January 14, 2025 • 26 mins
In remote areas of Washington and Nevada lie two bizarre bottomless pits known as Mel's Hole, thanks to call-ins to the Art Bell, Coast to Coast radio show. Strange paranormal properties have developed around these twin endless voids and the secrets they seem to contain. Could these be gateways to another realm? like the Upside Down in Stranger Things? This video explores the odd accounts surrounding these two related holes.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:16):
Strange mysteries, unexplained phenomena.
And the shadows in between.
This is The InBetween Official Podcastwith your host,
Carol Ann!
Two gaping voids that defy all logic
(00:36):
with ice that burns and creaturesunknown to science.
Are we standing on the edgeof an unknown mystery of Earth,
or are they portals to the Upside Down?
Welcome to The InBetween.
I'm Carol Ann,and this is the incredible story
of Mel's Hole.
(01:00):
For those of us interested in the strange
universe aroundus, Art Bell is like a patron saint.
There are few in this communitywho don't at least know who he is.
His radio program, Coast to CoastAM, is one of the few places where people
with incredible stories can call
and know they are among their tribe.
(01:21):
So it's no surprisewhen Art receives a fax.
In February of 1997 from a man named Mel
claiming to have a hole on his propertythat has no bottom.
Interesting topic.
So Art reaches out to Mel and has himon the radio show for the first time
on March 21st of 1997,
and thus begins the legend of Mel's Hole.
(01:44):
Now, I'm sure there are a lot of youout there who are just like me,
who have heard of Mel's Holeand know that it's this bottomless hole
in some guy's backyardwith some kind of paranormal properties.
But once I started looking into it.
Well, to say that the tip of the icebergis an understatement.
So let's start at the beginning.
(02:04):
Mel Waters is this guy who livesjust outside of Ellensburg, Washington,
which is just a hair west of being smackdab in the middle of the state.
He and his wife buy a piece of landon the Manastash Ridge in about 1993.
He and his wife then split.
but Mel is able to lease
the land from his wifeas part of their divorce settlement.
(02:26):
Mel is retired at this point,so he lives a nice,
quiet little life in a trailerthere and has another little trailer
for his passion project of researchingdifferent plants known to have
medicinal value that just happenedto grow around the hole on his property.
Now, Mel had not always livedin Washington, so he may not have known
(02:48):
about the hole on his landat the beginning, but everybody else does.
Several citizens of Ellensburgwill tell you
that they have either heard of itor have actually seen it.
It's not a secret at all.
And I think it's fair to saythat Mel learns pretty fast.
According to him, there are about20 different people, including the former
(03:08):
owners of the land, who throw their trashdown the hall on a regular basis.
TVs, refrigerators,construction equipment,
thousands of tires, dead cows.
Keep in mind,this thing is over nine feet wide.
But never oncedoes anyone ever hear anything
hit the bottomand the hole never fills up.
(03:32):
And after a few years of this and startsto think, Wow, how big is this hole?
So he decides to run a testand starts to feed
some fishing line down into the holewith a weight on the end.
1500 feet, 3000 feet,
4500 feet, no bottom.
So Mel decides to call in the big dogsand he starts buying 20 lb.
(03:56):
test line in bulk and splicing togetherspool after spool
until he gets to a total of 80,000 feet.
That's a hair over 15 miles.
No bottom.
And just for reference,the deepest drilling
at the timecould only go down about 16,000 feet.
And the Marianas Trenchis only 36,000 feet.
(04:19):
In addition to a weirdly bottomless hole,
there are some other quirky thingsgoing on with it.
If you yell into it, there's no echo.
No animal everwants to go anywhere near it.
Some people say that occasionallythe hole emits a black beam,
like the opposite of a light beam,a beam of pure blackness.
(04:40):
And if that's not enough, the weirdeststory comes from one of Mel's neighbors.
The neighbor is a hunter,and sadly, his hunting dog passes away.
So he decides to throw the dog'sbody down the hall
and he swears to Mel that a few days later
he's out hunting again and sees his dog.
(05:01):
Same collar. Same ID tag.
He calls the dog,
but the dog doesn't seem to recognize himand continues on his way.
In the neighbors words, he looked likehe was out hunting somebody else.
By the end of the radio call, Mel promisesto try to get some pictures to Art
and says he's planningon trying to add more fishing line
(05:21):
and we'll keep Art posted.
Just three days later, February 24th.
Mel is back on the radiowith one hell of an update.
Mel tellsArt that he went back out to his land
to get pictures and such,but is met by an Army barricade.
He asked the soldiers, “What's going
(05:41):
“Plane Mel doesn't see any smoke.
“This is my land!” It’sthen that a civilian clothed man in charge
lets Mel knowthat he's not allowed on his land anymore
and basically tells him,If you fight me on this,
we can make a drug lab up herepretty quickly if we want to.
I would say that a suboptimal
(06:05):
just the
morning before that second call, Melgets a call from his realtor,
letting him know that he has just receiveda call from someone
wanting to buy the propertyfor a very generous amount.
Really.
