The Mysterious Skinwalker Ranch
~ Written By Pattyhap 1863 ~
As a paranormal researcher, my hunt for the unexplained and bizarre is constant. The only thing that motivates me to carry on is finally obtaining irrefutable proof of the truth in the paranormal world. Even though GhostsAmongUs primarily deals with obtaining evidence to prove the existence of ghosts, the site also deals with other aspects of the paranormal as well.
I first knew of Skinwalker Ranch when I read an article written by George Knapp, who happens to be an investigative journalist who has something that other journalists do not have: an obsessive interest in the paranormal, particularly UFOs. The fact that he has also published a book on Skinwalker Ranch called “Hunt for the Skinwalker” piqued my curiosity as to what Mr. Knapp had experienced there. The co-author of the book, Colm Kelleher, is a scientist. This excited me because we all know how skeptical scientists usually are about the paranormal in general. When I started to read bits and pieces of what people had experienced, and put it all together, Skinwalker Ranch suddenly became an obsession of sorts for me as well.
Skinwalker Ranch lies in the Uintah Basin in the state of Utah, about two and a half hours from Salt Lake City. The area in itself is relatively famous as it is considered a UFO hot spot. Ufologists insist that the whole basin is reputed to be high in UFO sightings and cattle mutilations. The Ranch itself had been abandoned for many years when Tom Gorman and his wife (not their true names) purchased it in 1994. Their intent was to turn the ranch into a place to breed and raise cattle. They invested a lot of money on prize cattle and purebreds in order to ensure success in their project. Tom Gorman was an expert in animal husbandry and artificial insemination, and he and his family looked forward to nothing but success on the ranch. They didn’t know that from the first day on, their lives would be immersed in a series of paranormal anomalies that slowly wore them down and took away their hopes and dreams.
The first day they moved in, they all were on the porch looking at the whole area and especially proud of their collection of cattle in the corral not far from the house. Then, an enormous wolf appeared to them and walked towards them. The wolf went up to where they were sitting on the porch and allowed itself to be petted by some of them. Then it walked up to the corral and suddenly took a calf by its snout, trying to pull it through the bars. The family tried to scare the wolf off and even resorted to hitting it, but it would not let go of the calf. Finally they took some guns out and started shooting at it. To their amazement, even after being shot at close range, the wolf did not show signs of being afraid or letting go. What was most shocking is that it did not seem to be hurt nor bleed, not even after one of the shots tore into its skin and a piece of its flesh dropped onto the ground beneath it. After that, the wolf calmly let go of the calf and stared at the family quietly, before slowly turning away and walking out of the ranch. Tom and his son went after it for several miles along the creek in that area. The wolf always seemed to wait up for them, but would always keep its distance as well. Then, it disappeared. No tracks. Nothing. No blood from gunshot wounds either. The only thing that remained from their encounter with this huge animal was the wounded calf, and the piece of flesh that had fallen off the wolf. When they examined it, they said it looked and smelled like rotten meat.
A couple of weeks later, Mrs. Gorman was coming home from doing the shopping when she met another one (maybe even the same one) of the huge wolves. It was so large that she said its back was parallel to her car window. It was accompanied by a large dark dog-like animal, much smaller than the wolf. After looking at her for a while, it left and then both animals disappeared from the premises completely.
Along with the huge wolves in the area, a number of other things happened at the same time. There were a series of strange lights reported. The lights that the Gormans would see would be blue floating orbs. There were also orange lights reported. Other times the lights would be red, those were generally observed when the cattle was harmed. The cattle mutilations were growing in numbers and the family was terrified of what was happening. The other things that were happening to them were of a poltergeist nature. Objects disappeared in the house, only to reappear in other places where they had previously looked. All this phenomena was random and unusual. Nothing would happen following the same pattern and the Gormans were unsure of what the next attack would be like and when it would happen. Their two children, who had been A students at high school suffered as well, as their grades plummeted.
The phenomena continued. Nights went by when their whole ranch was lit up like a football stadium. They also thought they saw shafts of light emanating from the ground. They heard what they described sounded like heavy machinery under the ground at night and saw nine-foot beasts walking about from time to time. They also heard voices. They also saw colorful birds that appeared and disappeared afterward that seemed to be tropical in nature. They would run to investigate after seeing and experiencing things, but would never find anything that could explain what was happening to them.
As the purpose of this article is not to explain to you in detail the hundreds and even thousands of anomalous things that the Gormans were experiencing, I suggest you click on the links below to a series of podcasts in video format, hosted on You Tube of the interview carried out between Coast to Coast and Colm Kelleher in the first hour, and Coast to Coast AM and George Knapp during the second hour (with Colm Kelleher joining in later) to thoroughly explain in detail the kind of experiences that the Gormans were going through and the kind of activity that was experienced on the ranch later on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPl4FS7WlPw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kublMHP4dRs&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkD7Urltiwk&feature=related
The fact remains that by 1996, the Gormans had had enough and along came Robert Bigelow, renowned hotel entrepreneur and billionaire to boot, and bought the ranch from the Gormans at $200,000, setting up the NIDS in the premises.
