Everything You NEED To Know About Skinwalker Ranch, And The 4 Craziest Sightings Of Skinwalkers That Will Make You Lie Down And Cry
In case you couldn’t tell, I’m kinnnnnda obsessed with the paranormal.
Spirits, UFOs, and urban legends often make an appearance on my blog, as do the places that claim to home them. But there’s a small ranch in southern Utah that claims to be a hotspot for all of this activity.
Yep - all of it.
For decades Skinwalker Ranch has been visited by paranormal investigators, scientists, and tourists looking to catch a glimpse of the mutilated cattle littering the land, the humanoid creatures lingering in the trees, and the UFOs flying overhead. And for decades they’ve been capturing evidence of the supernatural phenomena that allegedly takes place here.
But the thing is, the Uinta Basin - the region of Utah where the ranch is located - is also known for its widespread supernatural activity. It’s even earnt a reputation for being one of the most mysterious places on the planet alongside locations like Area 51 and Stonehenge.
Countless camera crews have ventured beyond the appropriately themed gates of the ranch and have spewed out movies, documentaries, and TV programmes that all aim to capture what is going on at Skinwalker Ranch and why.
And I think it’s time we explored the ranch together…
Welcome to Skinwalker Ranch (or Sherman Ranch), a 512-acre property just outside of the city of Ballard, Utah. The ranch first shot to fame in 1996 when it made its media debut in Deseret News, the local newspaper. You see, the family that owned it began to witness peculiar - and petrifying - events.
In the late 90s, the ranch belonged to Terry and Gwen Sherman and they gave the exclusive to the paper.
“For a long time we wondered what we were seeing, if it was something to do with a top-secret project… I don’t know really what to think about it.”
What the Sherman’s were seeing was a huge range of inexplicable events. They claimed to have seen at least 3 different types of UFO, found several mutilated cattle, and failed to find others. One of the cattle, in particular, was discovered with a strange injury: there was a hole in the centre of one of its eyes, but it exhibited no signs of a struggle, other injuries, or even blood.
The Shermans - like the tourists and investigators to follow - saw a vast array of UFO activity at this location within their short 15 month stay. There was a small box-like craft which emitted a bright, white light; there was an (estimated) 40-foot long object floating in the sky; and there was a huge spacecraft they claimed was the size of several football fields that soared above them. If these UFOs weren’t terrifying enough, they’ve also reported strange lights in the sky. One of them even followed Gwen when she drove back from work one evening.
But you don’t have to look up if you want to see somethin’ spooky.
On one occasion the family discovered 3 circles of flattened grass. Each topped 8 feet in diameter and were 30 feet apart. They’ve also seen smaller versions of the crop circle pattern they found.
Nevertheless, the Sherman’s haven’t just seen the activity - Terry thinks he’s heard the aliens/spirits/skinwalkers behind it, too. On one daily dog walk, Terry heard male voices speaking. They were speaking above him. He estimates they were 25 feet up in the air but saw nothing. The erratic and frantic behaviour of the dogs, however, suggests he was not the only one to think something was afoot.
The Sherman family were not the only ones to report such activity. Terry shared his findings and experiences with other ranchers in the area and they confirmed that they had seen the same things.
These shared experiences go beyond the local area; they span the entire Uinta Basin. According to a local UFO-investigator, Joseph Hicks, there had been 1000s of sightings of UFOs in this region since the 1950s. He had personally investigated over 400 of them.
Hicks summarised his findings: those who saw UFOs reported seeing living beings in the windows or the porthole of the ships they say. And apparently, over 10% of those living in this region have seen something paranormal.
"You can't throw a rock in southern Utah without hitting somebody who's been abducted”
- Trent Harris, a local filmmaker
In fact, some of the most famous sightings of UFOs have taken place here such as a Navy officer capturing footage of flying discs near Tremonton in 1952 and one woman claiming she was even abducted by aliens that visited the region in 1973. There are far more stories to be told, but that’s for another post.
