in the service, you can kind of differentiate between like people's camos.
00:22:36
Speaker
And he's saying the type of uniforms that these government and military officials were wearing are not ones that he could recognize. which is a little, it's a little odd.
00:22:48
Speaker
And, he's also goes into the interaction with the officer in charge a little bit more and says the guy was definitely giving him you know, you better do what I say, or, you know, there's going to be serious consequences you know, finding a drug lab and all this other kind of stuff. And so he walks away
00:23:08
Speaker
Then later that day, after he goes home and he's really shaken up about this whole military experience, uh, experience. And he's like, how am I going to get them off my land? A real estate agent calls him.
00:23:21
Speaker
And the real estate agent says, Hey, i actually have a buyer that really wants your property and they're going to pay an ungodly high amount.
00:23:31
Speaker
Are you interested? What? Right. And so let me remind you, Ellensburg is very rural. Yeah. So is the Monash-Tash Ridge. you're not just going to be able to, to go down a random access road and say, actually that property right there, i want that one and be able to look that up and be call a real estate agent, especially in 97 and say that parcel there, that's the one I want.
00:23:56
Speaker
So it's kind of a weird coincidence. And both Art and Mel are saying, hey, maybe they're just trying to attack you from both ends. Maybe, you know, the military is saying, hey, if you don't do what we say, we're just going to find a drug lab and send you away forever and just take your land. And then on the other side, you've got somebody that's saying, hey, I'll just buy the property from you and we'll peace out.
00:24:20
Speaker
So question. Yeah. Did, is the, The property with the hole, is that where Mel and his wife live full time? Or is it like a kind of vacation property?
00:24:30
Speaker
Fantastic question. So they used to live there, but it doesn't have electricity or running water. But they did have four structures that were there. The year
Discovery of a Second Hole
00:24:39
Speaker
prior to this, they had a huge snowstorm, which collapsed the main dwelling that they lived in. So now they live in an apartment in Ellensburg. Gotcha. Okay.
00:24:49
Speaker
But still relatively close. yeah so again it goes back to it's even less inhabitable yeah why would you want that piece of land in particular if it's not for the whole yes and so mel's actually kind of mad about it he's actually almost blaming art for the reason why these military folks are here and art keeps apologizing and mel never actually says no it's okay I mean, Mel, you did write into the show. Yeah. this could, and you wanted help and you wanted people to reach out about this, of course this could happen. And yeah.
00:25:24
Speaker
So. That was kind of odd. Art and him are having some dialogue back and forth on it. And Art actually asks, well, are there drugs on the property? And this is where the call gets kind of interesting because Mel says, well, you know, i don't have drugs, but I do have a lab on my property. It's just not a drug lab.
00:25:48
Speaker
And Art's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What do you mean? And Mel goes into how he actually is really into mystical Native American plants and how they cure diseases and how one Native American plant in particular in Nevada...
00:26:08
Speaker
He transplanted up to eastern Washington Ellensburg area because it's, ah you know, the same climate. And so he has a lab where he's growing these plants and distilling them down, which I would like to know what this plant is. Yes.
00:26:25
Speaker
Is it weed or is it poppies? Which one is it I don't know. This sounds a little fishy. And then Art's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. But are you is there crank in there? Are you doing meth? what are you growing in there? And he's like, no, it's, it is just plants that, you know, would, they're not illegal, but by any means.
00:26:43
Speaker
And, Yeah, the audience, this is where he and art invites the audience in. They keep telling him, hey, you need to go get a lawyer. And actually, the only way to protect yourself right now is to go public with the media. But Mel is like too scared. He doesn't want to act. He doesn't want to invite the media.
00:27:01
Speaker
And he's also wondering, you know. about this payout. He's like, actually, I've always wanted to go to Australia and bring my Native American plants to Australia to see how well they would do there. And so maybe I'll just go with that. And then Or it's like, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't want to do media. i understand that you're scared to act. I would be a little intimidated too. So let's go back to this hole. So again, they go back to the hole. They're talking about the 80, the 15 miles of line that's dropped down there. There's still no bottom. They found out that the weight is not within the 25 pound limit. So it's probably not that.
00:27:37
Speaker
But since this has all been happening with the government, Mel has started investigating a little more with his neighbors. Ooh. And guess what his neighbors start saying?
00:27:52
Speaker
Well, one of the old timers describes that, you know, actually, when I used to live around that property, there used to be these ancient standing stones that were around the pit.