Mel tells Art that he doesn't really knowwhat he's going to do.
Other than an email or two,
Art doesn't hear from Mel againfor another three years,
(06:27):
but manages to get him on the air againon April 24th of 2000.
And whoa Nelly!
Has a lot happened since 1997.
Mel tells Art that he decidednot to mess around with the authorities
and take their offer of $250,000
a month in perpetuity
(06:49):
and relocation to Australia.
Their restrictionsthat he never returned to the US again.
But Mel does return.
I’m not quite surewhat part of “never returned
to the US again” Mel doesn't understand,
but he starts to miss his familyand comes back around December of 1999.
(07:11):
One day he's helping his nephew move.
The plan is that the two of them will renta moving truck
in Tacoma, drive it to Olympia.
Then Mel will return the truck to Tacomaand finally hop a bus
to get back to Olympia.
While waiting for the bus to leave.
There's some kind of altercation.
The Transit Authority wants himto make a statement on the incident,
(07:33):
but Mal says no.
He doesn't want to miss his bus.
The transit authoritysays don't worry about that.
We'll give you a ride back in our van.
It's only about 25miles between the two cities.
So Mel agrees.
But he says the last thing he remembersis getting in that van.
Next thing he knows, he wakes upon the seedy side of San Francisco,
(07:57):
laying in an alley, missing his wallet,keys, belt buckle,
12 days and his molars.
Yeah, they took his teeth.
The only thing he gained were tapemarks and an IV stick mark on his arm.
His nephewhelps him get back to Washington,
(08:18):
where he finds outthat his bank account is drained
and his ex-wife is suing him overimprovements
made to the land by the government,like a road and a septic system,
that were not part of their original leaseagreement.
So Mel is wiped out.
Now, it may be a bit of a shock,
(08:38):
but it's not really all that bigof an existential crisis for Mel.
The millions of dollarsthat he had received
when he was in Australiawas mostly spent on plant research
and wombat rescue facilities,his passion projects.
So there's nothing left.
Being a bit of a Bohemian hippie,Mel's kind of okay with that.
(09:00):
Couple of years go by with no wordfrom Mel until Art surprises his audience.
On January 29th, 2002,
with a call from now fan favorite Mel.
Things have evidently been goingokay for Mel,
but he has even more informationon the strangeness in his world.
Remember when he was so unceremoniouslydumped in San Francisco
(09:23):
and one of the things he was missingwas his belt buckle?
Well,that particular thing stuck out to him
because he had actually madethat belt buckle himself.
So one of his hobbies was to make variousjewelry items from bits and bobs
he found around the property
and sell them to local giftshops and markets around town.
One day he comes across a red Chinese
(09:46):
lucky money envelope with ten dimes in it.
He takes the dimesand used them to make a series of ten belt
buckles, keeps one for himselfand sells the others.
Fast forwardto after Mel returns from Australia.
He's walking around town one day and seesa man wearing one of his belt buckles.
He stops the guy and says,You're wearing one of my buckles.”
(10:08):
He and the guy get to chattingand looking at the buckle
when they noticesomething interesting about that dime.
Looks like any other dimewith Roosevelt's profile.
Except the mint date is 1943.
FDR didn't die until April 12th, 1945.
And the U.S.
does not put picturesof living presidents on legal currency.
(10:32):
Plus, the mint mark location is a B,as in Bravo.
B is not a mint mark for any coin mintedin the U.S., either past or present.
So where did the dimes come from?
The belt buckle ownertook the buckle to a coin dealer
who plainly saidhe had no idea what they were looking at,
(10:53):
but immediately offered hima pretty good chunk of change for it.
The man says, “Igotta think about it.” Within a few days,
the man receives a visitfrom the Treasury Department
telling himthey need to confiscate the dime.
So my personal adviceis to look at every belt buckle you see
(11:13):
and every garage sale or flea marketyou can find because there are still
eightmore of these dimes out there somewhere.
But life goes on, and Mel’snot feeling so well.
He goes to the doctorhas some testing done and - gets the news.
Advanced terminal esophageal cancerand six months to live.
(11:33):
So a couple of weeks later,when Mel gets an interesting email
from a Native American tribelocated in northern Nevada
that is interested in his researchon medicinal plants,
inviting him to come down,share their research and take a look
at what they have goingon, Mel says, “Carpe Diem.”
And in early September of 2001,Mel heads down to Nevada.
(11:56):
They spend a few dayscomparing information
on the differing species of plantsfrom each location,
when the Native Americans say, “Hey,we know about another endless
hole around here.
Would you like to see it?” Well, yeah.
The Indians tell Melthat the hole is actually not located
on their reservation, but on public land
(12:16):
inhabited by a tribe of Basques.
What is a Basque?
I had a look at up too.
The Basques are a small ethnic groupfrom a small region between
France and Spain, and a number of themimmigrated to the U.S.
in the 1800sand found a spot in Nevada to raise sheep,
which is where they have been ever since.
(12:38):
And as far as they know, their holehas been there as long as they have.
So at least as long ago as the 1800’s.
