MYSTERY WIRE — A ranch in northeast Utah has been the site of many strange sightings, including UFOs and beasts that defy explanation.

The Skinwalker dossier

So what exactly is a skinwalker? It’s based on a Navajo culture and beliefs about evil deeds. Read more about skinwalkers here, and how they can take the form of shape-shifting witches. One legend says that the Ute tribe was cursed by Navajos, and that skinwalkers are known to inhabit an area near the ranch that bears their name.

Mysterious events at the ranch in Utah’s Uinta Basin date back at least as far as white settlers’ first entry onto the scene. Reports of underground explosions and rumbling appeared first, followed by UFO reports as early as 1944, and peaking around 1968.

Scientists have studied the magnetic field in the region, and at one time NASA built an observation post nearby.

Where does all of this lead?

Some believe that there are “portals” in the area that connect to other places, and possibly other times. The physical laws we understand sometimes seem to be in flux at Skinwalker Ranch, and a kind of intelligence holds sway over what we are “allowed” to see and understand.

George Knapp’s “Hunt for the Skinwalker,” written with researcher Dr. Colm A. Kelleher, is full of accounts about the odd conditions that have been observed there. A recent film by Jeremy Corbell has also detailed some of the occurrences.

The first chapter of Knapp’s book details a ranching family’s encounter with a gigantic wolf that seemed to shrug off bullets and disappear into thin air. That was in the 1990s. Scientists are still trying to figure out what goes on there.

For a map of the area, see The Navajo skinwalker gains new interest.

Videos

Links to stories

Many reports on Skinwalker Ranch cross over into accounts about government-funded studies involving UFOs. More coverage shows up in coverage of missing person cases and paranormal research:

Take a drive through Skinwalker Ranch with George Knapp:

It’s such an anomaly that the US government included the ranch in studies that it secretly funded beginning in 2007.

Aerospace entrepreneur Robert Bigelow had purchased the ranch in 1996, and paid scientists to study what was going on, forming the National Institute of Discovery Science. Top scientists took part in the investigation.

Scientific study of Skinwalker Ranch is something that makes it unique. Bigelow and current owner Brandon Fugal have seen to it that recording devices capture data about what is happening there.

Timeline

Newspaper archives and legends passed down through generations provide some information beyond the hard dates presented here: