~ 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