The NIDS (National Institute for Discovery Science) was founded by Bob Bigelow and studied paranormal phenomena. Here was a chance for them to begin an ongoing project where the paranormal was practically an everyday occurrence. Mr. Bigelow had founded NIDS and was said to have a keen interest in the paranormal. The kind of equipment that was being used was top of the line and the public waited for the evidence to be presented.
Thanks to George Knapp, we know what took place in the ranch after the NIDS established its headquarters there. We know that they had numerous paranormal events occurring there with alarming frequency and Mr. Knapp has been kind enough to make this known to the public to some degree. He had been invited to the ranch on a couple of occasions and managed to witness a lot of the phenomena that took place there. The one activity that has stuck in my mind, which I find fascinating is when NIDS scientists witnessed what seemed to be a round ‘portal’ of yellow light widening to form a yellow three dimensional tunnel above the ground, and a dark tall human-like being emerge from it. Upon running to the area to investigate further, the light had disappeared, and the being or entity was nowhere to be found.
After years of exhaustive studies on the ranch, the NIDS was disbanded. The public that had waited so patiently for evidence of their project was in some cases dumbfounded and in others a bit upset that it had ended so suddenly without going ‘public’. It was during this time that George Knapp and Colm Kelleher got together to write and publish “Hunt for the Skinwalker”. The book is very well written and includes a lot of information of the data collected over the years. However, I find it hard to believe that there is not one single shred of PHYSICAL evidence in the form of pictures, video or audio recordings to substantiate what is described on its pages. The book is mainly anecdotal and the only known picture that has been released to the media so far is the one of a mysterious animal track, which can be seen below. Many people arrived to the conclusion that the track in this photograph looks very much like a rabbit’s.
Why did NIDS close down completely and disband? Here is an open letter to the public that I found on Rense.com. It was written by the elusive and mysterious Robert Bigelow himself:
We at the National Institute for Discovery Science have come to a time in which a decision must be made as to the direction of the Institute. We have labored long and hard, coming to the conclusion to place NIDS in an inactive status. The reasons for this decision are as follows:
1. We have not had the need to do any major investigative work for well over 2 and a half years.
2. In view of that fact we decided to reduce our staff.
3. Our administrator, Colm Kelleher, has taken a position outside of Nevada to do cancer research. Colm’s ambition has always been to do cancer research and was employed in this field prior to his employment with NIDS. We are sorry to see him leave.
It is unfortunate that there isn’t more activity, as there was in the past, that warrants investigation. However, we will still retain our Secretary/Receptionist who will remain at NIDS to answer your calls. Her name is Mary Allman and can be reached at (702) 798-1700. She will be talking daily to Mr. Bigelow’s assistants Janice and Donna.
Should substantial activity occur with a need for investigation then NIDS will be reactivated with new personnel.
Robert T. Bigelow http://www.NIDSci.org/ (Source: http://www.rense.com/general58/bigelow.htm )
Don’t bother looking up the http address to the NIDS site, it is currently down and unavailable.
So here are a number of questions I’m asking about the NIDS and Skinwalker Ranch and I sure hope someone reads this article and decides to give me some answers. Firstly why did the NIDS simply shut down if there had been times of inactivity in the past before and they had continued on the ranch? Why did they keep everything from the public? Why is it that there is nothing to show the public after so many years of studying this place where the paranormal was said to be a commonplace occurrence? I took the liberty of calling the number mentioned in the above letter and I got no Mary Allman. I got another person and a totally different property answering so we can assume that it is now in the hands of a private person or persons unknown. Why is this? And why is it that nobody is doing anything about it? Why is it that nobody is interested in the area any longer? All the articles I’ve read on the internet that tell us about Skinwalker Ranch are dated up to 2004. The only other article I’ve found that is more recent is one from HPI in 2008 which I include in a link below. They really didn’t have anything remarkable to say of their visit there either.
So what is the Skinwalker Ranch today? Just private property, not a hotbed of paranormal activity. Certainly not one that makes the news.
Who will come forward to finally clear this up?
Patricia Scott Pattyhap1863@aol.com www.ghostsamongus.net
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinwalker_Ranch
http://www.klas-tv.com/global/story.asp?s=4275629
http://www.aliendave.com/Article_PathoftheSkinwalker_p1.html
http://www.aliendave.com/Article_PathoftheSkinwalker_p2.html
http://www.aliendave.com/UUFOH_TheRanch4.html
http://www.alienseekernews.com/articles/facing-death-skinwalker-ranch.html
Hunt for the Skinwalker by George Knapp and Colm Kelleher:
http://www.amazon.com/Hunt-Skinwalker-Science-Confronts-Unexplained/dp/1416505210
Try the word GOVERMENT! Any thing that has been checked into or looked into and that has gone poof has the goverment behind it hiding whatever anyone has ever come close to finding out, Area 51 comes to mind.
http://www.stevenrinehart.com/uploads/SkinwalkerTrip.doc Have you seen this doc?, it comes up like the third or fourth listing in a google search of “skin walker ranch” apparently this was the guy who took the photo of the so called mysterious foot prints on a ridge line above the ranch. I think a serious reconnaissance of this area should be conducted by a group(s) of people interested in aquiring answers and shedding some light on the state of things at the ranch now. Some questions I have personally is who owns the ranch now? and is there a care taker? One thing I find interesting is the fact that this guy mentions seeing several cameras with infared capability on the top of the ranch house .Is this left over from the gear deployed by NIDS?, or possibly military or govmt. equipment? I happen to be an alarm and cctv surveillance technician and that isn’t the type of high dollar gear you leave laying around if you decide to shut down surveillance on a site. IR Cameras cost anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars per unit not to mention you dont just hook them up to an old black and white monitor and a vcr.
