Today a BoingBoing post led me to an additional report that claims there is an NSA spying facility just outside of Yakima.

I had been wondering what all those big radio dishes were over the past few years- clearly visible when passing by on the freeway. I had always assumed that they were some part of the adjacent Yakima Training Center, which surprisingly none of these articles mention. (I’ve heard locals call this “Iraqima” – a play on Iraq and Yakima – for its reputation as an arid training ground similar to some Middle Eastern terrain.) When you add in the convoys of Humvees and other vehicles that make their way slowly along the freeway to and from the training grounds it certainly completes the picture. Is this “training ground” manned to protect the listening post? Queue spectral whistling sound effects.

Oh how I love a grand conspiracy theory! Apparently we can’t just point the finger at the military and the NSA, but Microsoft and Yahoo, and their spectacular data n’ potatoes fetish. (Potatoes are close by for sure, but any local will make it quickly clear that the region is much better known for its apples and wine grapes than starchy tubers.) But who could forget the not too distant new Google datacenter being put in the Dalles? Surely Google here lays aside its don’t be evil mantra to fall in league with all the aforementioned denizens of information gathering? The conspiratorial mind roils contemplating the potential.

And tell me, TELL ME! Why are all of these things so close to Mel’s Hole? (Google search: Mel’s Hole) The Manashtash Ridge wonder of the late-night AM circuit for years…a hole whose depth and breadth born from ancient volcanic (save extra-terrestrial) feats of wonder is rumored to be big enough for data stores the world has never seen!

Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, the military, NSA, all caching data and potatoes in a bottomless pit. We’re screwed.

Additional Resources Of Irrefutable Veracity

• Google Map image of the site in question
• Mel’s page on Art Bell’s Coast to Coast AM
• Description and an additional photo of my hike in the Yakima Canyon, which in retrospect is perfect evidence that I was both A. Searching for Mel’s Hole, and B. Spying on the NSA for spying on me.