The Infamous Skinwalker Ranch

The Skinwalker Ranch (known for reports of hyper-mysterious happenings) consists of 480 acres located in northeastern Utah south of US Interstate 40, which enters Utah from northwestern Colorado, winds through miles of sparsely-populated territory – interrupted only by the city of Ver Nal – and passes through Ballard on its way west. The ranch property is located along the southern border of the Unintah-Quray Indian Reservation near the Bottle Hollow Reservoir, north of the ranch; Road 27505 leads from Hill Top Road east along the northern edge of the property. There is a North Gate, South Gate and an East Gate. The ranch house is located in the northeastern corner of the property.

BAASS and Bigelow. Many of the earliest mysterious events are recorded in Colm Kelleher and George Knapp’s 2005 book Hunt for the Skinwalker: Science Confronts the Unexplained at a Remote Ranch in Utah (Paraview Pocket Books, December 6, 2005).

Robert Bigelow of Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) bought the property in 1996 and established the National In statute for Discovery Science (NIDS) to investigate the incidents. Around 2009, Bigelow entered into a short-lived agreement with the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON).

Indian legends in the area tell of a trans-mutative creature, half-animal and half-human and other creatures that take the form of “apparitions and whirlwinds.”

Early Cases. Records indicate a man by the name of Ken Meyers and his wife Edith lived on the property from 1930s until 1987. Not much was reported concerning paranormal activity, however, local Indians had a “wage pool” as to how long the Meyers would stay “before being driven off.” Mr. and Mrs. Meyers placed dead bolt locks on almost all the doors, even those inside the house and they had big, unfriendly dogs chained just outside the door leading into the house.

A neighbor reported that one of his cows disappeared somewhere around1996 and the man's nephew, Dean Derhak of Salt Lake City, said he was riding a horse on his uncle's property in 1980 when he saw a silver sphere on the ground of what later became the Sherman ranch. “It was fairly big, about 30- to 40-feet wide. It looked like a bowl upside down,'' said Derhak, who was 11-years-of-age at the time. “It scared me and I took off.'”

The farm was purchased by Terry and Gwen Sherman in 1994. One of the first strange things the Shermans noticed were geometric circles of varying diameter that appeared to be impressions left by something heavy.

Some of the Shermans’ cattle were discovered mutilated and drained of blood and one was cored through the anus and emitted odors chemical in nature. Four other cattle disappeared, one which appeared to have been pulled “up” scorching the branches of a tree. Roosevelt, Utah veterinarian Dan Dennis said that eventually ten mutilated cattle were reported on the Sherman ranch. Investigation revealed three of the families living nearby experienced unusual activity. The Uintah County Sheriff's Office confirmed that John Garcia, who lives east of the ranch, reported two of his cows were mutilated in 1996.

The Shermans also had their share of UFO encounters, consisting of strange lights and voices coming from overhead. Gwen Sherman saw a “manned” aircraft and from which a 7-foot-tall figure emerged.

Multiple UFOs. At other times, a 40-foot object and football-field-sized craft (both with multi-colored lights) were seen. Baseball-sized blue lights were reported to “both emerge from, and disappear into, orange-colored portals and behaved as if controlled ... hovering ... [then] high speeds.” In one instance, after sending three of their dogs chase a light, one of the dogs began whimpering loudly. Later, three “greasy blobs” were discovered in three “scorch spots.” Residents in the area reported seeing a “gigantic” craft with many lights. UFO historian Joseph Hicks investigated more than 400 similar sightings in the area.

One particular mutilation case involved a pregnant cow. Later, a large football field-sized UFO was sighted. “Pete Pickup,” a NIDS investigator, noted that “while blood and tissue samples were still fresh,” a mutilated cow was found. The left eye and part of the left ear were removed “with a sharp surgical instrument.” The UFO was spotted June 25, 2000, and had “intermittent flashing of a separate light source and making some rhythmic sound.”

Bigelow and NIDS had up to 15 scientists and Ph.Ds working at the site by 2001.

Strange Tracks. BAASS investigator Dr. Colm Kelleher, with a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Holy Trinity in Dublin, interviewed two Ranch investigators who photographed and recorded strange tracks. The two investigators (designated Investigators 1 and 2) recorded a howl and “distinct, foul order” reported by the family. The smell was described as “very putrid sulfur, rotten flesh.”