00:28:04
Speaker
That circled around the pit. Excuse me, what? and Yeah. So these ancient stones around the pit. And apparently Mel has a think pad. I don't know what that is but a think pad. Oh, like a laptop?
00:28:18
Speaker
I think it's like a laptop. But in 1997, did we have Wi-Fi? I think it was you to plug in. or well then i don't i remember i think my mom had a think pad when i was little Okay, that makes sense then. Do know those dumb little... Okay, tangent, but the little mouse-like things that were in the middle of the keyboard. That makes sense. There was a little like ah there was a mouse, but then there was this little just dot that you could move your cursor around. And I almost thought it was the craziest thing.
00:28:48
Speaker
Okay, so yes. He had your mom's ThinkPad, and he plugged it in to somewhere. i don't know where he plugged it in, because again... an ethernet in Ellensburg. I don't, I don't know.
00:29:00
Speaker
Anyways, this is where the story kind of lost me, but I'm still going to lock in because it gets wilder and wilder as we go. So yeah, it gets real wild. Oh, it gets, it gets worse. So he pulls up the think pad. He pulls up a picture of Stonehenge and guess what?
00:29:18
Speaker
The guy says, that is it. That's actually exactly what it used to look like. What? but I don't... Yeah, I have questions. Questions about this. Okay. Because if it looked like Stonehenge, right...
00:29:30
Speaker
What happened to the rocks? Yeah. What happened to the stones? Yeah. Where the fuck? that's, if that fell down, you would just leave it there unless it fell into the hole, I guess.
00:29:40
Speaker
But isn't there's a, there's something around it, right? Yeah. There's a retaining wall. it looks like a well. Yeah. If the geometry was perfect and it tipped in that direction at the right angle to topple into the hole.
00:29:54
Speaker
And Art asks, like, hey, are those still there? And he's like, no, they're not. Then, yeah, I don't know. And then there's the story of the solid black beam, like it was in the in the facts. Then the dog thrown in, seeing again, that came up again. But then there was also this weird connection that he brings up about...
00:30:12
Speaker
You know, whenever he had ah a boombox or a radio around this situation, he would pick up radio stations from back in the day, like the 40s or the 60s, like hear old timey music.
00:30:25
Speaker
Just weird things would happen. And apparently wildlife couldn't thrive in this area, but plants apparently took on almost magical properties.
00:30:38
Speaker
And be able to grow very, very well. And I'm guessing by the snorkel interface that you also can relate this to back to his lab. Yeah. It's a interesting coincidence there.
00:30:50
Speaker
And this is kind of where the call ends. So that was his second call. The call ends. And Mel disappears. What? Until 2002. What? what So it's significant. So 1997. And then we're going to 2002. Yeah.
00:31:06
Speaker
And Mel returns to coast to coast with a new claim, including his most controversial one. This
Mel's Disappearance and Mystical Experiences
00:31:13
Speaker
is the second hole. He has found a second hole. So Mella's got two holes.
00:31:21
Speaker
Mella's a whole connoisseur.
00:31:25
Speaker
ah this one This one is located on a tribal land. And guess where this tribal land is? Where? It's in Nevada. Nevada. ah What a coincidence. Oh my God. Yeah. So it's in Nevada. And, but he goes in into say the second hole has these magical properties. So it's in a shroud of darkness. So Mel says the second hole wasn't pitch black like the first one, but it was surrounded by a shimmering curtain, almost like a black membrane and an absorbed light.
00:32:04
Speaker
yep And then he also said it had a visible ice ring. So around the rim of the hole was a perfect circle of ice, even though the air was warm, the ground was warm, and there was no frost anywhere else.
00:32:21
Speaker
And fun fact, though, the ice also was warm to the touch, suggesting it wasn't normal frozen water. This quote, warm ice was considered sacred, which to be honest with you, if there was warm ice that I touched, I probably would also consider it sacred, but 100%.
00:32:37
Speaker
hundred percent i'm not at all this This, this hole is not quite as compelling as the first one. It's not a, it's not the glory hole, if you will.
00:32:49
Speaker
this Okay. And then he also says that this is actually connected to ancient rituals, purification rituals, spiritual observances, rites tied to ancestors, et cetera, et cetera. But most importantly, this hole could revive dead animals.