The current Basque consider the holeand the location to be a spiritual place.
The hole, much like Mel’s, isnine feet wide.
Mel’s hole has a three foothigh brick retaining wall
(13:01):
with a brick liningthat goes down about 15 feet.
But this hole has a metal collar around itinstead of brick,
and the metal lining goes downas far as the eye can see.
The collaralso has notches around the rim,
as if something was meant to be loweredand locked into place.
(13:22):
Now, it's possible that the hole inMel's yard is natural in its origins.
Maybe a lava tube or something that hadthe brick retaining wall added to it.
But this hole,unlike Mel's, it's not natural whatsoever.
It has the same noisecanceling properties as Mel’s hole does.
Like hitting the metal collarwith a metal tool makes no sound at all.
(13:47):
The collar around the holealso radiates warmth.
It's not hot, but it's warm.
Also similar to Mel's hole, animals
totally steer clear of this hole, too.
And again, people have statedthat they have seen a pitch
black beam of light coming from this hole.
(14:07):
But unlike Mel, the Basquepeople have never even thought
about conductingany kind of experiments with the
now. Mel and the Basques decidethat their first test is going to be
just lowering a bucket of store bought icedown the hole as far as they can.
Which ended up being about 1500 feet.
They keep another bucket of the same ice
(14:28):
on the surface to use as a control.
Once the surface ice is about half melted,they bring up the ice from the pit.
Now, you would think thatif the hole itself is radiating some heat,
that the ice that they have lowered downinto the hole would be completely melted.
Or at the very least,as melted as the surface ice.
(14:49):
But that's not what happens.
The ice from the holehasn't melted at all.
Even weirder, it isn't cold anymore.
Mel picks up a pieceand the ice does not melt in his hand.
So they decide to try to melt
it themselves by putting the bucketover a fire that they had going.
Not only did the ice not melt,but it caught fire.
(15:13):
The flame was more likethe barely blue flame of a barely lit gas
stove than the usual orange flamethat you would see from a regular fire.
Now, let me quicklysay something about the Basque people.
Apparently, they have been spendingtoo much time with their sheep
because Mel says they're a biton the adventurous side to put it mildly.
(15:36):
So crazy that one of the Basques inthe group takes some of the “fire ice”
to put it in his wood burning stoveto keep his cabin warm during the winter.
They do more ice experimentsand figure out that they only get
the “fire ice” about a third of the timethey run the experiment.
So they decide to take it up a notch.
One of the Basques decideshe wants to be lowered into the pit.
(15:59):
The rest of the group says, “Are you nuts?
Did you not see what happened to the ice?”So instead,
being sheepherders,they send down a sheep.
The sheep, like every other animal, doesnot want to go near this hole.
But they finally wrangle it into a cratethat they can lower down.
The sheep is making tons of noise
(16:21):
and moving aroundas it really does not want to be there.
But as they get the crate overthe center of the hole,
the sounds stop,but they can still see it moving around.
It's like the sound of the sheephas vanished.
They lower the sheep slowly downinto the hole, and about halfway down
the line stops moving aroundfrom the animal struggling.
(16:44):
They continue to lower itas far as the rope will go,
which is about 1500 feetwhen it reaches the end of the line.
They all feel an odd humming sensationfrom the metal rim of the hole.
about a half an hour,they bring the crate back up.
Nothing is moving inside of itand the crate itself looks completely
(17:05):
undamaged.
However, when they open it up,they find a dead sheep.
Basque being sheepherders,are well versed in dead sheep,
and one of them takes the sheepto a nearby table to butcher it
and kind of conduct a makeshift autopsy.
The sheep looks as thoughit has been cooked from the inside out
(17:25):
and its abdominalcavity is filled with this weird
gel stuff and a giant tumor.
And the tumor appears to be pulsating.
So the herder cuts it outand sets it on the table.
He cuts into the beating massand from it emerges
(17:46):
something that is beyond everyone'scomprehension.
What they see staring back at them, Melcan only describe as something that looks
like a baby seal with an umbilical cord
still attached to the tumor-like placenta.
The seal creature,however, has human eyes.
(18:06):
The creature detaches itself from its cordand gives a look of compassion
and reverence to Meland the others crowded around it.
Mel describes the feeling as having beenin the presence of a miracle.
Not everyone feels that way.
In one of the Basque says, “Let's killBut the majority wins
and instead they simply continueto stare at it, gobsmacked
(18:31):
as it wiggles its wayto the edge of the table.
Mel, feeling some kind of connectionto this thing,
picks it up and puts it on the ground.
Now his hands are covered in that ooze,
which, interestinglyenough, smells like ozone.
The creature stays there on the ground,
(18:51):
regarding each of the men in turn,studying each person in the group
like it was intelligent
enough to recognize thingsabout each and every one of them.
This miracle/audience communionwent on for 2 hours.
Mel says that the looks that this creaturegave them were the most compassionate
(19:13):
he has ever witnessedone creature give another living thing.
once again feeling compelled,
moves the creature to the metal collararound the edge of the hole.
