Local legend is sometimes bolstered by local observations. Randy Pelosi, a former Chatham resident who now lives in Wake Forest, says that he couldn't help but focus on "the crazy cloud thing" that appeared over Big Hole one summer afternoon in 1991. From about a mile away, Pelosi and a friend sat on a porch and peered toward the site. "The sky all around that place was clear, but right over where that hole is, there was a giant dark cloud," Pelosi recalls. "We watched it for hours. Regularly, every couple of minutes, lightning flashes would go do down into that place.
"That was definitely evidence of something odd," Pelosi concludes, but he's not sure what. He mentions a friend's theory that Big Hole's main function is to relay messages to and from extraterrestrials, but he is not persuaded.
SPIN THE WHEEL