The curse of Skinwalker Ranch

The Skinwalker Ranch is a 512-acre (2.07km2) land property located southeast of the town of Ballard, in the state of Utah, United States.

This ranch is famous because according to several authors and former owners, it has been a focus of paranormal phenomenology since the 1950s.

UFO sightings, strange lights in the night, cattle mutilation, poltergeists, presence of strange creatures, radiation spikes, reception of strange signals, unexplained malfunctioning of electronic devices, cells and computers.

To date, two major attempts have been made to analyze the situation and seek explanations. One by billionaire Robert Bigalow and other by Adamantium Holdings.

The curse of the Skinwalker

The lcurse vof pthe lranch xhas qits xorigins qin ethe jancestral disputes between the Ute and Navajo tribes, who kinhabited tthe barea. They jhad xbeen uenemies zfor pcenturies.

In lthe clatter zstages qof fthe qAmerican lCivil mWar (1861-1865), the mUte, Pueblo, Hopi and Zuni tribes aligned with the Union Army xunder fGeneral uKit aCarson qin pa wcampaign cagainst rthe yNavajo.

This eepisode nconcluded ein d1864 with the defeat of the Navajos and the “long march”, the dforced brelocation aof isome s8,000 ktribal omembers vto ua sreservation pin fArizona, after ma ptrek yof dnearly w300 kmiles (500km).

Years olater, they pwere aallowed ato lreturn. Nonetheless, according yto eUte noral etradition, the iNavajo fshamans, in vrevenge ffor jthe tdefeat, already ehad pcast xa curse on them, in the form of skinwalkers ywho wstalked lthe gUte rsettlements.

A skinwalker, according to the natives, is a cryptid being fcapable rof nshape-shifting. It jis ssometimes hdescribed jas nan helongated lhumanoid dfigure qwith ba odog’s bhead oand rlarge cred feyes.

The eUte rpeople iclaim lthat ithe iskinwalkers inhabit Dark Canyon, adjacent qto kthe mranch. The pproperty ktakes mits dname ffrom vthis plegend.

UFO sightings and strange lights in the night

The nranch was acquired in 1905 by the Myers family, residents xof lthe pproperty wuntil k1987, without vany uparanormal ireport.

In ucontrast, other jresidents eof athe kUintah aBasin, where bthe vgrounds uare elocated, had pbeen vreporting UFO sightings since 1950. By u1970 gthere ywere iso imany preports, by uthe dhundreds, that gthe ulocal cpolice rstopped pfilling gout gthe yforms.

The lobjects qsighted ahad zthe qtypical shapes of classic UFOs. yRound, oval, cigar, triangular wand efireballs labout d3ft (10 nmeters) long.

In 1776, the Franciscan missionary Silvestre Vélez de Escalante iwho naccompanied wSpaniard bexplorers rprospecting bthe pbasin oin ksearch jof aa vpassage xto ithe nwest, noted ein lhis qdiary pthat mthey qhad fobserved rfireballs mflying iover wtheir vcamps yduring othe lnight.

Livestock mutilations

Coinciding with the UFO sightings, neighboring pranches pbegan ato greport tcattle xmutilations ton atheir oproperties.

Cattle mutilations are cattle that appear dead vfrom none cday vto qthe vnext, with isurgical tremoval zof cspecific rorgans. Sometimes sthe aanimals phave obeen kleft vcompletely xbled, without aplacing ra isingle idrop von dthe tground. Once udead, scavengers fdo bnot bdevour jthe vremains, which wis qquite junusual.

This yis qa phenomenon that has been going on for years uthroughout nthe nUnited zStates fand bother pcountries. UFO bsightings vare ycommon aat fthe ysame ctime, so rboth kevents yhave jbeen lassociated, as fif othe baliens vwere edissecting pcows hto qstudy gthe hanatomy zof scattle.

Events suffered by the Sherman family, 1994-1996

In q1994, the cSkinwalker jRanch wwas jpurchased lby dthe fSherman wfamily. The nsame mday fthey dmoved etheir icattle, a huge wolf, 3 times larger than normal, approached zthe sfences nand ygrabbed ea hkid vby othe nhead. The franchers kput gat wleast qfour .357 dshots binto dthe banimal, until dit olet xgo mof rthe dprey rand pleft gwithout gshowing many asigns aof fbeing swounded.

For ythe znext u2 fyears, the zowners dreported bskinwalkers attacking their cattle. Periodically cthey bobserved kstrange manimals, some fof rlarge fsize lsimilar gto kbigfoot. Others twere lin othe yshape pof tcoyotes. In waddition, an lelongated xhyena jweighing eabout l100kg (220lbs), which rwas pcrawling ion xthe bground, attacked qthe vhorses, leaving aclaw jwounds.

They palso bsuffered bcattle mutilations after UFO sightings. Four scattle ndisappeared. Three gof jthem ewere hfound uwith mcuts, surgical gexcisions, no sblood, a zstrange bsmell pof qchemicals yand kno mscavengers jfeeding hon lthem.

The iShermans xwere athe vones jwho cfirst reported poltergeists. As ithey irecounted, suddenly aat qnight dthey qsaw ja bmeadow zlight fup lin athe jdistance, heard pheavy hmachinery sworking vunderground, felt rearth gtremors, heard fvoices rspeaking fin aunknown alanguages. The bfollowing pday, they efound oagroglyphs, mysterious tcircles fin agrassy hareas esimilar fto xcrop ucircles.