It gives them allone final look, a nod, and
jumps back down into the hole.
Everyone in the groupis totally physically and emotionally
(19:36):
drained from this experienceand deeply touched by it all.
They think about burying the sheepcarcass, but instead decide to return it
to where it came from and dump the remainsback down in the hole before they leave.
Before Mel leaves for home,he has a sit down with a Basque elder
who says he's not surprisedby their story at all,
(19:58):
and that he felt that the holewas always a spiritual place.
He places something into Mel's handbefore he goes to sleep and tells
him, “It's something that I foundnear the hole that I think is for you.
Just put it away for now.” Mel
puts it in his pocketwithout even looking at what it is.
And it isn't until sometime laterthat Mel checks
(20:19):
to see what the elder has given him.
It's a little red envelope
containing a 1943 Roosevelt dime.
After returning home to Nevada, Melfeels better than he has in a long time.
So he goes back to his doctorfor a checkup.
The results?
The cancer is completely gonefrom his body.
(20:44):
Mel knows His encounter with that
creature from the hole somehow cured him.
Maybe because he touched it?
Maybe because he helpedHe doesn't know how or why,
but he's grateful.
Now, that would be a great endto the story, right?
Well, hang on,because that is not the end.
(21:04):
Remember the guy who took some of the fireice home to heat his house?
the “fire ice”does exactly what he had hoped it would
and continues to burn for months
and entirely heat his little cabin.
And if you know
anything about northern Nevada,you know, it can get pretty cold up there.
And like a lot of peoplewho heat their homes
with a wood burning stove,he always has a cast iron kettle
(21:28):
on the top filled with waterto help humidify the dry winter air.
And after a while, he noticesthat the steam coming from the kettle
is funnelingright back down into the stove.
He also always feels thirstyand his skin is super dry.
But hey!
Free Until one day when he comes hometo find
(21:50):
that the stove has brokenthrough the floor of the cabin
and is now sitting on the dirtabout three feet below.
Being the ultimate bachelor
and because it's the only wayhe has to heat his home,
he just patches up the gap in the chimneyand leaves it there.
a couple of weeks later,when he comes home to find his entire
(22:12):
cabin is now a pile of sawdust.
Anything made of woodis completely dried out and disintegrated.
He moves in with his brotherbut goes back to the cabin dust
about a month later to findthe stove is now about five
feet into the ground.
They get in touch with Mel,who tells them, okay,
(22:34):
this is now officiallyabove our pay grade.
And Mel calls an officialthat he knows from his time in Australia
who sends in a team of people.
Next thing they know, the placeis surrounded by several large cranes
and a huge truck who,
after some serious struggle,get the stove,
(22:55):
which is now even deeper in the ground,out of the ground,
onto the back of the truckand carted away, never to be seen again.
Sounds to melike it was making a new hole.
Coast to CoastAM one more time on December 20th, 2002.
He informs Art that after several attempts
(23:17):
to take pictures of the dime,they give up.
It doesn't seem to show up on film
and it seems to disappearif you look at it from a distance.
You can only see itwhen you're close to it.
Same thing goes for the metal collarsurrounding the Nevada Hole.
It can't be seen from a distance either.
The Nevada hole is under regularhelicopter surveillance,
(23:39):
though no one has bothered the Basqueand their sheep herding existence.
And apparently the seal creaturecomes back to visit occasionally.
however, has never been backto either of the two holes.
The last thing he wantsis for people to find out where they are
and either confrontsome very grumpy government agents
(23:59):
or some wonderfully peaceful sheepherders.
So he plans to just stay away.
a while after Mel's “voluntary”relocation, TerraServer,
a late 90’s primitive version of GoogleEarth, has a big white
rectangle placed squarely over the areaoutside of Ellensburg
(24:20):
where Mel's hole would be on Manastash
and listeners to the radio showeven call in to confirm it.
Google Earth does not have any redactionhappening when you look at the area now.
So theoreticallyyou should be able to zoom in and find it.
And we know that NASA never retouchesits photos.
(24:41):
Right?
Mel never calls into Coast to Coast again.
And as far as I know,is never heard from anywhere again.
So I know that
some of this sounds waytoo out there to be true.
But why would Mel lie?
He never tried to make any moneyfrom any of this.
(25:02):
Did he need to make himselffeel important?
Maybe.
But many Ellensburg locals are on record
as knowing about the whole longbefore Mel did.
But speaking of bottomless holes...
That brings us to our buttonMiracle of the week sent to us
by Jenny Rabbit 4643Who writes: thought it was just me.
(25:24):
Wow. When I hit the like button,all of the single socks
that have disappeared in my dryerover the years reappeared at
That is a bottomless pit.
Glad you got your socks back, Jenny.
If your thirst for the strangeand unexplained is as bottomless
as Mel's Hole, this video here is amust watch on your deep
(25:45):
dive into the subterraneanrealm of paranormal possibility.
Don't let the mysteries pass you by.
Click nowand descend into the rabbit hole.
And as always, be careful out there
and I will see youhere again on The InBetween.
