Ellensburg’s Bottomless Pit

     The legend of the bottomless hole began in February of 1997, when a man identifying himself as Mel Waters appeared as a guest on Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell. Waters claimed that he owned rural property nine miles west of Ellensburg, Washington that contained a mysterious hole. According to Waters, the hole had an unknown depth of at least 80,000 feet. He claimed to have measured its depth using fishing line and a weight, although he still had not hit bottom by the time 80,000 feet of line had been used. He also claimed that his neighbor’s dead dog had been seen alive sometime after it was thrown into the hole. According to Waters, the hole’s magical properties prompted US federal agents to seize the land and fund his relocation to Australia.

     Waters made guest appearances on Bell’s show in 1997, 2000, and 2002. The exact location of the hole was unspecified, yet several people claimed to have seen it,  such as Gerald R. Osborne, who used the ceremonial name Red Elk, who described himself as an “intertribal medicine man…half-breed Native American / white”, and who told reporters in 2012 he visited the hole many times since 1961 and claimed the US government maintained a top secret base there where “alien activity” occurs. But in 2002, Osborne was unable to find the hole on an expedition of 30 people he was leading. This author also claims to know the exact location of Mel’s hole, it being just to the east of the Kittitas Valley Wind Farm near the Rock N’ Tomahawk Ranch.