Utah’s Skinwalker Ranch
I love cryptids and monsters. In a few of my travel series articles, we visited haunted lands like Crater Lake, Oregon. South Dakota’s Sica Hollow and Nevada’s Pyramid Lake. I want to say it’s the land at Skinwalker Ranch that haunts people. Except it is more than the land.
Skinwalker Ranch is alone in the paranormal world. Unique and terrifying, the ranch has everything. On the day you decide you are brave enough to visit? You could find cryptids, Monsters, skinwalkers, werewolves, UFOs, and ghosts.
That’s on a good day.
Sherman Ranch is a 512-acre homestead settled in Uintah Basin. In Northeast Utah, 3.5 miles southwest of Ft. Duchesne. The fort borders the Ute reservation. The Ute Indians have lived on this reservation for over 150 years. A long-surviving tale tells how the Sherman Ranch is cursed.
The Utes say the ranch is “on the path of the skinwalker,” an evil Navajo Shaman. It is forbidden for Utes to go onto the property. The reason is that in 1861, the Utes joined Kit Carson to fight the Navajo. The campaign forced the Navajo from their land. With thousands dying on the “Long Walk of the Navajo.” The trek that led the Navajos to captivity at Fort Sumner, New Mexico. In response to their betrayal, the Navajos cursed the land. Fear lasting over 150-years kept the Utes off that ranch. They believe in the skinwalker and the curse. Navajos won’t go near the land either.
The skinwalkers live in nearby Dark Canyon and roam at night. Skinwalkers are shapeshifters and can take on the shape of any animal. Witnesses report seeing humanoid beings with dog heads smoking cigarettes.
That would make me think. That’s something you don’t see every day.
Other sightings describe wolf-like creatures with large, red-glowing eyes. Witnesses have seen and taken pictures of large wolf-like tracks. The Navajo and the Ute stay off the land out of fear. The land remained unoccupied until 1905. A homesteading family named Myers bought the ranch. In the 1930s, Kenneth and Edith built a house of their own. They lived there until 1987 and reported nothing strange or unusual. However, some of their neighbors did.
Did the Myers experience something paranormal but kept it to themselves?
They might not have reported anything, but strange events did happen. Witnesses have reported UFO sightings since the 1700s. People claim to see fireballs and other different UFO shapes. In the 1970s, The Utah Highway Patrol received so many reports of UFOs that they stopped filling out the complaints.
Retired science teacher Joseph “Junior” Hicks investigated over 400 sightings. He discovered that sightings coincided with cattle mutilations. Many eyewitnesses claim to see figures in the windows of the ships.
Skinwalker Ranch stayed empty for seven years after the Myers left. Terry and Gwen Sherman purchased the ranch in 1994. When they took possession, the Shermans discovered something weird. There were deadbolts on every door, window, and kitchen cabinet. Stranger, some of the bolts were outside as well as inside. The Meyers had installed iron stakes and heavy chains at both ends of the ranch.
The Meyers might not have complained to anyone about strange happenings. It was apparent they were terrified of something.
Worse, the day the Shermans moved in, they spotted a wolf or coyote. Right in front of them, it entered the livestock pen and grabbed a calf. Terry ran up to the pen, tried beating the wolf to let go of the calf. That didn’t work, so he shot it with a .357 magnum. It released the calf but stood there and stared at Sherman. He hit the wolf a few more times, and it trotted off. There was no blood, so they followed the tracks until those tracks disappeared into thin air. The tracks disappeared as if it had been a ghost.
Over the next two years, the Shermans and their neighbors saw many strange animals. Animals not local to Utah, and not nice ones either. One night Sherman saw a hyena-like creature attacking one of the horses. He rushed it only to watch it disappear in front of his eyes. Sherman, not believing what happened, checked the horse’s legs. There were scratch marks on its legs, proof he had not imagined things.
Then like their neighbors, Sherman saw strange lights in the skies. Bodies of mutilated cattle with strange marks on their head. Some completely disappeared, and their tracks just stopped. Where the tracks stop, it looked like something lifted the cattle into the air.
These events were just the tip of the iceberg.
At night Sherman would see his pastures light up. Hear sounds of heavy machinery in the field. Inside, items would disappear only to reappear later. Witnesses heard dis-embodied voices not speaking English from above them. Crop circles mysteriously appearing in their pasture.
The Shermans called it quits two years later after a terrible event. In May 1996, Sherman saw a blue orb darting around the ranch. He sicced his three dogs on it, and they chased it. Into deep brush, they followed, and then three horrible yelps. Sherman ran into the brush after them, only to discover the terrible remains of his dogs.
That was it for them, and he put the ranch up for sale. Millionaire Robert Bigelow bought the property for $200,000. Bigelow is the founder of the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS). He is also a millionaire businessman.
Bigelow read about the events that happened at Skinwalker Ranch. He is a believer in ufology and wanted to use the farm to conduct investigations. Unfortunately, Bigelow wasn’t successful, and NIDS disbanded in 2004.
That was all right, as Bigelow had government friends. Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) is much more secretive. It is also working towards having a government sponsor.
The United States Defense Department funded the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program (AATIP) in 2007. AATIP is a secret investigatory effort to study unidentified flying objects, primarily on Skinwalker Ranch.
The program was shut down in 2012 and then sold to Adamantium Holdings in 2016. In 2018, Adamantium Holdings trademarked the name “Skinwalker Ranch.” They also completely locked down the ranch—no one in without permission.
Who is this mysterious Adamantium Holdings? It is none other than Brandon Fugal. Fugal is a business tycoon and is compiling a team of top investigators to research the eerie ranch. The History Channel is sponsoring that research with a TV series, The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch. The series is starting up its second season in the fall.
Whatever is happening on Skinwalker Ranch, its garnered much interest. The events have produced a novel titled Hunt for the Skinwalker. A TV series The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch and government funding. Senator Harry Reid sent money to Bigelow for UFO research.
Something is going on at this ranch. If you are ever in Utah near Skinwalker Ranch? Be careful, as that place is freakishly haunted or visited by aliens.