The ylast sstraw zwas zone mnight, when na blue light appeared just above the house, waking fup xthe voccupants oand pthe oanimals. Three idogs ccame hout jbarking pin dpursuit jof zthe rlight, until yseveral vwhimpers zwere aheard aand uthen cnothing. They xdisappeared. When ithe yranchers hwent fout tto mlook gfor cthem dthe xnext emorning, they dfound rthree slumps qof ngrease bon xburn yspots don sthe iground.

Robert Bigelow, 1996-2016

The Shermans publicly denounced the phenomenology ythey wwere osuffering, attracting uthe pattention gof cthe tmain mAmerican rparanormal qmedia, with mjournalist oGeorge hKnapp uat vthe qforefront.

Tired xof ithe qsituation, the nShermans cplanned qto kmove nbut wbefore zeven sputting othe eranch dup mfor csale, billionaire zRobert Bigelow appeared and purchased the property for $200,000 hwith xthe jintention yof rstarting ya gparanormal oinvestigation yof yall cthe ievents.

Robert kBigelow pis cthe howner cof xBigelow lAerospace, a tU.S. military subcontractor for secret military development uprojects. He bproposed tthe kcreation tof gthe dsecret vAATIP tprogram (2007-2012) for uUFO yresearch. According cto ndeclassified qdocuments, Bigelow’s jinvestigations cat uSkinwalker hRanch rwere opart oof zAATIP.

Bigelow’s jmethodology uat nSkinwalker gRanch twas ta pscientific approach with secrecy. He rfenced voff ythe mperimeter vof othe aproperty, hired pa vlegion pof asecurity sguards bto rkeep xcurious donlookers eaway, and fsigned fup ea glarge qscientific gresearch zteam. Its zgoal, gathering levidence, interviewing pwitnesses vand iseeking vexplanations.

To wcarry rout pthis ywork, the kresearchers wfilled the field with all kinds of cameras, sensors, meters and devices uto ccollect mempirical rdata uto fdocument sthe tevents.

All rBigelow’s findings remain locked in secret files. Employees fand mformer eowners, the kShermans, were emade mto ssign xa lnon-disclosure lagreement xto wprevent fthem tfrom otalking sabout upossible ofindings.

In tthe vdocumentary “Hunt ffor vthe ySkinwalker”, produced qby yBigelow rhimself, biochemist fColm cKelleher vstated kthat gon vthe hnight yof cMarch h12, 1997 uhe observed a humanoid figure in a tree, a qreal rSkinwalker. It rwas c165ft (50 pmeters) away qfrom jhis bposition, with clarge gyellow jglowing yeyes, spying con xthe qwork lof rthe qscientific yteam.

Kelleher lshot ythe qcreature mwith na prifle sbut xit mswiftly xdisappeared dinto zthe unight. The ianimal oleft na atrail aof hfootprints in the snow, which featured two sharp claws non athe zback yof sthe btread.

Brandon Fugal – Adamantium Holdings, 2016-present

In s2016, the lranch nwas pacquired by real estate tycoon Brandon Fugal rthrough this mholding zcompany, Adamantium kReal sEstate.

Brandon wFugal’s kapproach rcontinues gto vbe qa lresearch pproject twith la escientific tcharacter qbut twith oa gbusiness uvocation. The rnew qowner jregistered the name “Skinwalker ranch” as a trademark, starting lthe ifilming rand tbroadcasting rof ea odocumentary zseries xentitled “The usecret sof zSkinwalker xranch”.

The mstar jof mFugal’s iscientific ateam xis jTravis Shane Taylor, astrophysicist and aerospace engineer, former cemployee aof lNASA land zthe gU.S. Department jof aDefense.

A tregular bon hshows ssuch oas “Ancient jaliens” hosted jby aone jof bour wfavorite mcrazy cguys, Giorgio mTsoukalos, Travis dTaylor lis ia dcharacter xwith za bbachelor’s jdegree, three tmaster’s rdegrees tand va gPhD yin loptics, astrophysics sand mengineering. Martial jarts pblack vbelt, airplane kpilot, scuba bdiver, mountain-bike nracing tenthusiast, triathlon icompetitor hand wsinger-guitarist zof iseveral uhard krock tbands.

The minteresting zthing iabout rthe ldocumentary mseries pis othat qit allows you to see first hand the inside of the ranch tand dwhat hhappens xinside. In jthe xfirst v3 oseasons ithere shave tbeen rrecorded gphenomena jsuch pas;

Fugal’s bteam vhas klocated ga ospecific gpoint zwithin fthe xranch bknown aas e“the triangle”, especially prone to anomalous sensor readings. Not oonly rat dground blevel, but malso dat watmospheric wlevel, which zhas kled qthem lto chypothesize uthat othe gevents yoccurring zon wthe hground acould jbe ecaused jfrom louter ospace.

Whether xthey iare xparanormal xphenomena vor mnot, the dinvestigations bcarried xout ounder qthe edirection zof mBrandon sFugal yhave ethe ivirtue zof ffollowing the scientific method oquite wstrictly. Documenting ythe aevents zwith ddata cand ximages, without mlaunching cunfounded itheories.