Thanks for tuning into The InBetween Podcast.
(26:07):
Enjoy the full visual experiencewith me over on YouTube.
Just search for @TheInBetweentales.
I'm Carol Ann,and until next time, be careful
out there.
Strange mysteries, unexplained phenomena.
And the shadows in between.
This is The InBetween Official Podcastwith your host,
Carol Ann!
Two gaping voids that defy all logic
(00:36):
with ice that burns and creaturesunknown to science.
Are we standing on the edgeof an unknown mystery of Earth,
or are they portals to the Upside Down?
Welcome to The InBetween.
I'm Carol Ann,and this is the incredible story
of Mel's Hole.
(01:00):
For those of us interested in the strange
universe aroundus, Art Bell is like a patron saint.
There are few in this communitywho don't at least know who he is.
His radio program, Coast to CoastAM, is one of the few places where people
with incredible stories can call
and know they are among their tribe.
(01:21):
So it's no surprisewhen Art receives a fax.
In February of 1997 from a man named Mel
claiming to have a hole on his propertythat has no bottom.
Interesting topic.
So Art reaches out to Mel and has himon the radio show for the first time
on March 21st of 1997,
and thus begins the legend of Mel's Hole.
(01:44):
Now, I'm sure there are a lot of youout there who are just like me,
who have heard of Mel's Holeand know that it's this bottomless hole
in some guy's backyardwith some kind of paranormal properties.
But once I started looking into it.
Well, to say that the tip of the icebergis an understatement.
So let's start at the beginning.
(02:04):
Mel Waters is this guy who livesjust outside of Ellensburg, Washington,
which is just a hair west of being smackdab in the middle of the state.
He and his wife buy a piece of landon the Manastash Ridge in about 1993.
He and his wife then split.
but Mel is able to lease
the land from his wifeas part of their divorce settlement.
(02:26):
Mel is retired at this point,so he lives a nice,
quiet little life in a trailerthere and has another little trailer
for his passion project of researchingdifferent plants known to have
medicinal value that just happenedto grow around the hole on his property.
Now, Mel had not always livedin Washington, so he may not have known
(02:48):
about the hole on his landat the beginning, but everybody else does.
Several citizens of Ellensburgwill tell you
that they have either heard of itor have actually seen it.
It's not a secret at all.
And I think it's fair to saythat Mel learns pretty fast.
According to him, there are about20 different people, including the former
(03:08):
owners of the land, who throw their trashdown the hall on a regular basis.
TVs, refrigerators,construction equipment,
thousands of tires, dead cows.
Keep in mind,this thing is over nine feet wide.
But never oncedoes anyone ever hear anything
hit the bottomand the hole never fills up.
(03:32):
And after a few years of this and startsto think, Wow, how big is this hole?
So he decides to run a testand starts to feed
some fishing line down into the holewith a weight on the end.
1500 feet, 3000 feet,
4500 feet, no bottom.
So Mel decides to call in the big dogsand he starts buying 20 lb.
(03:56):
test line in bulk and splicing togetherspool after spool
until he gets to a total of 80,000 feet.
That's a hair over 15 miles.
No bottom.
And just for reference,the deepest drilling
at the timecould only go down about 16,000 feet.
And the Marianas Trenchis only 36,000 feet.
(04:19):
In addition to a weirdly bottomless hole,
there are some other quirky thingsgoing on with it.
If you yell into it, there's no echo.
No animal everwants to go anywhere near it.
Some people say that occasionallythe hole emits a black beam,
like the opposite of a light beam,a beam of pure blackness.
(04:40):
And if that's not enough, the weirdeststory comes from one of Mel's neighbors.
The neighbor is a hunter,and sadly, his hunting dog passes away.
So he decides to throw the dog'sbody down the hall
and he swears to Mel that a few days later
he's out hunting again and sees his dog.
(05:01):
Same collar. Same ID tag.
He calls the dog,
but the dog doesn't seem to recognize himand continues on his way.
In the neighbors words, he looked likehe was out hunting somebody else.
By the end of the radio call, Mel promisesto try to get some pictures to Art
and says he's planningon trying to add more fishing line
(05:21):
and we'll keep Art posted.
Just three days later, February 24th.
Mel is back on the radiowith one hell of an update.
Mel tellsArt that he went back out to his land
to get pictures and such,but is met by an Army barricade.
He asked the soldiers, “What's going
(05:41):
“Plane Mel doesn't see any smoke.
“This is my land!” It’sthen that a civilian clothed man in charge
lets Mel knowthat he's not allowed on his land anymore
and basically tells him,If you fight me on this,
we can make a drug lab up herepretty quickly if we want to.
I would say that a suboptimal
(06:05):
just the
morning before that second call, Melgets a call from his realtor,
letting him know that he has just receiveda call from someone
wanting to buy the propertyfor a very generous amount.
Really.
Mel tells Art that he doesn't really knowwhat he's going to do.
Other than an email or two,
Art doesn't hear from Mel againfor another three years,
(06:27):
but manages to get him on the air againon April 24th of 2000.
