17 Creepy Facts About Utah’s ‘Skinwalker Ranch’

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[*] Skinwalker Ranch (also called Sherman Ranch or UFO Ranch) is a large property near the small town of Ballard, Utah that is almost 500 acres in size. It boarders the Ute Indian Reservation.

[*] The Utes will not enter the area known as Skinwalker Ranch because they believe it is fertile territory for skinwalkers: “The Utes take this very seriously. They think the Skinwalkers are powerful spirits that are here because of a curse that was put on them generations ago by the Navajos. And the center of the whole legend is this ranch. The Utes say the ranch is “the path of the skinwalker.” Tribe members are strictly forbidden from setting foot on the property. It’s been that way for a long time.”

[*] Beginning in the 1950’s the area around Skinwalker Ranch has been a hotbed of UFO activity (according to locals).

[*] In 1994 Skinwalker Ranch became well known when Terry and Gwen Sherman (the names are popular pseudonyms for the real family) and their children purchased the property only to be driven from the home after two years of increasingly terrifying paranormal events.

[*] When the family moved in, they found deadbolts on doors and windows that puzzled them. Some of the doors and windows had deadbolts on both the inside and the outside. They also found large chains outside that looked like they may be for the purpose of restraining a heavy animal.

[*] While they lived on the ranch the family experienced multiple cattle mutilations, crop circles, hearing voices calling from nowhere, inanimate objects moving before their eyes, UFOs and seeing strange birds and other animals on the property.

[*] In one instance, the family saw a wolf attacking one of their cattle. They shot the wolf multiple times with a handgun and the wolf did not react to the gunshots at all and appeared unharmed while it continued to attack the cattle. Eventually after being shot six times, the wolf ran off and eventually vanished.

[*] In another instance, the family saw their field lit up as if by “football stadium lights”.

[*] They saw a UFO larger than “two football fields” and apparent alien figures “over seven feet tall”.

[*] In two years the family lost 20% of their heard to cattle mutilation.

[*] In 1996 the family vacated their home.

[*] Later in 1996 billionaire Robert Bigelow (he owns Budget Suites) bought the ranch for $200,000 and made it the home of a paranormal research group, The National Institute for the Discovery of Science, which operated until 2004. The organization is later replaced by the Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies.

[*] In 2007, a secret, unclassified government program, The Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program, began investigating UFOs. The program had a $22 million budget and Robert Bigelow received much of that money.

[*] Bigelow’s findings were that the UFOs seen in the area were “not consistent” with current military aircrafts.

[*] In 2013 the film Skinwalker Ranch was made, loosely based on accounts of activities at Utah’s actual Skinwalker Ranch.

[*] In 2016 Skinwalker Ranch was sold for $4.5 million to “Adamantium Holdings” a shell corporation of unknown origin.

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[*] Afterwards, a public road that had gone through the property was closed. The road is now guarded. Thought Catalog Logo Mark

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