00:33:07
Speaker
Yes. So in reference to the first story where the man, you know, threw his dead dog into the hole and it came back real life. This one, actually, you could just lay an animal next to this ice ring and, you know, it would, the the animal would come back to life, but it wouldn't just come back to life. It would come back to life, but almost too quickly and come back a little weird. Like something was just a little off.
00:33:34
Speaker
Huh? Yeah. So again, the second hole also, you know sound and time acted strangely around it. It felt like time passed differently. You would also lose track of time. you would think you were there for a couple minutes. You would go home and you were actually there for a couple days, couple hours. you would just lose sense of time. And then also things would malfunction. So you'd bring a tool there, like a flashlight. It wouldn't work.
00:33:58
Speaker
This seems just far more fantastical than the first one. For sure. we've entered, we started in muggles with the muggles yeah and now we're in Hogwarts. Full on Hogwarts. Yeah.
00:34:10
Speaker
But I didn't get my acceptance letter, so I'm not really following. I'm not on this train. Also, at this hole was a sense or a presence of consciousness. he felt that this hole was actually alive, and then anyone that would go around it, they felt like a a larger sense of awareness about all living things around them. They also...
00:34:34
Speaker
just feel this calling sensation to go into this hole, like something on the other side was sentient and it was trying to pull them into this new realm.
00:34:47
Speaker
Then ah he also goes into how it was protected without fences. He's saying that, nothing physical protected the hole. It protected itself. Right. No animals would approach. Nothing would come explicitly to it unless your intent was to go see it. So if you weren't supposed to be there, you would just, you'd be going down a road and then all of a sudden take a right turn for no reason just to avoid this hole unless your intention was to go there or you got the secret password from someone.
00:35:16
Speaker
So it's like a speakeasy or some shit.
00:35:24
Speaker
Art starts going into, hey is this a potential wormhole? Is this a portal? What's going on? Also, this is where really hollow earth theory really starts to take hold. It was already starting with the first hole and the government taking over it, but now we're really into hollow earth big time.
00:35:42
Speaker
But then Mel disappears again for a little bit. But then he – so he disappears again for just a couple a couple months, but it's February 2002
00:35:54
Speaker
And he says that –
00:35:58
Speaker
He's missing some time. So after his short encounter with the tribal members, Mel says, I miss my family. I wanted to go home with my family. So I went to Olympia to move my nephew into a new house. They move him into this new house and they have to return the moving truck to Tacoma. So he takes the moving truck to Tacoma, takes a Greyhound from Tacoma to Olympia.
00:36:25
Speaker
Which, why didn't they just help him along? there's a Greyhound from Tacoma to Olympia? There is, actually. There's also a bus line that runs from Tacoma to Olympia. Huh. Yeah.
00:36:36
Speaker
Especially, yeah. So now he is saying that while he's on this bus, there's a fight that breaks out on the bus. There's this crazy fight. The bus actually has to pull over into this transit station. And while at this transit station, you know, the transit police are pulling people off to, you know, get their stories. And while Mel is being interviewed, he's one of the last ones that they call out. The bus actually drives away.
00:37:04
Speaker
And Mel's like, wait, guys, that was my ride to Olympia. I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere. And the transit police are like, no worry, buddy. You can just jump in our van and we'll go ahead and we'll take you the rest of the way to Olympia. and It's no worries. Totally fine.
00:37:20
Speaker
So what'd you say? Okay. We're these police officers because you know, it could be a thing. Well, funny fact, this same day that this is all happening, I'm This is actually supposed to be a day where he's supposed to go back on coast to coast with art, but he never shows up.
00:37:37
Speaker
Well, let me tell you. 12 12 days later, he wakes up in San Francisco.
00:37:49
Speaker
What? Yeah. Not only does he wake up in San Francisco, but he doesn't have any back molars anymore.
00:38:00
Speaker
His back molars are gone.
00:38:05
Speaker
teeth are gone. easy His teeth are gone. He has the remnants, you know, when you get an IV and there's that sticky tacky stuff that's left around that he's got that.
00:38:18
Speaker
He also has what appear to be bite marks on his neck or some type of incision situation on his neck. And he, when he comes to, he's laying in an alleyway and, and apparently he wakes up to a couple unhoused individuals asking him to sing songs because apparently he looks like a country singer. I forgot which country singer, but apparently he looks like a country singer.
00:38:45
Speaker
It sounds like the hangover. looks Like, It just gets wilder and wilder. I felt for this guy at first. Now I'm just really concerned for him. what is he into right now?
