In 2009, U.S. Forest Service workers marking trees on Mount Shasta discovered an unusual scene: a large pile of dirt, tools, a makeshift pulley system and a hand-dug hole descending about 60 feet into the ground.
The discovery launched a Forest Service investigation and years of speculation about who dug the hole — and why.
For Mount Shasta filmmaker Elijah Sullivan, the mystery became a 14-year project. His first feature-length documentary, "The Hole Story," sold out four screenings at the 2025 Ashland Independent Film Festival and later sold more than 1,000 tickets at Mount Shasta Cinemas.
“When I first heard about it, I thought that this was maybe going to take me a summer,” Sullivan said.
Instead, Sullivan spent more than a decade tracking down Forest Service investigators and people who may have helped dig the hole. One investigating officer took 10 years to agree to an interview, he said.
The resulting documentary begins as an investigation into the hole but expands into an exploration of Mount Shasta’s culture and the myths that surround the mountain.
Rather than a typical whodunit, Sullivan calls it a “who dug it.”
“Once somebody started telling stories about the mountain, it seems like it attracted other people who added their stories to it,” Sullivan said. “Which attracted other people who brought their stories to it.”
Sullivan said he was particularly anxious about showing the film to audiences in Mount Shasta, where he grew up and where much of the story unfolds.
“I made the movie kind of for that audience, and I was the most anxious about how they would receive it,” he said. “I’m very pleased.”
Event
- "The Hole Story" will play Sept. 18-24 at the Varsity Theatre in Ashland. Sullivan will attend the 7:15 p.m. opening-night screening for a question-and-answer session.
Guest
- Elijah Sullivan, documentary filmmaker, "The Hole Story"