The Sherman’s only stayed on the ranch until 1996 before handing it over to Robert Bigelow, the founder of National Institute for Discovery Science who would own the ranch for the following 20 years. Very little has been made public about what was discovered during this time, but we do know Bigelow and his team of scientists did connect with a Pentagram programme that investigated the paranormal.
Brandon Fugal bought the ranch in 2016 and he continued the scientific investigations into the paranormal activity taking place at the ranch.
24/7 monitoring conducted by various cameras and sensors has captured a serious of unexplained events including evidence of mysterious energy sources that float above the ground. Could these be portals to another realm? Or something else entirely?
Despite the latest efforts to capture evidence of the supernatural, it can actually be traced back to the 1800s. Legend has it a curse was placed on the land Skinwalker Ranch now sits on by the shaman of the Native American Najavo tribe following a dispute with the Utes (another tribe). The curse was a demonic being that could shapeshift into different predators.
It was called a skinwalker.
What is a skinwalker?
According to Navajo culture, a skinwalker is a dangerous witch that can turn into an animal (they either shapeshift into, possess, or disguise themselves as a predatory animal).
The yee naaldlooshii as they are also known aim to cause harm or misfortune to others. These ‘evil’ witches co-exist with the other forces of good in Navajo culture. They believe spiritual powers can be used for good or for evil, with medicine men being the polar opposites of the skinwalkers as they use their abilities to heal.
The skinwalker practice is a part of ‘Witchery Way’ where human corpses are used to curse and harm victims. A number of other Native American tribes have their own take on a skinwalker, but they go by different names.
In order to become a skinwalker, one must follow a simple but bloody initiation: they must kill a family member. Then they acquire their new powers of transformation. To match their new abilities, they can sometimes wear the skins of the animals they shape shift into, and these, uhh, accessories can strengthen their power.
It’s for this reason that the Navajo don’t wear predatory animal pelts.
Skinwalkers use their powers not only to cause misfortune but to collect ingredients for black magic (so for more misfortune, it’s just one big circle of evil). They can control people and animals and have been blamed throughout history for drought, disease, death. The death of livestock is another crisis often pinned on these witches, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that dead, mutilated, and missing cattle are a prominent feature of the paranormal reports that come out of Skinwalker Ranch.
The only way to tell if a predatory creature coming towards you is actually a witch is by their glowing red eyes or humanoid features.
What paranormal activity has been reported here?
Skinwalker Ranch is one of the famous haunted locations on the planet. She’s featured in at least seven TV series and films that have all attempted to get to the bottom of what’s causing the huge volume of supernatural events here.
By the time I’ve rattled off all of the mysterious sightings and experiences, the aliens will have gotten bored, landed in the ranch’s drive next to a beat-up Volvo, and formally introduced themselves to Brandon Fugal.
So, let’s just cut to the craziest activity witnessed here.
First up, Skinwalker Ranch is known for being one of the most investigated locations on the planet. This means that electrical malfunctions are some of the most reported phenomenon. When news reporter Andrew Adams first showed up at the gate to get interviews for a story, problems began.
The camera they were using to record the interviews failed to connect to the smartphones and one of the drones they used to get landscape shots of the ranch claimed it had a fault: “Too strong magnetic interference detected. Ensure there are no magnets or metal objects nearby.”
When this prompt appeared on the screen of the drone controller the radio frequency sensors began to light up. The team then noticed something strange - something strange in the sky. They saw a contrail appear in the sky, and even captured it on one of the cameras the ranch used. They were no aircraft signatures recorded on their technology, and the trajectory was different to that of a bird or a plane. Closer inspection revealed it was a cigar-shaped UFO.
We also need to discuss what the ranch is best known for: being a ranch. That means they have lots of cattle doing, you know, cattle things. They also have a lot that die, get mutilated, or go missing. On one occasion, the Shermans were riding horses looking for some the cows that just kept going missing.
They found some hoofprints in the snow and began to follow them until they stopped. There was nothing at the end of the footprints. The cow that made the prints just simply vanished. They soon discovered other cows mutilated in a manner similar to other alleged UFO cattle mutilations that take place across the world: there was a deep hole cored out of its rectum in a very precise, surgical way. There was no blood. There was simply a chemical smell, a circle of twigs around the cow, and the tops of the trees also appeared to be severed or razored off.
