UFO sightings tend to be a phenomenon of rural areas. Far from the networked cameras and the bright lights of the city, where the night sky is revealed in all its glory and where lonely roads stretch through empty fields, here strange sightings and stories abound.
There are places, however, that seem to have more than the usual share of strangeness. Places whose names crop up again and again throughout forums and literature.
Skinwalker Ranch is one of these places. Stretching over 480 acres in Northeastern Utah the ranch came to the public’s attention in the middle of 1996 when Terry Sherman, the owner, discussed the strange occurrences that had nearly bankrupted him and were destroying his family’s sanity with a news reporter.
He and his family had moved onto the property with their expensive herd of cattle only two years before. From the very first day they realized that something strange was going on when they arrived at the vacant ranch to find deadbolts not only on one side of the doors but on the other side as well, not to mention more on the windows and all of the kitchen cabinets. On either end of the house they found heavy chains staked into the ground.
Their confusion was only increased by the appearance of what seemed to be a large wolf that was completely unfazed by them. It came up to the family, even letting them pet it until it calmly trotted over to the corral and tried to make off with one of the calves. Terry and his son jumped to action grabbing first a .357 magnum and then, when four shots to the animal seemed to have no effect, a hunting rifle.
But nothing seemed to hurt it. The thing backed off a little but the only damage done was the loss of a small chunk of flesh and hair. Eventually it ran off and disappeared, its tracks suddenly ending in the mud as if it had completely vanished.
From there on out, things only got stranger. The Sherman’s found themselves haunted by a dangerous, trickster-like presence. Mysterious flying spheres of differing sizes and colors buzzed the herds and killed their dogs. Groceries, put away only minutes before, would reappear strewn across the counters. Four prized bulls were found stuffed into a small trailer, the door still locked and cobwebs still decorating the inside. Strange voices were heard throughout the property and circular patterns appeared dug into the ground, tramped in the grass, and carved into ice. Cattle mutilations became common occurrences, sometimes happening within moments of the animals being seen alive.
But after Terry’s story was published help arrived in the form of Robert Bigelow and the organization he founded: the National Institute for Discovery Science. The goal of NIDS was to investigate paranormal activity in a scientific and academically serious manner, and they bought the ranch, keeping Terry on as a caretaker. They descended on the ranch with a wide range of qualified and highly-educated professionals, as well as former law enforcement officials and a truckload of video and other monitoring equipment.
That was 1996. It’s now 2011, and nearly 15 years after NIDS set up shop with the goal of scientifically analyzing the paranormal the world is still unsure of what was really happening at Skinwalker Ranch. Excepting a book by George Knapp and Colm Kelleher with the scintillating name of “Hunt for the Skinwalker,”the results of their research is largely unknown.
NIDS, in fact, is now defunct and the property remains off-limits to the public. So just what was happening at the ranch? What explanation is there for the strange reports that were released? And just what is all of this “Skinwalker” talk about in the first place?
The story continues here next Monday.