From Wed. 2/26/97 Yakima Herald-Republic

The HOLE Truth?

"Mel's hole" along Manastash Ridge is 9 feet wide & 15 miles deep - 
if you believe everything you hear on the radio.

By Wendy Harris
of the Herald-Republic

     Radio audiences nationwide were puzzled last weekend by the mystery
of "Mel's hole," an alleged bottomless pit, somewhere near Ellensburg,
WA, that can swallow refrigerators without a sound & resurrect dead dogs.
     When radio talk show personality Art Bell received a fax last week
from a man purporting to have the world's deepest hole on his property,
Bell took it to the airwaves.
     "I have no idea whether his story is true or baloney," said Bell
during a telephone interview Tuesday.
     Bell, who hosts the nationally syndicated "Coast to Coast" program,
that airs on 328 radio stations across North America, is no stranger to
the bizarre.  His program regularly features topics that delve into the
fringe, whether it's alien abductions, asteroids or crop circles.
     During Bell's Friday night show, a man identifying himself as "Mel
Waters" recounted the story of a seemingly bottomless pit on his private
property along Manastash Ridge, which runs south of Ellensburg.
     He claimed that he, like previous property owners, had been dumping
trash into the 9-foot-wide hole for years.
     "People have been throwing their trash in the well for decades: 
furniture, household trash, dead cows, building debris, you name it,"
Mel told Bell.  "The hole never filled up, so I got curious, actually
obsessed, & began trying to measure the depth of the hole."
     Using fishing line & a 1-pound weight, Mel claimed to have fed 80,
000 feet of line - or 15 miles worth - into the hole & said he still
didn't hit bottom.  Because the fishing line only had the strength to
hold 20 pounds, he said he couldn't go any deeper for fear of snapping
the line, since its cumulative weight was at 17 pounds.
     On Monday, Mel returned to Art Bell's program with an update:  The
military had seized his property Saturday, moved heavy equipment onto it
& surrounded it with cement barriers.
     "There were armed soldiers," he said.
     Mel then wondered if he'd be able to fulfill his wish of having his
body tossed into the well after he died.  He said he had decided that's
how he wanted to go after hearing the legend of the dead hunting dog
that was dropped into the pit.
     "The guy was out hunting one day & saw his old, departed dog," he
said.  "The story is the dog came back somehow."
     Listeners called in with ideas to help explain Mel's anomaly.  But
perhaps the greater mystery is:  "Who's Mel?"
     Soap Lake resident Richard Dawe, who heard the broadcast, tried to
track down Mel & his property.  And, as the Yakima Herald-Republic
confirmed, there is no telephone listing for a Mel Waters, nor do
Kittitas County records show any such person owning property along
Manastash Ridge or elsewhere in the county.
     County emergency officials said they knew nothing about Mel's hole,
except from what they'd learned from reporter's questions.
     "If you're calling about a big hole in the Manastash Ridge & the
big military takeover, we have absolutely no information about that," a
nonchalant Kittitas County Sheriff's Office dispatcher said.
     Even if Mel's hole does exist, it can't be as deep as he claims,
said Steve Reidel, a Richland geologist who teaches at Yakima Valley
Community College.
     "Technologically, it's a feat beyond humans," he said.  "No one has
ever drilled a bore hole that deep.  Geologically, it wouldn't stay open. 
The horizontal forces of the Earth are very strong & they would close
it off."
     Bell said he, too, may never know the truth about Mel's hole, but
such is the nature of talk radio.
     "You can view it as a whale of a tale or maybe it's true," he said. 
"That's what happens when you do spontaneous radio.  It's fun stuff. 
What I'm trying to do with the program is something different than
normal talk radio fare that is offered everywhere else."