January 29, 2002: Mel's New Hole - Mel Waters

Art Bell welcomes Mel Waters back after a rebroadcast reignited fascination with his original bottomless hole in Washington state. Mel recounts how the government seized his property under the pretense of a plane crash, then paid him a quarter million dollars monthly to relocate to Australia. He describes being abducted, beaten, and abandoned in a San Francisco alley with his money gone and his wombat research facility dismantled.

A Roosevelt dime found buried on Mel's property draws particular attention. Dated before Roosevelt's death and bearing a mysterious "B" mint mark unknown to any U.S. facility, the coin baffled a dealer before Treasury officials confiscated it. Listeners confirm that TerraServer satellite imagery shows a large blacked-out section over the Manastash Ridge area where Mel's property sits.

Mel then reveals the real bombshell: he has found a second apparently bottomless hole in the Pacific Northwest with its own strange properties. The program opens with listener calls covering Bigfoot field research in southern Oregon, shadow people encounters, and a security guard's account of a vanishing vagrant in Fort Myers, Florida.