00:38:59
Speaker
Yeah. i'm like, what is, I don't understand. So not only does does he wake up in this alley, but he doesn't have any shoes. He's still got his clothes on, but doesn't have any shoes. He doesn't have his wallet. He has no forms of identification.
00:39:14
Speaker
Somehow he gets in contact with his nephew who is freaking out because he never showed up back home. he His nephew gets gets him another bus ticket. Why you would get back on a bus, I don't know. I'm not doing that.
00:39:25
Speaker
He gets back on a bus, ends up back in Washington, reaches back out to are again, and they get on another call. And in this call... Mel's real fired up.
00:39:36
Speaker
He's saying that, you know, the government's mad because he's back from Australia. And Art's like, wait, Australia? And he's like, yeah, when I disappeared, i was actually in Australia saving wombats and growing my Native American. Yeah.
00:39:51
Speaker
The look on your face was beautiful. I was waiting for this moment my entire life. Yeah, I was saving wombats that are actually extinct, are going extinct, but not anymore because I helped them. And I was actually over there also growing my mystical Native American plants, and everyone was amazed because...
00:40:10
Speaker
apparently he smuggled out the native american plants that were growing on the first holes property took them to australia and because of the mystical powers of the whole man they bloomed into something crazy and i love the cheech and chong kind of persona you're right and they healed the world and everyone was just in shock and awe oh Also, a fun fact, apparently he leased that that first hole's property, the glory hole, the real glory hole. He leased it for $250,000 a month to the government.
00:40:47
Speaker
What? Yeah. So he was thinking making $3 million a year. holy shit yeah and and he the night like late 90s early 2000s that's which is a lot of money right so then he decides while he's in australia he's done saving the wombats they're they're coming back to life the native american plants are are doing well he's you know what i just miss my family i need to come back which is why he came back and actually got introduced to the second hole apparently And the reason why I'm telling you this is because apparently the government got mad at him because he came back to the States. He should have just stayed away. And they got mad at him for also talking about the second hole. They don't want anyone to know about holes. Okay.
00:41:29
Speaker
Typical American. No one, no one wants to talk about any holes. It doesn't matter if they're holes in the ground or holes somewhere else. No one's talking about these holes. And so he, He wants retribution because not only was he making $250,000 a month, but be when he came back, they took it away.
00:41:48
Speaker
And they took it away because his ex-wife who, oh, by the way, divorced him. Oh, and by the way, this property actually wasn't his. It was actually his wife's. And when they got divorced, she said, oh, I guess you can have this as a settlement, but I'm actually just going to rent it to you and you're going to pay me money.
00:42:03
Speaker
Oh, apparently he was renting out a property that he was already renting, which violated the terms of agreement. And he's now accusing his ex-wife of taking the $250,000 and keeping this hush hush instead of him making the money.
00:42:18
Speaker
And he just goes on this diatribe about how he needs to find a priest. He also needs to find this Hungarian man. Apparently he also found a German gun on this property that was like so charged with this mystical power from the glory hole that it, when he gave it to his friend, his friend disappeared from his family and he just needed to connect with these people so that they could all align. And you know,
00:42:56
Speaker
so no one else has ever seen this hole. There was a man in Kirkland that did call in from Kirkland that did call in and said he worked at Central or he went to school at Central Washington University. And he got really close with a professor that worked there. And the professor was saying that he actually knew of a hole in the area that was never ending.
00:43:20
Speaker
Okay. So there was one story of a listener that called in and to confirm this. But other than that, this is where the story ends, my friend. But no one else has seen it. No. There's no confirmed sightings.
00:43:31
Speaker
No. And when people, because this took, ah the media did take hold of this. They went to Ellensburg to try to find this. But that when they did interviews with people, no one was like, what hole? What kind of hole? what What are you talking about? A hole? couldn't find it. What? What?
00:43:48
Speaker
So this is either the greatest coverup or conspiracy of all time. And there's just a hole with these mystical power. Well, two of them with these mystical powers and, or this guy really got everyone.
00:44:02
Speaker
I in my mind, i see this hey, this is going to a cool way to get a little publicity, maybe make a little cash. Then he got a little bit into whatever he was growing.
