A short take on Mel's Hole - Modern Day Folk Lore
"Joan, Joan, I found it...I HAVE FOUND IT". Michael yelled at the top of his lungs from upstairs. "Calm down Michael, and what exactly did you find", Joan asked as she started up the stairs to see what had excited him so much. "This had better be worth it Michael P. Paddock, because I was in the middle of a very fun chat session". Joan said, "Now what is it you found that has you so excited"?
"Mel's Hole. I found Mel's hole. You remember Mel from back in the early Art Bell days, talking about the bottomless pit he had found. I mean he was all over Art's show for a few months with updates and stuff. People thought he was a kook." Michael informed Joan. "He swore up and down that you could hear moans and groans and crying from it, that he had pushed dead cars, old refrigerators and a ton of other stuff down it, nothing ever hit bottom. Remember the one where he talked about how much fishing line he lowered into the hole never to have it go slack. What was it five thousand feet of line?"
"Oh yes I remember some of those shows, he said the military bought his property if I am remembering right, so he moved away. Died a few years later, and his hole became legend." Joan said. "So if he sold his land then the government has Mel's Hole now, and they have denied all inquiries into it."
"Yes , yes, Yes, the military did buy his land. but Mel never said the hole was on his land. he never really said where it was other than in the Yakima Valley area. The military had a firing range, in the area, and a lot of land for desert warfare training. But he never said the hole was on his land." Michael pulled up on his computer the three known pictures of Mel's Hole that Mel had shared with Art Bell.
"Okay look at this first picture, see how the mountains look, and there seems to be a small dip in the lower left hand corner of the picture. I have tried zooming in on it, but well it was not a super high pixel picture, just a scanned in photograph. Then when you take this picture," Michael put the second picture on screen for Joan to look at. "Notice anything in this picture? He asked.
Joan took a close look at the picture and then had Michael switch back and forth between the tow of them. "I think I see that same little dip you pointed out in the first picture. Have you stitched the two together to get a bigger picture? Joan asked. "Yes, of course I did, but here is the kicker, look at this area in the second picture, Now here is the last picture that Mel shared with the world about his hole." Michael put the third image up on the screen for Joan.
Joan gasped as she saw the last picture, she knew the peak in the distant background of the picture, then she saw where she thought it might match up with the second picture. "Show me, I know you have them stitched together, show me the complete picture, I want to see it now." she excitedly asked.Michael put the stitched together picture up on the screen. "That little dark dip, I bet is Mel's hole. and whats more I know where it is, or at least have a good idea of where it is." Michael smiled at Joan as he got up from his computer chair.
Michael walked up to Joan, and threw a bear hug on her. "We found it, I am sure of it Joan, we could be the first people since Mel to see this pit to hell. It looks like its about a six mile walk in from the highway, over some pretty rough terrain. Do you think we should go? I mean after we first find it, we should be able to have an easier walk out after all Mel dumped stuff in the hole, so he had to have a way into the area by truck at least. I looked over google maps, but most of that area is still low res images, so no real details to find a dirt road or trail." Michael gave Joan another hug, "What do you think?"
Joan agreed. They made plans for the next day to go and visit 'Mel's Hole'. They wanted to get an early start, so they packed and readied lunches, so all they had to do in the morning was grab a quick energy filled breakfast and start out on their trip.
"Alright Bob, we knew someone would find it sooner or later, looks like all the waiting was worth it. make sure you scrub that computer clean, I want no residue of Mel's Hole on that thing at all. James are you sure the mind swipe is going to work, that they will just think they have missing time? I don't want another Whitley screw up on your part, I want all thoughts of Mel's hole, gone from them. I want them remembering Art Bell as a kook, and sensationalist. We do not need anymore people feeding the mystique of Art Bell and his show. We got lucky when we drowned his Sirius Radio reboot, and what luck to get that snoorey guy, no one believes anything they hear now on his show.. Tell me you have it covered, I would prefer this to not be a wet job cover up." Major Brightwater enquired, of James.
Did the above happen? Who knows, it is all speculation. Mel's Hole, was a part of my early internet conspiracy radio day shows. I loved the Art Bell After Dark/Coast to Coast AM radio show. He was always fun to listen to. Some of his shows are still available in archive collections on the internet. When George Noory took over the reins I feel the show went downhill pretty quick, it just did not have the, oh I don't know the right word, so "Honesty" will have to do, that Art had.
@misterakpan, enjoyed a story I wrote and invited me to participate in this Contest - - Sankofa Contest Winners Announcement. New Contest Opens!, I may be a tad bit late, it just turned day 6 for the contest. The contest rules?
"Share any exciting folk tale in the most creative and original way you can think of. All you need are just loose memories of the original plot, and you create an interesting story to share with us.
I view Mel's hole as a modern day folk tale. I believe it was first mentioned on Arts show in 1996 or 97, I am not 100% sure on that. It was a fascinating radio show story to listen to.
The Picture above has nothing to do with Mel's Hole, just one of my favorite pictures I have taken. I do not have any Pictures of Yakima Valley, although 5 million years ago, yakima could have looked like this.
“You wanna go for a ride..?”
Great post!
Cheers!
He had some great shows, was always fun to listen to, extremely entertaining.
Oh my goodness, I haven't thought about the Art Bell show in years! I used to make so much fun of my brother for listening religiously but then I'd always get sucked in too. So much fun.
He had a way of entertaining the shift workers and late night owls. He could take any topic and make it seem believable.
And interesting. Even if it was, for example, a hole in the ground.
That is as impressive as anything that'd come from you. Awesome one. Thanks for entering.
I enjoyed it, it was fun, I initially had a hard time trying to think of a myth/lore and remember one, then Art Bell show, and Mel's hole popped into my head. So it was fun reliving the memory of those shows.