Skinwalker Ranch, also known as Sherman Ranch, is a property of approximately , located southeast of

Ballard, Utah Ballard ( ) is a city in Uintah County, Utah, United States. The population was 801 at the 2010 census, an increase from the 2000 population of 566. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 14.0 s ...

, that is reputed to be the site of

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Nota ...

and

UFO An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...

-related activities. Its name is taken from the

skin-walker In Navajo culture, a skin-walker ( nv, yee naaldlooshii) is a type of harmful witch who has the ability to turn into, possess, or disguise themselves as an animal. The term is never used for healers. Background In the Navajo language, ' transl ...

Navajo The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States. With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United ...

legend concerning vengeful

shamans Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritu ...

Background

UFO reports in the

Uintah Basin The Uinta Basin (also known as the Uintah Basin) is a physiographic section of the larger Colorado Plateaus province, which in turn is part of the larger Intermontane Plateaus physiographic division. It is also a geologic structural basin in e ...

were publicized in the 1970s. Claims about the ranch first appeared in 1996 in the

Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

, ''

Deseret News The ''Deseret News'' () is the oldest continuously operating publication in the American west. Its multi-platform products feature journalism and commentary across the fields of politics, culture, family life, faith, sports, and entertainment. Th ...

'', and later in the alternative weekly ''

Las Vegas Mercury ''Las Vegas Mercury'' was an alternative newspaper published in Las Vegas, Nevada from January 4, 2001 to March 15, 2005. The paper folded when Stephens Media purchased '' Las Vegas CityLife'' and combined the two newspapers. Columnists * James ...

'' as a series of articles by investigative journalist George Knapp. These early stories detailed the claims of a family that allegedly experienced inexplicable and frightening events after they purchased and occupied the property.

Book

In 2005, Colm Kelleher and co-author George Knapp published a book in which they describe the ranch being acquired by the

National Institute for Discovery Science The National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDSci) was a privately financed research organization based in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, and operated from 1995 to 2004. It was founded in 1995 by real-estate developer Robert Bigelow, who set it up to ...

(NIDSci) to study anecdotal sightings of UFOs,

bigfoot Bigfoot, also commonly referred to as Sasquatch, is a purported ape-like creature said to inhabit the forest of North America. Many dubious articles have been offered in attempts to prove the existence of Bigfoot, including anecdotal claims o ...

-like creatures,

crop circle A crop circle, crop formation, or corn circle is a pattern created by flattening a crop, usually a cereal. The term was first coined in the early 1980s by Colin Andrews. Crop circles have been described as all falling "within the range of the ...

s, glowing orbs and

poltergeist In ghostlore, a poltergeist ( or ; German for "rumbling ghost" or "noisy spirit") is a type of ghost or spirit that is responsible for physical disturbances, such as loud noises and objects being moved or destroyed. Most claims or fictional descr ...

activity reported by its former owners.

Paranormal reputation

The ranch, located in west Uintah County bordering the

Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation The Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation (, ) is located in northeastern Utah, United States. It is the homeland of the Ute Indian Tribe ( Ute dialect: Núuchi-u), and is the largest of three Indian reservations inhabited by members of the Ute Trib ...

, was popularly dubbed the UFO ranch due to its ostensible 50-year history of odd events said to have taken place there. According to Kelleher and Knapp, they saw or investigated evidence of close to 100 incidents that include vanishing and mutilated cattle, sightings of unidentified flying objects or orbs, large animals with piercing red eyes that they say were unscathed when struck by bullets, and invisible objects emitting destructive magnetic fields. Among those involved were retired US Army Colonel John B. Alexander who characterized the NIDSci effort as an attempt to get hard data using a "standard scientific approach". However, the investigators admitted to "difficulty obtaining evidence consistent with scientific publication". Cattle mutilations have been part of the folklore of the surrounding area for decades. When NIDSci founder

Robert Bigelow Robert Thomas Bigelow (born May 12, 1944) is an American businessman. He owns the hotel chain Budget Suites of America and is the founder of Bigelow Aerospace. In 2011, ''Forbes'' estimated his net worth to be $700 million. Bigelow has provi ...

purchased the ranch for $200,000, this was reportedly the result of his having been convinced by the stories of mutilations that included tales of strange lights and unusual impressions made in grass and soil told by the family of former ranch owner Terry Sherman.