And whoa Nelly!
Has a lot happened since 1997.
Mel tells Art that he decidednot to mess around with the authorities
and take their offer of $250,000
a month in perpetuity
(06:49):
and relocation to Australia.
Their restrictionsthat he never returned to the US again.
But Mel does return.
I’m not quite surewhat part of “never returned
to the US again” Mel doesn't understand,
but he starts to miss his familyand comes back around December of 1999.
(07:11):
One day he's helping his nephew move.
The plan is that the two of them will renta moving truck
in Tacoma, drive it to Olympia.
Then Mel will return the truck to Tacomaand finally hop a bus
to get back to Olympia.
While waiting for the bus to leave.
There's some kind of altercation.
The Transit Authority wants himto make a statement on the incident,
(07:33):
but Mal says no.
He doesn't want to miss his bus.
The transit authoritysays don't worry about that.
We'll give you a ride back in our van.
It's only about 25miles between the two cities.
So Mel agrees.
But he says the last thing he remembersis getting in that van.
Next thing he knows, he wakes upon the seedy side of San Francisco,
(07:57):
laying in an alley, missing his wallet,keys, belt buckle,
12 days and his molars.
Yeah, they took his teeth.
The only thing he gained were tapemarks and an IV stick mark on his arm.
His nephewhelps him get back to Washington,
(08:18):
where he finds outthat his bank account is drained
and his ex-wife is suing him overimprovements
made to the land by the government,like a road and a septic system,
that were not part of their original leaseagreement.
So Mel is wiped out.
Now, it may be a bit of a shock,
(08:38):
but it's not really all that bigof an existential crisis for Mel.
The millions of dollarsthat he had received
when he was in Australiawas mostly spent on plant research
and wombat rescue facilities,his passion projects.
So there's nothing left.
Being a bit of a Bohemian hippie,Mel's kind of okay with that.
(09:00):
Couple of years go by with no wordfrom Mel until Art surprises his audience.
On January 29th, 2002,
with a call from now fan favorite Mel.
Things have evidently been goingokay for Mel,
but he has even more informationon the strangeness in his world.
Remember when he was so unceremoniouslydumped in San Francisco
(09:23):
and one of the things he was missingwas his belt buckle?
Well,that particular thing stuck out to him
because he had actually madethat belt buckle himself.
So one of his hobbies was to make variousjewelry items from bits and bobs
he found around the property
and sell them to local giftshops and markets around town.
One day he comes across a red Chinese
(09:46):
lucky money envelope with ten dimes in it.
He takes the dimesand used them to make a series of ten belt
buckles, keeps one for himselfand sells the others.
Fast forwardto after Mel returns from Australia.
He's walking around town one day and seesa man wearing one of his belt buckles.
He stops the guy and says,You're wearing one of my buckles.”
(10:08):
He and the guy get to chattingand looking at the buckle
when they noticesomething interesting about that dime.
Looks like any other dimewith Roosevelt's profile.
Except the mint date is 1943.
FDR didn't die until April 12th, 1945.
And the U.S.
does not put picturesof living presidents on legal currency.
(10:32):
Plus, the mint mark location is a B,as in Bravo.
B is not a mint mark for any coin mintedin the U.S., either past or present.
So where did the dimes come from?
The belt buckle ownertook the buckle to a coin dealer
who plainly saidhe had no idea what they were looking at,
(10:53):
but immediately offered hima pretty good chunk of change for it.
The man says, “Igotta think about it.” Within a few days,
the man receives a visitfrom the Treasury Department
telling himthey need to confiscate the dime.
So my personal adviceis to look at every belt buckle you see
(11:13):
and every garage sale or flea marketyou can find because there are still
eightmore of these dimes out there somewhere.
But life goes on, and Mel’snot feeling so well.
He goes to the doctorhas some testing done and - gets the news.
Advanced terminal esophageal cancerand six months to live.
(11:33):
So a couple of weeks later,when Mel gets an interesting email
from a Native American tribelocated in northern Nevada
that is interested in his researchon medicinal plants,
inviting him to come down,share their research and take a look
at what they have goingon, Mel says, “Carpe Diem.”
And in early September of 2001,Mel heads down to Nevada.
(11:56):
They spend a few dayscomparing information
on the differing species of plantsfrom each location,
when the Native Americans say, “Hey,we know about another endless
hole around here.
Would you like to see it?” Well, yeah.
The Indians tell Melthat the hole is actually not located
on their reservation, but on public land
(12:16):
inhabited by a tribe of Basques.
What is a Basque?
I had a look at up too.
The Basques are a small ethnic groupfrom a small region between
France and Spain, and a number of themimmigrated to the U.S.
in the 1800sand found a spot in Nevada to raise sheep,
which is where they have been ever since.
(12:38):
And as far as they know, their holehas been there as long as they have.
So at least as long ago as the 1800’s.
The current Basque consider the holeand the location to be a spiritual place.
The hole, much like Mel’s, isnine feet wide.
Mel’s hole has a three foothigh brick retaining wall
(13:01):
with a brick liningthat goes down about 15 feet.