Fellow ranchers local to the area have seen the same thing on their own land.
We now turn to the skinwalkers - the beasts that have given the ranch its terrifying and also hella gross name. Mysterious and large animals have been reported across the ranch for hundreds of years, but the most famous was witnessed by Terry Sherman himself. He saw a wolf three times its regular size. Sherman shot at it, but to no avail. A year later, after the ranch had changed hands, a biochemist believed he saw a huge humanoid creature staring down at the research team from a tree.
Later inspection of nearby animal prints believed to be from the creature suggested it was a huge bird of prey.
Even those that don’t even set foot on the ranch experience the wrath of the skinwalkers: a classic urban legend claims many have driven through the Navajo Reservation when they see something in a rearview mirror. A humanoid beast runs alongside the car and keeps up the pace before they dart back into the wilderness.
The thing is, this isn’t actually an urban legend. Countless tourists and residents driving through Arizona or near the ranch report such sightings.
Rerouting your 2021 USA roadtrip won’t keep you safe from the skinwalkers. They’ve been seen outside of its barbed-wire fences, too.
The 5 most terrifying sightings of skinwalkers
#1 - The Navajo Witch Purge
Honey, I deal in ghost stories. But this tale of terror can be traced back to Navajo history.
After a series of wars with the US Army, the Navajo were expelled from their land (Arizona) and travelled to a new some in New Mexico. This is also known as the Long Walk of the Navajo (1864). Failed crops, difficult conditions, illness, and eventually death threatened the people forced from their land. The US government eventuaaallly admitted they made a mistake and allowed them to travel back.
However, in their time of strife, many had turned to becoming Skinwalkers to escape the conditions. They returned to their homeland, but the Skinwalker accusations began soon after. 40 suspected witches were killed to restore harmony to the tribe in 1878.
Someone even discovered witchcraft artefacts concealed in a copy of the Treaty of 1868.
#2 - 1980s roadtrip sighting
As mentioned previously, the urban legend of driving through the reservation has played out in real life on several occasions. Back in the 80s, a family was doing just that when something jumped out from a ditch. It was dark and it was hairy, but it was also wearing a shirt and trousers.
Days after this skinwalker sighting, they began to experience strange things. One night, they woke to the sound of drumming and chanting. They went to the windows to see what in the hell was going on and saw dark figures surround their house. The figures soon left as they were unable to climb the family’s fence.
This experience fits claims of a ‘hitchhiker effect’ - if you visit the ranch, you experience strange things for a while after.
Something stays with you.
#3 - Sighting by a repairman on a (different) ranch
A man was doing repair jobs on an old ranch home when he heard laughter from a sheep pen. He went to investigate and saw the sheep huddled in one corner. A ram however was separated from the group, was standing upright, and laughing like a human. He then saw the ram had human eyes.
The ram stopped laughing, dropped back to the floor, and walked away on all fours.
#casual
#4 - The murder of Sara Saganitso
Sara was only 40 years old when she was killed. She was a housekeeper at a medical centre and a member of the Navajo tribe. One night in 1987, however, she didn’t return to her family home from work. Her body was discovered badly bruised and mutilated at the medical centre.
There was a stick in her neck, graveyard dirt near her car, and one of her breasts had been bitten off.
George Abney (a former professor at a local college) was later charged with her murder and claimed he was experiencing weird dreams and receiving messages from god. However, his lawyers claimed the graveyard dirt suggest a black magic ritual took place that was similar to the ones carried out by skinwalkers.
One year later, Abney was acquitted and cleared of charges. Even Saganitso’s family believed Abney’s innocence, and the case was reopened a year later. The murder is still unsolved.
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Would you visit the Skinwalker Ranch?
Let me know in a comment below! And while you’re at it, like and reblog this post if you’re into it, and follow for more spoookkkkkkiness.
(No, srsly, I post a new article on the paranormal every saturday and a new ghost story every damn day.)
(And yes, my parents are disappointed in me.)
