Mel’s Hole Blocked by a single cloud on Google Maps

71  2014-07-10 by jammiejams

The other day my mother told me about “Mel’s Hole”, a story about a bottomless hole made famous by the syndicated radio show Coast to Coast AM in 1997-2002.

Details about it can be found here

YouTube of Mel’s appearances on the show here

During one of the update shows featuring “Mel”, he reported that his land (and subsequently the hole) was blanked out from view on TerraServer.
This is the TerraServer image taken from the ‘hideous monster' website.

I then took that and deduced the approximate location of Mel’s Hole on google maps… Problem is, there is a cloud blocking it. A single cloud and shadow.I scrolled around the area looking for other clouds and found none.

I’ll leave you with some screenshots on imgur

And Here is the link to the Google map of Manastash Ridge, so you can have a look for yourselves.

EDIT: reddit user Tudor_Shittier has located what looks like the hole north of Ellensburg on google maps and bing map

Here is an article about the supposed hole

some skulking around lead me to this new location via google maps, which would make more sense considering Mel's claims. However bing shows no "shadow-y circle anomaly"

60 comments

That is the wrong location.

Correct location:

47° 8'44.00"N 120°37'25.62"W

This really looks like it!... Strange that it would be north of Ellensburg when the blanked out part that Mel claimed was his land is more southwest... May I ask how you found this?

Some people say this is not it.

They'll say "that's just the old Green Canyon shaft".

The location that others claim is an observatory. No idea why the data doesn't show up on terraserver, but terraserver was pretty old, and was only built to showcase SQL server's ability to store more than a terabyte of well indexed "blob" data, back when that was a big deal. Lots of things don't show up on terraserver.

ah, I see... Still very interesting. Here is an article about the supposed location

Link to google maps of this coordinate

Link to bing map of this coordinate

the bing map doesnt have a cloud, though there is a cut going through the middle of the picture, where a little area is not displayed

http://i.imgur.com/gbmqjpj.jpg

can you highlight it? It's difficult to see for me.

http://i.imgur.com/D5wcVWd.jpg

the cut is going horizontally through the whole picture. You can see that the area around the line is blurry.

Thanks - I knew it had to do with that mound. strange

The blanked out terraserver maps on the website you posted this story from seems to show the area to the south west, not the north east.

yes indeed, very mysterious.

[deleted]

That Bing link doesn't work for me. (Edit: Just not in Chrome; works in IE)

Bing not working on chrome huh, interesting...

Works fine for me. First time I've seen bing maps. It's weirdly really quite good.

yes - it's very detailed - you can even make out the dirt tracks in the area.

very interesting... thanks for posting the location! edit: now I'm going to be combing the area for the next 3 days for this hole...

It doesn't seem like there are any properties in the location where the white squares were. Have you had any luck?

none yet, other than the two I've included in the main post, but someone has potentially debunked the "shadow-y circle" anomaly as a possible sprinkler... but a single sprinkler? lol not to mention the radius is freaking huge... anyway - i'm open to the idea that it could be hidden by plant life of some kind - or among the other mysterious places on earth that are Photoshopped out of google maps...

I would really like to go check this area out. Is It forbidden to enter the area? How is this been explored or new photos of said area?

I am seeing a part of Northern California, not Washington, with the link you shared.

Check your typing. California stops at 42N.

Did you try the 'historical imagery' option in GE?

11/7/2012 shows the same area without cloud.

Here's the .kmz file i've uploaded for you.

I love stories like this. I also doubt this one is true. Luckily, it's easy to test. Someone can go to Washington and investigate that location that you imply Google doesn't want you to see.

If I lived there, I would. I heard on this podcast that Les Stroud (a.k.a. survivor man) mentioned he was interested in investigating big foot after some encounters... If only one of the hundreds of crappy discovery/travel/etc. channels would fund someone to camp out around Ellensburg for a while, rather than produce more "OH, IT'S A GHOST!" * sound effects *

That was a fun read... recommended

That's not much of a debunking. It's just one guy who assumes that the inspiration is a hole that he knows of which is a goldmine shaft. As far as the hole not being structurally possible; who's to say that it's not reinforced by some exotic material like the other holes we've heard about?

I had the same thought. It's not really a debunking at all, just one guy saying he thinks this is the hole that inspired it and that the other hole would not be physically possible. Well no shit, we're talking about the paranormal/unknown here if the story is true.

Definitely interesting. I thought that perhaps it is a shaft of a D.U.M.B. and then this news broadcast talks about the same thing. I'm not sure about the alien things... they always have to take it to the next level to give it a kooky feel.

Excellent video thanks for posting

Fascinating, I love stuff like this.

These days though we should be able to send a camera with a light down there no problem. Any idea when the last attempt at figuring this out was?

EDIT: I'm listening to the tapes now but I read ahead a bit in the story on the site and I'm amazed at how normal this guy sounds and how much he doesnt' sound like a "typical" person who is into conspiracies. And yet his story takes a very, very odd turn after this first call.

EDIT 2: After hearing the whole story I have to say it was just a bit too fantastical for me to believe. Even George was sounding pretty suspect by the end. I also noticed a glaring inconsistency in his story. When he first mentioned the ice going down the hole and coming back up changed George asked how often it works. Mel responded as if he had tried many times by saying that the ice changed states about every third time it went down. Then in the next call he comes up with this fantastic story about someone taking the ice home and it melting through the ground. The alien then tells him that the ice is dangerous and very rare and must not be messed around with. This directly goes against the idea that he had tried multiple times and created this special ice more than once.

Fun to listen to though.

I remember hearing about this back in the day, as my Dad used to listen to Coast to Coast AM all the time. It's very fascinating and I'm glad to see there's still a good deal of mystery surrounding it.

so the dude didn't take any photos or videos of the biggest discovery of his life? If I found a hole in on my property and drop 80 thousand feet of fishing line and still sense it has no bottom...I fucking start taking photos, record the evidence...

EDIT: errors in writing

The information states the hole doesn't show up on film or other recording type devices.

of course

When they dna test it, it'll be a bear.

roooaaaarr

It was actually the dime that couldn't be photographed, not the hole. But your point stands. I rolled my eyes at that part too.

I thought that was just regarding the coin?

That was the dime, not the hole.

one photo? and it wasn't destroyed?

In 1997, that would have taken thirty minutes of dialing AOL, and 12 minutes to upload.

The shadowy circle appears to be a massive circular sprinkler pattern.

LOL yes! it could be - that makes sense!... but only one? in that remote of an area?

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You gotta pay the troll toll if you want to get into Mel's Hole.

If the story is true, couldn't we assume that "they" have made sure that we can't just look at it from above?

If the hole can't be photographed why bother blocking the satellite image with a white box or cloud?

I've never heard that it can't be photographed before I read these comments...

In the story he said that the DIME can't be photographed, not the hole.

It was never said that the hole can't be photographed.

In the link provided it was stated that the hole could not be photographed.

Weird, I listened to the whole thing last night and only heard him say that about the dime, not the hole. I guess I could have missed it though.

Not the audio the one that almost looks like a wiki type page.

Lol, I love that someone suggested throwing a cat down it.

feel bad for the sheep, though. :(

If that particular event happened. I don't think I could of left the area, or at least not try and see if it would hybrid with myself.

This really looks like it!... Strange that it would be north of Ellensburg when the blanked out part that Mel claimed was his land is more southwest... May I ask how you found this?

In the link provided it was stated that the hole could not be photographed.