Criticism

According to skeptical author

Robert Sheaffer Robert Sheaffer (born 1949) is an American freelance writer and UFO skeptic. He is a paranormal investigator of unidentified flying objects, having researched many sightings and written critiques of the hypothesis that UFOs are alien spacecraft ...

, "the 'phenomenon' at Skinwalker is almost certainly illusory. Not only was the several years long monitoring of 'Skinwalker' by NIDSci unable to obtain proof of anything unusual happening, but also, the people who owned the property prior to the Shermans, a family whose members lived there 60 years, deny that any mysterious 'phenomena' of any kind occurred there". Sheaffer says "the parsimonious explanation is that the supernatural claims about the ranch were made up by the Sherman family prior to selling it to the gullible Bigelow". Sheaffer wrote that many of the more extraordinary claims originated solely from Terry Sherman, who worked as a caretaker after the ranch was sold to Bigelow. In 1996,

skeptic Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the ...

James Randi James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge; August 7, 1928 – October 20, 2020) was a Canadian-American stage magician, author and scientific skeptic who extensively challenged paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. Rodrigues 2010p. ...

awarded Bigelow a

Pigasus Award The Pigasus Award is the name of an annual tongue-in-cheek award that was presented by noted skeptic James Randi. The award seeks to expose parapsychological, paranormal or psychic frauds that Randi had noted over the previous year. Randi usua ...

for funding the purchase of the ranch and for supporting

John E. Mack John Edward Mack (October 4, 1929 – September 27, 2004) was an American psychiatrist, writer, and professor and the head of the department of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. In 1977, Mack won the Pulitzer Prize for his book ''A Pri ...

's and

Budd Hopkins Elliot Budd Hopkins (June 15, 1931 – August 21, 2011) was an American artist, author, and ufologist. He was a prominent figure in alien abduction phenomena and related UFO research. Life Elliot Budd Hopkins was born in 1931. He was rai ...

' investigations. The award category designated Bigelow as "the funding organization that supported the most useless study of a supernatural, paranormal or occult".

Ownership

* 1934 – 1994 – Kenneth and Edith Myers * 1994 – 1996 – Terry and Gwen Sherman * 1996 – 2016 –

* 2016 – present – Brandon Fugal, via Adamantium Real Estate LLC (search Adamantium Real Estate LLC) (parcel search) In 2016, Bigelow sold Skinwalker Ranch to Adamantium Real Estate LLC. After this purchase, roads leading to the ranch were blocked, the perimeter was guarded by cameras and barbed wire, and signs were posted that aimed to prevent people from approaching the ranch. Adamantium Real Estate, LLC, a Delaware

limited liability company A limited liability company (LLC for short) is the US-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that can combine the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability of a ...

based in Salt Lake City, Utah, filed a U.S. Trademark application for the service mark "Skinwalker Ranch" on February 15, 2017 and was approved and registered on April 14, 2020, with the mark applicable to "providing recreation facilities; entertainment services, namely, creation, development, production, and distribution of multimedia content, internet content, motion pictures, and television shows." An additional trademark filing to expand use on "cups and mugs, shirts and short-sleeved shirts, sports caps and hats" was filed by Adamantium Real Estate, LLC on June 21, 2021, and was approved and registered on July 12, 2022. In March 2020, Brandon Fugal, 46, Utah real estate tycoon, announced ownership of the ranch.

In popular culture

Footnotes

References

External links

Skinwalker Ranch Official WebsiteSkinwalkerRanch.org
– Property maps and updates from local researchers investigating the ranch
RealityUncovered.com
Article comparing claimed phenomenon to the region's Native American Ancestral heritage and religious practices (archived) *
17 Creepy Facts About Utah’s ‘Skinwalker Ranch’
at ''

Thought Catalog ''Thought Catalog'' is a website founded in 2010 by American entrepreneur and media strategist Chris Lavergne.Newton, MattheThought Catalog And The New Age Of Confessional Media''Forbes.'' June 7, 2015 Owned by The Thought & Expression Compan ...

'' {{UFOs Reportedly haunted locations in Utah Forteana Utah culture Conspiracy theories in the United States Buildings and structures in Uintah County, Utah Ranches in Utah Paranormal places in the United States