Skinwalker Ranch
UFO reports in the Uintah Basin were publicized in the 1970s.[1] Claims about the ranch first appeared in 1996 in the Salt Lake City, Utah, Deseret News,[2] and later in the alternative weekly Las Vegas Mercury as a series of articles by investigative journalist George Knapp. These early stories detailed the claims of a family that allegedly experienced inexplicable and frightening events after they purchased and occupied the property.
Skinwalker Ranch
In 2005, Colm Kelleher and co-author George Knapp published a book[3] in which they describe the ranch being acquired by the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDSci) to study anecdotal sightings of UFOs, bigfoot-like creatures, crop circles, glowing orbs and poltergeist activity reported by its former owners.[4]
The ranch, located in west Uintah County bordering the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation, was popularly dubbed the UFO ranch due to its ostensible 50-year history of odd events said to have taken place there. According to Kelleher and Knapp, they saw or investigated evidence of close to 100 incidents that include vanishing and mutilated cattle, sightings of unidentified flying objects or orbs, large animals with piercing red eyes that they say were unscathed when struck by bullets, and invisible objects emitting destructive magnetic fields. Among those involved were retired US Army Colonel John B. Alexander, who characterized the NIDSci effort as an attempt to get hard data using a "standard scientific approach".[5] However, the investigators admitted to "difficulty obtaining evidence consistent with scientific publication".
Cattle mutilations have been part of the folklore of the surrounding area for decades. When NIDSci founder Robert Bigelow purchased the ranch for $200,000, this was reportedly the result of his having been convinced by the stories of mutilations, that included tales of strange lights and unusual impressions made in grass and soil told by the family of former ranch owner Terry Sherman.[6][7][8][9]
According to skeptical author Robert Sheaffer, "the 'phenomenon' at Skinwalker is almost certainly illusory. Not only was the several years long monitoring of 'Skinwalker' by NIDSci unable to obtain proof of anything unusual happening, but also, the people who owned the property prior to the Shermans, a family whose members lived there 60 years, deny that any mysterious 'phenomena' of any kind occurred there". Sheaffer says "the parsimonious explanation is that the supernatural claims about the ranch were made up by the Sherman family prior to selling it to the gullible Bigelow". Sheaffer wrote that many of the more extraordinary claims originated solely from Terry Sherman, who worked as a caretaker after the ranch was sold to Bigelow.[10]
In 1996, skeptic James Randi awarded Bigelow a Pigasus Award for funding the purchase of the ranch and for supporting John E. Mack's and Budd Hopkins' investigations. The award category designated Bigelow as "the funding organization that supported the most useless study of a supernatural, paranormal or occult".[11]
In 2016, Bigelow sold Skinwalker Ranch to Adamantium Real Estate LLC. After this purchase, roads leading to the ranch were blocked, the perimeter was guarded by cameras and barbed wire, and signs were posted that aimed to prevent people from approaching the ranch.[16]
In the 1960s and 70s, there was a flurry of UFO sightings in the Uintah Basin. Then, in the mid 90s, stories about Skinwalker and strange goings-on at the ranch started to emerge. The stories range from cattle mutilations to UFOs.
"Skinwalker Ranch is the most scientifically studied paranormal hotspot on the planet, with the highest frequency of documented UFO sightings, bizarre cattle mutilations, electromagnetic anomalies and unexplained phenomena," Brandon Fugal, who bought the ranch in 2016, told Newsweek.
The name Skinwalker comes from the Navajo tribe, describing a type of shaman that practices bad or black magic. The ranch has captured popular imagination. The HISTORY Channel is about to air its third season of a series about the paranormal activity at the ranch.
The latest season on Skinwalker Ranch sees investigators examine anomalies in the sky about a mile above the "Triangle Area." The team invites former members of the U.S. military connected to the "Tic Tac" UAP and they simulate a phenomenon so it appears above the ranch.
The ranch sat idle for seven years after the previous owners passed away, and it took awhile for the Shermans to remodel the old house and move in. Before they took up residence, Terry noticed one of the strange circular depressions in the pasture west of the house. He assumed someone had removed a tree.
Terry and his son believe they may have communicated with one of the craft. As they traveled west on the ranch road one evening, they saw a lighted object duck behind the rock ridge as if to avoid them. Moments later they managed to sneak up on the object. Before it could hide again, they stood and waved their arms at it. The light flashed on and off three times, as if signaling them, and then disappeared.
Post Malone, whose real name is Austin Richard Post, spent Sunday with ranch owner Brandon Fugal. Fugal is part of \"The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch,\" a hit series on HISTORY which investigates what it calls \"one of the most infamous and secretive hotspots of paranormal and UFO-related activities on Earth.\"
Fugal tells 2News that Post was specifically interested in the scientific technology and equipment that scientists use at the ranch. Post also helped out with some investigations while he was at the ranch. Post is often spotted in Utah, as he has a home in the state. Further details regarding Post's visit to the ranch were not provided to media. You can see photos of Post's visit in our gallery above.
The film begins with a fairly lame title that reads: "Warning: The following footage might be disturbing to some viewers." Ranch owner Hoyt Miller (Jon Gries) see his young son spirited away by what seem like alien forces, and there is talk of paranormal activity, "dark" soil, animal mutilations, and other things that go bump in the night. We see a few town people being interviewed about the ranch, and these talking heads skirt dangerously close to Christopher Guest-mockumentary territory without ever settling outright for sketchy comedy or hardscrabble reality.
The somewhat charming thing about "Skinwalker Ranch" is that it takes itself seriously. Even though the style is very much paint-by-numbers, with handheld footage alternating with static surveillance shots of various locations on the ranch, the core of the film is sincere. When Hoyt speaks about how sweet his young son was, the movie gains a core of emotion that helps us to care about whether or not the boy gets rescued.
Then in 2016, Fugal ushered in a new era, purchasing the ranch for an unknown sum, tightening up security, hiring a team of researchers to study the anomalies, and launching the History Channel series The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch to document them. The show saw viewership in the millions and was renewed for a second season, resurrecting interest in the property and spawning more than a few viral TikTok videos.
The History Channel show spends a large portion of the first season on one central theme: bad things happen to those who dig. Twice, ranch superintendent Thomas Winterton develops a lump on his head, his scalp separating from his skull after digging on the ranch. Astrophysicist Travis Taylor opens a porthole and develops burns that his doctor says are similar to those radiation patients get.
In the end, unfortunately, those involved admitted they had difficulty obtaining solid evidence. Bigelow sold the ranch to a company called Adamantium Real Estate Holdings in 2016. But according to VICE, research into the paranormal on Skinwalker Ranch has continued. 041b061a72