Funnily enough I’ve just finished reading the book. Been looking forward to it for years after NIDS decided to hold their cards very close to their chest and it became hard to find new information on this intriguing case on the net. Sadly though, for me it revealed nothing that wasn’t already known. A few things were revealed in more detail – the camera vandalism for one – but there were a lot more things left unanswered, particularly as to their research methods. Something I found especially interesting was their use of “remote viewers”. One of these mentioned some kind of honeycomb or grid underneath the ranch. The Gormans had reported noises that sounded as though they emanated from below ground and they had been told not to dig on the property. Well why the hell wasn’t that one of the first things that NIDS did?!? Or at least perform some geo.-phys. scans on the site to see if any anomalies turned up! I would have liked to have seen what would have happened if they had adopted the “stand-off” approach that “Tom” advised at the beginning of their research as well. Apart from that, the book seemed to have a lot of filler for me – the mention of Dulce, the Cash-Landrum affair, etc. Seems that Colm Kelleher was struggling for material when happenings at the ranch turned out not to be…well, happening for the NIDS team. A shame. Serious scientists would not be persuaded by any of the incidents as written here yet the whole case provides a plethora of circumstantial evidence for interdimensional existence. Those scientists and investigators who took part are brave folks in my eyes and not only for risking their careers in the pursuit of this kind of thing. Mysterious beings crawling out of strange tunnels that appear in the air? I’d have shat my pants and you wouldn’t have seen me back there!!!
Funny, I read about this story years ago and jumped online to find out whatever happened to the ranch. Like you, I noticed no information past 2004. As if it all just “went away”. I, too, would really like to know if NIDS still owns the ranch and if anyone lives or visits.
Hopefully some new information will turn up soon…
Thank you for all the comments. I’m still trying to find out who owns the ranch now. I think that it all has been hushed up, or maybe greatly exaggerated perhaps?
It’s all a mystery and apparently only time will tell…
does anyone know where it is forsure? i live in Duchsene and i myself could not find it…
I live in the area and have visited the front gates of the ranch on several occasions, and there are people living there, all the gates are locked and have warning signs posted everywhere. if you sit long enough at the front gate a security guard in a ford explorer will charge the gate with his head lights off and give you quite a scare. also one night driving away from the ranch a wierd black pile of hide or fur was in the middle of the road it was huge the length of the road and 2 feet off the gound it looked like a huge elk hide that had been there for months, however we had just travelled past that spot less than 2 minutes earlier without it being there, this scared myself and other people that were in the truck bad enough that we have not returned. if you want directions i can give them to you, its halloween tonight and im sure youll everyone is looking for something creepy to do.
It’s been a while since anyone has talked on this topic. I have to say that there are things that should not be known or sought after. I have had my fair share of ‘incidents’ for quite some time and still have them. Skinwalkers! I you really want to know about them then go to the reserve at night. I promise you all that it’s a big mistake to bother with! They are very real. I know. I have had several run-ins with these beings. I don’t think they are human or from here but I can tell you all that they are inhuman, scary, and will never leave you alone unless they feel like it. As far as the events on the ranch goes, it could have happened. These creatures are tricksters. They are also very evil. I have a native heritage but never followed it until about 3 years ago. I didn’t believe stuff like that until I had an a run in with ‘something’. It’s very difficult to explain but please believe me when I say this. Drop the wanting to know the truth about strange events. You will regret it. I promise you that!
It would be nice to hear recent news about this place. The fact that the Utes won’t go near the place should tell Us all something!.
This ranch is in Ft Duchesne, UT. Me and my son went there just this week. The gate is closed and there are several cement baracades in front of it. Signs say keep out etc. There are cameras in the trees. So you tell me,,, why if nothing happened or isn’t happening why all the security? There is strange things that go on out here in in the Uinta Basin of UT. Paranormal activity etc. My husband and son both say that when they are by the river loading their water trucks they feel like someone is watching them. My husband and son both are psyshic and they tell me they hear and smell campfires, horses and hear voices when no one is around. I believe this area is very active with paramormal activity. This is all Ute Indian land and they believe . Why shouldn’t we?
Some years ago, I read a book about that place. Unfortunately, the author and title elude me. This may be a sacred area to the Indians, thus, the odors and auditory activity.
Goldsage–uh, no. It is NOT sacred to the indians. It is FEARED by the indians and they will go nowhere near it. They will not speak of skinwalkers at all. They want nothing to do with it. As stated above, you’ve got to wonder why the natives want nothing to do with it. I would never want to get anywhere close. Just feels like nothing good at all.