But this hole has a metal collar around itinstead of brick,
and the metal lining goes downas far as the eye can see.
The collaralso has notches around the rim,
as if something was meant to be loweredand locked into place.
(13:22):
Now, it's possible that the hole inMel's yard is natural in its origins.
Maybe a lava tube or something that hadthe brick retaining wall added to it.
But this hole,unlike Mel's, it's not natural whatsoever.
It has the same noisecanceling properties as Mel’s hole does.
Like hitting the metal collarwith a metal tool makes no sound at all.
(13:47):
The collar around the holealso radiates warmth.
It's not hot, but it's warm.
Also similar to Mel's hole, animals
totally steer clear of this hole, too.
And again, people have statedthat they have seen a pitch
black beam of light coming from this hole.
(14:07):
But unlike Mel, the Basquepeople have never even thought
about conductingany kind of experiments with the
now. Mel and the Basques decidethat their first test is going to be
just lowering a bucket of store bought icedown the hole as far as they can.
Which ended up being about 1500 feet.
They keep another bucket of the same ice
(14:28):
on the surface to use as a control.
Once the surface ice is about half melted,they bring up the ice from the pit.
Now, you would think thatif the hole itself is radiating some heat,
that the ice that they have lowered downinto the hole would be completely melted.
Or at the very least,as melted as the surface ice.
(14:49):
But that's not what happens.
The ice from the holehasn't melted at all.
Even weirder, it isn't cold anymore.
Mel picks up a pieceand the ice does not melt in his hand.
So they decide to try to melt
it themselves by putting the bucketover a fire that they had going.
Not only did the ice not melt,but it caught fire.
(15:13):
The flame was more likethe barely blue flame of a barely lit gas
stove than the usual orange flamethat you would see from a regular fire.
Now, let me quicklysay something about the Basque people.
Apparently, they have been spendingtoo much time with their sheep
because Mel says they're a biton the adventurous side to put it mildly.
(15:36):
So crazy that one of the Basques inthe group takes some of the “fire ice”
to put it in his wood burning stoveto keep his cabin warm during the winter.
They do more ice experimentsand figure out that they only get
the “fire ice” about a third of the timethey run the experiment.
So they decide to take it up a notch.
One of the Basques decideshe wants to be lowered into the pit.
(15:59):
The rest of the group says, “Are you nuts?
Did you not see what happened to the ice?”So instead,
being sheepherders,they send down a sheep.
The sheep, like every other animal, doesnot want to go near this hole.
But they finally wrangle it into a cratethat they can lower down.
The sheep is making tons of noise
(16:21):
and moving aroundas it really does not want to be there.
But as they get the crate overthe center of the hole,
the sounds stop,but they can still see it moving around.
It's like the sound of the sheephas vanished.
They lower the sheep slowly downinto the hole, and about halfway down
the line stops moving aroundfrom the animal struggling.
(16:44):
They continue to lower itas far as the rope will go,
which is about 1500 feetwhen it reaches the end of the line.
They all feel an odd humming sensationfrom the metal rim of the hole.
about a half an hour,they bring the crate back up.
Nothing is moving inside of itand the crate itself looks completely
(17:05):
undamaged.
However, when they open it up,they find a dead sheep.
Basque being sheepherders,are well versed in dead sheep,
and one of them takes the sheepto a nearby table to butcher it
and kind of conduct a makeshift autopsy.
The sheep looks as thoughit has been cooked from the inside out
(17:25):
and its abdominalcavity is filled with this weird
gel stuff and a giant tumor.
And the tumor appears to be pulsating.
So the herder cuts it outand sets it on the table.
He cuts into the beating massand from it emerges
(17:46):
something that is beyond everyone'scomprehension.
What they see staring back at them, Melcan only describe as something that looks
like a baby seal with an umbilical cord
still attached to the tumor-like placenta.
The seal creature,however, has human eyes.
(18:06):
The creature detaches itself from its cordand gives a look of compassion
and reverence to Meland the others crowded around it.
Mel describes the feeling as having beenin the presence of a miracle.
Not everyone feels that way.
In one of the Basque says, “Let's killBut the majority wins
and instead they simply continueto stare at it, gobsmacked
(18:31):
as it wiggles its wayto the edge of the table.
Mel, feeling some kind of connectionto this thing,
picks it up and puts it on the ground.
Now his hands are covered in that ooze,
which, interestinglyenough, smells like ozone.
The creature stays there on the ground,
(18:51):
regarding each of the men in turn,studying each person in the group
like it was intelligent
enough to recognize thingsabout each and every one of them.
This miracle/audience communionwent on for 2 hours.
Mel says that the looks that this creaturegave them were the most compassionate
(19:13):
he has ever witnessedone creature give another living thing.
once again feeling compelled,
moves the creature to the metal collararound the edge of the hole.
It gives them allone final look, a nod, and
jumps back down into the hole.
Everyone in the groupis totally physically and emotionally
(19:36):
drained from this experienceand deeply touched by it all.