Investigators next discovered and photographed strange tracks on the property. The tracks appeared to have had a strange “gait,” or step, in the snow. An Indian administrator, familiar with wildlife trails, could not identify the tracks. “And there was no snow kicked up in front of these tracks,” reported Investigator 1. “There was no snow kicked behind the tracks. Whatever left these tracks [that] we obtained video and photographs of, walked up not only with great dexterity but easily.”

Kelleher and the investigators discussed reports of a creature in the Fort Duchesne area, jumping “literally from roof to roof,” about four houses and then disappearing. The creature was described as a muscular, hairy creature with “big round eyes” and pointed ears.

“Whatever, it was proved elusive. The surveillance cameras that were installed atop telephone poles were attacked and dismantled, but whatever did it was invisible. Kelleher of NIDS said, “We checked the time stamps on this pole versus this pole. We looked at when the camera lost power and nothing was on the tape. There should have been something visible because the range of these things is pretty good.” As yet, the mystery of Skinwalker Ranch remains unsolved. “If anything, it has created more questions than I had when I came into this thing,” Keller added.

Burial Grounds and Balls of Light. BAASS investigators collected reports of hovering lights and orbs of light, as well as reports of a “two-legged creature, dog” – seen sometimes near Indian or tribal burial grounds along the mesa known as Skinwalker Ridge. “…I asked Bob (a witness) about the smell associated with this dog creature because everybody has talked about his smell,” said another investigator. “Horrible, horrible smell.”

Ryan Skinner told of balls of light that landed with “black, thick smoke” that materialized into a “wolf.” Skinner said sightings of the wolf “have been around the property for at least 30 years and there is a picture of it on the internet, and it hasn’t aged a day.”

A number of “Remote Viewers” received a varied and confusing picture: “The psychic images perceived both individually and collectively by the viewers are general and without much detail. The phenomena is mostly hallucinations,” said Skinner, “there may be some spirits from Indian grounds – not too sure; I also believe what you see/experience is purely on what mind set you have.”

Investigators: Tripod, Hobby Horse and Others. Logs of investigators “Tripod” and “Hobby Horse” run the gamut of mysterious events: a missing knife, a sighting of a blue UFO, orb phenomena, poltergeist activity, mystery sounds, camera malfunctions, shadow images and medium phenomena. “On the other hand,” says Skinner, “both the Ouija Board experiment and the experiences provided by Rocky suggest a yet strong presence of the spirituality associated with the original Native American inhabitants of the region, and which manifests itself in the form of paranormal entities such as Shadow People and the Skinwalker.”

Investigator “Ranch Hand” speculated the “presence” moves in and out of some “dimensional portal” and is “relative to the state of mind and level of the expectations of the individual.”

Another investigator named “Rich” offered suggestions as to what is taking place on the Ranch: (1) The phenomena seems to be a “nexus” of all kinds of alien activity, the traditional as well as the atypical. (2) Humans are the key to something that holds importance to them. They need “us” to survive. (3) Sometimes “abduction” should be viewed as a universal, spiritual experience, maybe even a karmic contract.

Other Strange Incidents. Other Skinwalker Ranch investigators spoke of additional paranormal happenings. “Jeremy K” said of his encounters: “My experience involves seeing strange lights, white, blue, red and faint cloudy lights. Also very weird noises in the river bottom near the line of cotton trees. I could actually hear something very large breathing, but with light feet. I would get within 20 to 30 feet of me and freeze.”

Ryan Skinner speaks of the reports of a mystery helicopter. The helicopter made no noise. Investigator “Jeremy K’ said on November 6, 2013: “We sat down and there was a completely blacked out helicopter flying above and around us. It was the weirdest thing. You couldn’t hear standard helicopter noises.”

Skinner presents stories and testimonies of neighbors and Indians associated with the Skinwalker Mesa. Most offer interesting insights as to what could be happening there. Using a typical UFO sighting as an example, he shares some of his personal feelings about witnesses who seem indifferent to their contact with the paranormal. “I never could fathom people’s reactions to seeing one of these things,” he said. “It was like a mental defensive block or something. People for the most part absolutely where frightened to death. So they ignored it totally.” He also mentions a UFO “disc” hovering over a baseball game, for almost 20 minutes; everyone looked once, and then ignored the UFO. “I can’t explain reactions like that, can you?” asks Skinner. “I wondered was it [the UFO] spraying those zombies with pixie dust or what?”