00:44:16
Speaker
A little about too much of the mystic Native American place. Yes. ah've been i I feel like you can just see his life descending into this addiction So I also try to do a cursory search of a Mel Waters. And I don't know if Mel is short for something, but I couldn't find ah couldn't find a Mel Waters in that lived in the area. Although I'm not a professional searcher. I'll be quite honest. I'm not the greatest at it, but no one could ever find Mel Waters actually. that's actually a common theme of why people think this was fake is because this guy,
00:44:48
Speaker
Kind of came out of nowhere. And the Menashtas Ridge, people were trying to find it. Even to this day, people are trying to zoom in with Google maps and trying to find it. And it's just not there. So either he, you know, called in with a fake name.
00:45:02
Speaker
And it was actually located somewhere else or i don't know. But my, my biggest question for you, Anna is what would you do if you woke up in an alley two States away with no molars?
00:45:17
Speaker
i mean, I have so far out of the realm of anything that I think I would ever get into.
00:45:26
Speaker
Yeah, i don't I don't know what was going on, but I also love that he added that he saved the wombats. I do appreciate that about Mill. Oh, yeah. Well, Jessie, have a question for you.
00:45:37
Speaker
If this poll were real, would you go in it? I've asked myself this question many times. I would need an oxygen tank just in case.
00:45:49
Speaker
Yes. I would need some sort of bell alert system.
00:45:53
Speaker
I would also need something to sit on because if I'm getting lowered down for 15 miles, I'm not rappelling down. You're going to have to lower me in there. I'm also going to need some type of winch system that's, you know, mechanically driven because I'm not relying on people to pull me up manually because then I'm just screwed. I'm just down there. whoever And then I'm going to need two different types of communication systems. I'm going to need walkie talkie. And then I'm also going to need some type of like.
00:46:22
Speaker
remember that game telephone where had the two cans and the i'm gonna need like a upgraded version of that yes like a military version of that that's a hard line to people that's fair with those conditions i probably would go in the hall i wish this happened later so that we could if it is real put a drone down there i My thing is, if the military did really take it, do I bet they had access to drones back in the day.
00:46:53
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'd imagine so. I bet, if this is true, that they have all this information somewhere. Would you go in the hole? You don't strike me as a person that would go down on the hole. i i would, be super into everything around it. I'd, i maybe pop down a little bit, but...
00:47:15
Speaker
I don't know what I would do with the knowledge of what's down the hole. Could you imagine if you went in the hole and then you end up in another timeline and then you can't get back from the hole? It's like Outlander. Yeah. Never seen that movie. But yeah, for sure. Is it a movie? TV show.
00:47:32
Speaker
show. Yeah. She goes back in time or she's from things of like I don't know, World War II-ish time and she goes back to the Scottish Highlands. I think about this often. If I was to end up in a different timeline and it was monsters ruled everything or I don't know, something like planet of the apes. I always think about what would I do?
00:48:02
Speaker
ah But yes, no one knows. Some people still claim, you know, this, this hole was, you know, the entrance to the hollow earth. Some people claim it was a vortex to another world. Some people also think that it was just, you know, you reach a certain point in, in the earth's core that the particles are moving so fast that this weight is just being whipped around with everything. Some people think it just
Conclusion and Podcast Promotion
00:48:24
Speaker
melted, but no matter what people say,
00:48:28
Speaker
unequivocally, this is a story that captured a lot of people's attention and no, it was kind of interesting, especially how it ended. But that is the story I have for you today. All the, all the holes, all the holes in the world for Anna.
00:48:42
Speaker
So lucky. That was really cool. Hey, I'm glad you liked it. I'm glad you never heard about it before. i was a little concerned. No, I haven't heard about it at all. Like not even like an inklings or anything. That's super cool. yeah I love when the story like it starts out shit. This is could be this is so real. I'm fully on board. Then like this ah this narrator, not you, the Mel, is getting a little less reliable as we go on.
00:49:10
Speaker
As we go forward. And then also, I listened to the majority of the calls that, which was like four hours worth. But Every call his voice got a little more manic and a little more manic and a little more manic. And i was like, I think we actually, maybe we need to call someone, especially now that he has no teeth. Maybe did he have some gold crowns there? i I'm just saying, I'm just saying.
00:49:35
Speaker
Oh no. That's it for today's dive into the dark corners of the Pacific Northwest. If you loved our stories or shivered a little, be sure to subscribe and follow so you don't miss what's lurking beneath the evergreens next time.
00:49:48
Speaker
Thanks for joining us on Beneath the Evergreens. We appreciate you diving into the mysteries of the holes with us. Until next time, keep your eyes open and your doors locked.