They think about burying the sheepcarcass, but instead decide to return it
to where it came from and dump the remainsback down in the hole before they leave.
Before Mel leaves for home,he has a sit down with a Basque elder
who says he's not surprisedby their story at all,
(19:58):
and that he felt that the holewas always a spiritual place.
He places something into Mel's handbefore he goes to sleep and tells
him, “It's something that I foundnear the hole that I think is for you.
Just put it away for now.” Mel
puts it in his pocketwithout even looking at what it is.
And it isn't until sometime laterthat Mel checks
(20:19):
to see what the elder has given him.
It's a little red envelope
containing a 1943 Roosevelt dime.
After returning home to Nevada, Melfeels better than he has in a long time.
So he goes back to his doctorfor a checkup.
The results?
The cancer is completely gonefrom his body.
(20:44):
Mel knows His encounter with that
creature from the hole somehow cured him.
Maybe because he touched it?
Maybe because he helpedHe doesn't know how or why,
but he's grateful.
Now, that would be a great endto the story, right?
Well, hang on,because that is not the end.
(21:04):
Remember the guy who took some of the fireice home to heat his house?
the “fire ice”does exactly what he had hoped it would
and continues to burn for months
and entirely heat his little cabin.
And if you know
anything about northern Nevada,you know, it can get pretty cold up there.
And like a lot of peoplewho heat their homes
with a wood burning stove,he always has a cast iron kettle
(21:28):
on the top filled with waterto help humidify the dry winter air.
And after a while, he noticesthat the steam coming from the kettle
is funnelingright back down into the stove.
He also always feels thirstyand his skin is super dry.
But hey!
Free Until one day when he comes hometo find
(21:50):
that the stove has brokenthrough the floor of the cabin
and is now sitting on the dirtabout three feet below.
Being the ultimate bachelor
and because it's the only wayhe has to heat his home,
he just patches up the gap in the chimneyand leaves it there.
a couple of weeks later,when he comes home to find his entire
(22:12):
cabin is now a pile of sawdust.
Anything made of woodis completely dried out and disintegrated.
He moves in with his brotherbut goes back to the cabin dust
about a month later to findthe stove is now about five
feet into the ground.
They get in touch with Mel,who tells them, okay,
(22:34):
this is now officiallyabove our pay grade.
And Mel calls an officialthat he knows from his time in Australia
who sends in a team of people.
Next thing they know, the placeis surrounded by several large cranes
and a huge truck who,
after some serious struggle,get the stove,
(22:55):
which is now even deeper in the ground,out of the ground,
onto the back of the truckand carted away, never to be seen again.
Sounds to melike it was making a new hole.
Coast to CoastAM one more time on December 20th, 2002.
He informs Art that after several attempts
(23:17):
to take pictures of the dime,they give up.
It doesn't seem to show up on film
and it seems to disappearif you look at it from a distance.
You can only see itwhen you're close to it.
Same thing goes for the metal collarsurrounding the Nevada Hole.
It can't be seen from a distance either.
The Nevada hole is under regularhelicopter surveillance,
(23:39):
though no one has bothered the Basqueand their sheep herding existence.
And apparently the seal creaturecomes back to visit occasionally.
however, has never been backto either of the two holes.
The last thing he wantsis for people to find out where they are
and either confrontsome very grumpy government agents
(23:59):
or some wonderfully peaceful sheepherders.
So he plans to just stay away.
a while after Mel's “voluntary”relocation, TerraServer,
a late 90’s primitive version of GoogleEarth, has a big white
rectangle placed squarely over the areaoutside of Ellensburg
(24:20):
where Mel's hole would be on Manastash
and listeners to the radio showeven call in to confirm it.
Google Earth does not have any redactionhappening when you look at the area now.
So theoreticallyyou should be able to zoom in and find it.
And we know that NASA never retouchesits photos.
(24:41):
Right?
Mel never calls into Coast to Coast again.
And as far as I know,is never heard from anywhere again.
So I know that
some of this sounds waytoo out there to be true.
But why would Mel lie?
He never tried to make any moneyfrom any of this.
(25:02):
Did he need to make himselffeel important?
Maybe.
But many Ellensburg locals are on record
as knowing about the whole longbefore Mel did.
But speaking of bottomless holes...
That brings us to our buttonMiracle of the week sent to us
by Jenny Rabbit 4643Who writes: thought it was just me.
(25:24):
Wow. When I hit the like button,all of the single socks
that have disappeared in my dryerover the years reappeared at
That is a bottomless pit.
Glad you got your socks back, Jenny.
If your thirst for the strangeand unexplained is as bottomless
as Mel's Hole, this video here is amust watch on your deep
(25:45):
dive into the subterraneanrealm of paranormal possibility.
Don't let the mysteries pass you by.
Click nowand descend into the rabbit hole.
And as always, be careful out there
and I will see youhere again on The InBetween.
Thanks for tuning into The InBetween Podcast.
(26:07):
Enjoy the full visual experiencewith me over on YouTube.
Just search for @TheInBetweentales.
I'm Carol Ann,and until next time, be careful
out there.
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