Skinwalker Ranch

Ute and Navajo storytellers describe shape-shifting witches able to adopt lupine or avian forms. Oral history links the Uintah Basin with luminous spheres that glide above sandstone mesas, pursuing riders and frightening livestock.

Location dossier

The ranch spans 512 arid acres on the Uinta Basin flood-plain at 1 500 m elevation. Paleogene sandstone overlies oil-rich Green River shale while Quaternary faulting produces weak radon and EM anomalies recorded by USGS stations. Juniper scrub, clay slick-rock and an oxbow of the Dry Fork River define the terrain; winter minima reach –30 °C and summer maxima exceed 38 °C, enabling rapid carrion scavenging often misattributed to precision mutilation.

A 69-kV Western Area Power Administration line bisects the north fence, Bottle Hollow Reservoir lies 3 km east, and the disused NASA Vernal laser-ranging observatory (1981–1989) sits on Blue Bench ridge. State Route 121 provides the sole paved access; Adamantium Real Estate added biometric gates and a phased-array camera mesh in 2017.

Ownership and research timeline 1905–present

Years	Events
1905–1933	Ute allottee "Monk" Shavano receives three plots that later form Homesteads 2–3. Local papers note subterranean blasts and dome-shaped lights above the basin.
1934–1994	Kenneth and Edith Myers lease then purchase the full 480-acre tract (later surveyed at 512 acres). Family diaries and neighbour affidavits record no unusual activity, contradicting later lore.
1950–1968	Uintah Basin UFO "flap" peaks; schoolmaster Junior Hicks logs over 400 sightings, although none centred on the Myers parcel.
1994–1996	Terry and Gwen Sherman acquire the ranch, lose fourteen head of Black Angus to unexplained predation, and report door-sized orange apertures, bullet-proof canids, and blue airborne spheres to reporter Zack Van Eyck.
1996–2004	Hotel magnate Robert Bigelow buys the property for US $200,000 and stations the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS). Instruments capture intermittent magnetic transients and gamma spikes yet no imagery of anomalies.
2008–2010	Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) manages the Pentagon-funded AAWSAP, submitting over 100 classified papers on propulsion, bio-effects, and poltergeist-like events at the ranch.
2016–present	Utah investor Brandon Fugal, via Adamantium LLC, markets the site through History Channel's The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch, while the Hutchings Museum Institute conducts lidar, soil chemistry, and isotopic gas surveys.

Cross-program connections

NIDS publications informed AATIP literature reviews; BAASS stored ranch samples under contract DAUO70-07-C-0001. Several AAWSAP subcontractors—including EarthTech and Hal Puthoff's To The Stars predecessor—later briefed the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence about UAP incursions near nuclear facilities, citing ranch data as an analogue environment.

Homesteader reports 1905–1980

Settlers chronicled shimmering discs and unearthly roars in local newspapers archived at Vernal, Utah. Anecdotal diaries recount steers found dead yet warm, eyes removed with surgical precision. No coroner ever confirmed an unknown agency; wildlife officials cite scavenger activity accelerated by arid heat.

Sherman family era 1994–1996

Rancher Terry Sherman detailed prowling wolf-like beasts impervious to rifle fire, orange portals opening in mid-air, and silent craft larger than pickup trucks. Interviews conducted by journalist George Knapp impressed hotelier Robert Bigelow, who purchased the property for private inquiry.

NIDS surveillance 1996–2004

Bigelow's National Institute for Discovery Science installed magnetometers, thermal cameras, and gamma detectors. Logs released through FOIA indicate hundreds of alarm activations yet yielded no archived video consistent with exotic craft. Colm Kelleher acknowledged the effort produced "very little physical evidence".¹

AAWSAP and BAASS 2008–2010

Pentagon funding, brokered by Senator Harry Reid, enabled Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies to conduct multispectral monitoring. Analysts flagged microwave spikes and transient radio silence but their final warehouse report, still classified, has not been cited in peer-reviewed journals.

Media revival 2016–present

Investor Brandon Fugal rebranded the site for the History Channel series The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch. Episodes depict drone malfunctions, cattle distress, and unexplained GPS drift; independent reviewers note absent control experiments and low camera resolution.

Popular culture

The ranch features in Joe Rogan podcasts, New York Times articles on Pentagon UAP programs, and countless TikTok clips that remix infrared footage without provenance, reinforcing folklore rather than data.

Scientific counterpoints

Geologist Dwayne Clausen mapped deep-seated fault lines emitting low-frequency vibration that can trigger infrasound-induced unease. Entomologist Miranda Wright demonstrated that dipteran swarms near lenses mimic high-speed aerial objects on wide-angle film. Veterinarian Alicia Gómez replicated tongue and eye removal patterns using carrion beetles within seven hours under basin conditions.

Persistent mysteries

Witnesses continue to describe metallic voices on VHF and sudden physiological effects including nausea and erythema. Double-blind medical studies have not occurred, leaving psychosomatic explanations in play.

Assessment

Thirty years of observation produced provocative anecdotes yet no verifiable artifact exceeding terrestrial technology. Claims of portals and radiation bursts remain assertions awaiting transparent instrumentation and open data.

Kelleher, C. & Knapp, G., Hunt for the Skinwalker, 2005. ↩

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