Other Hot Spots. The Utah ranch isn’t the only “hot spot” Skinner writes about. There are, apparently, other areas of concentrated paranormal activity around the globe, similar to the Skinwalker mesa. Skinner tells of a Texas hot spot at the end of an airfield runway north of the Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation that once belonged to the Indians. It is now covered by extensive tracts of trees, brush and “some unidentified evil.” Like the Skinwalker Ranch, similar phenomena were reported at the site over the years. “I am not convinced 100 percent whether this was all alien, or a mixture of the paranormal sort of a portal being used by many, many entities,” Skinner observed. “It’s a dimensional thing, I guess. Makes one wonder whether or not some of the disc and other oddly-shaped craft are simply vehicles which carry these beings from one dimension into another, not intergalactic spacecraft.”

Skinner concludes that paranormal activity, indeed, was present, and seemed to be focused, on the property: “... most of it was categorized as aerial anomalies; the resident does acknowledge encounters consistent with Native American legend, specifically the manifestation of what appeared to be Indian spirits and the appearance of wolf-like entities.”

Trouble on the Ranch. BAASS had its share of criticism, especially in its NIDS phrase. One of its more unsettling conflicts revolved around locating several “rods” on the ranch which investigators for NIDS and MUFON said seemed to be the same Element 115 that Bob Lazar of Area 51 fame said he worked with as a technician in Area 51’s hidden retrieved UFO lairs. Aerospace scientist John Schuessler claimed the rods were carbon, not element 115: “As for the rods found on the Skinwalker Ranch, I was on the NIDS Scientific Advisory Board back in those days and can verify that rods were found. They were not heavy Element 115 rods. Instead, they were thin carbon rods that are used in arc lamps to make very bright lights in field operations. I have personally used this type of rods in arc lamp operations many years ago.” According to Schuessler, Element 115 would have been far too unstable to have existed in the wild, open ranch land.

James Carrion, MUFON, indicated this demonstrated a certain amount of carelessness that NIDS and BAASS investigators needed to avoid: “It appears that once again in Ufology, there are more questions than answers; common fare for a field where the waters are muddied but never cleared. If you consider yourself a truth seeker then perhaps it is time to take a stand against these forces of ambiguity that seek only to obscure the truth rather than bring it to light. It is time to promote truth and not mystery in a field that has too many mysteries already. It is time to reveal the truth by not compromising ethics or principles or by allowing truth to be censored. It is time to stop falling prey to fear and lies but instead to hunt the Skinwalker forces of deception in their own territory. Who is up for a hunting trip?”

Future Plans. Alfred Weber wrote in “Robert Bigelow’s and MUFON’s Hybrid UFO Investigation ...,” (April 7, 2010) that Bigelow, MUFON and the FAA created a special UFO reporting form they hope pilots will use to report aerial phenomena. A BAASS UFO hotline staff was on duty to receive UFO reports. Weber said BAASS was interested in “cases where physical effects of a UFO are reported or where ‘living beings’ are allegedly sighted or where ‘reality transformation’ is said to occur.”

The Star Team Impact Project (SIP) was to investigate reports into “cases where physical effects of a UFO are reported or where ‘living beings’ are allegedly sighted or where ‘reality transformation’ is said to occur.”

Weber also discovered: “On examination of confidential BAASS-MUFON documents that were anonymously leaked to this reporter, it is clear that a clash of corporate and non-profit cultures and lack of mutual communication framework between an accounting-oriented corporate contractor and a mission-driven volunteer organization – rather than any wrong action – triggered the temporary suspension and review of the hybrid arrangement that parties in both organizations seem to want to continue.”

Billy Cox, a writer for The Herald Tribune, likewise gave a revealing summary of Bigelow’s plans in the paranormal industry (Wednesday, June 9, 2010):

“Robert Bigelow, the zillionaire hotelier who wants to build the world’s first private space station, doesn’t do much media. ... In a nutshell: With NASA phasing out of the launch business, Bigelow’s aggressive development of inflatable habitation modules – and his willingness to invest up to half a billion of his own $$$ to make it happen – puts him at the forefront of the privatization of space. He and anyone else wanting to exploit the high frontier will need wheels to get there. And the Obama admin plans to spend $6 billion over the next five years to encourage the private sector to produce the next generation of launch vehicles.

“His space stations are not his only interest in space. 'I’ve been a researcher and student of UFO’s for many, many years,' Mr. Bigelow said. ‘Anybody that does research, if people bother to do quality research, comes away absolutely convinced. You don’t have to have personal encounters.’

“Other views that run counter to mainstream science include a belief in the power of prayer and a disbelief in the Big Bang theory.”