April 24, 2000: Mel's Hole Update

First measurement3,600 feet of fishing line, dry Life Savers: Mel describes his first attempt to gauge the hole on his Manastash Ridge property by spooling out 1,200 yards of shark fishing line tipped with a one-pound weight and a roll of Life Savers as a wet/dry indicator, and the candies came back bone dry.

80,000 feet of line and still no bottomMel says he eventually let out 80,000 feet of monofilament fishing line, roughly 15 miles, before giving up trying to reach the bottom of the hole on his property.

The dead dog that came back from the holeMel tells Art that a local hunter threw his dead dog into the hole and that the same dog was later seen alive in town, the story he says convinced him he wanted his own remains dropped in there when he died.

Armed men seize the property, plane-crash cover storyThe day after his original Coast appearance Mel says he returned to find armed personnel, both civilian and military with fully automatic weapons, blocking the property and yellow earth-moving equipment on site, with claims that an aircraft had crashed there even though he could see no smoke or wreckage.

Quarter million dollars a month and a one-way ticket to AustraliaMel says the unidentified party leased his Manastash Ridge property for a quarter of a million dollars a month, with non-disclosure terms, and quietly relocated him and his dogs through San Francisco to Perth, Australia, with his immigration paperwork pre-arranged on the Australian end.