Ancient Aliens s15e10 Episode Script
The Mystery of Skinwalker Ranch
NARRATOR:
In a remote valley in Utah,
there is a ranch
that some say is evil.
GEORGE KNAPP: Bad things
happen to people on that property.
There's danger there. It's real.
NARRATOR: Terrifying
creatures prowl the land.
TRAVIS TAYLOR: There's
stories of cloaked beasts
running out of the woods
and chasing people.
This thing comes right up
to this guy and roars.
NARRATOR: Ominous
lights appear in the sky.
I have personally watched as
portions of the mesa
appeared to glow.
NARRATOR:
Animals are found slaughtered.
They had prized cattle
taken and mutilated.
NICK REDFERN:
It's not just UFOs.
It's not just strange creatures.
It's not just animal
mutilations. It's everything.
TOM WINTERTON: There are
things that have happened here
that have shaken me to my core.
NARRATOR: What is
behind the strange phenomena
that takes place
on Skinwalker Ranch?
And could solving the mystery
change our entire reality?
JEREMY CORBELL: There is something profound
that is going on at Skinwalker Ranch
and it begs to be studied.
NARRATOR:
There is a doorway
in the universe.
Beyond it is
the promise of truth.
It demands
we question everything
we have ever been taught.
The evidence is all around us.
The future is
right before our eyes.
We are not alone.
We have never been alone.
(bird screeches)
NARRATOR:
Uintah County, Utah.
Nestled in a deep valley,
surrounded by some
of the highest mountain peaks
in North America,
is an infamous
512-acre patch of land
known as Skinwalker Ranch.
The native Utes
warn of a dark presence
that exists in this area,
where strange sightings
in the sky,
encounters with
terrifying creatures,
animal mutilations,
and numerous other
paranormal activities
have been reported
for centuries.
Skinwalker Ranch has become
this nexus of activity
where people are reporting
strange things.
It's in an area in Utah that's
very much like a desert terrain,
and what's there now
is high desert prairie,
kind of, area.
Now what it actually is
and what's going on there
is a whole other question.
CORBELL: It's a very unique
place in the world
where the phenomenon
expresses itself
in dramatic form.
It's also the most
scientifically studied
UFO or paranormal hot spot
in history.
NARRATOR:
Native American legends say
that there has been
an otherworldly presence
at Skinwalker Ranch for as long
as humans have existed
in the area,
which, according
to archaeological evidence,
is at least 10,000 years.
And the very first
European settlers
to pass through this land
in the late 1700s had their own
bizarre experiences,
which they recorded
in their journals.
KNAPP:
The first Europeans
to cross the Uintah Basin,
the, uh, Franciscan monks,
reported seeing things
over their campfires at night,
really weird objects
that we would call UFOs.
The Native Americans,
the indigenous tribes
have been there, have had these
experiences for generations.
It has, for as long as humans
have lived there,
it's been the site
of paranormal activity
strange things in the sky, UFOs.
There are so many stories
about Skinwalker Ranch
that range from
cattle mutilations going on.
There're stories that if you dig
on the property,
you'll get sick.
Even strange stories
of cloaked beasts
running out of the woods.
You've seen UFOs.
They have seen
different creatures.
They have seen weird things
happening up in the sky.
So you have all these
different phenomena
that happened on that ranch,
so some have referred to it
as a veritable Disneyland
of the paranormal.
NARRATOR: The most notorious
of the paranormal phenomena
associated with Skinwalker Ranch
is the creature for which
the property is named.
The association
of the skinwalker
with this mysterious
plot of land
can be traced back
to the mid-19th century.
In January of 1864,
land disputes between
Navajos, Utes,
and the United States military
in Utah and Arizona
reached a fateful tipping point.
After decades of conflict,
the military removed
the Navajo people from the area,
forcing them to make
what became known
as "The Long Walk"
to New Mexico.
The Navajos blamed the Utes
for helping the military,
and so they cursed the land
that the Utes lived on up there.
And it must've been a pretty
strong curse because,
even today, there are
really interesting things
that happen up there.
NARRATOR:
Cursing the land,
the Navajo witch doctors
attempted to conjure an entity
called a "Yee naaldooshii,"
or "skinwalker."
The skinwalkers,
they're sort of typically
six to seven feet tall,
very dangerous.
It's described
as being wolf-like,
but walking on two limbs.
So, inevitably, it sort of
provokes imagery of a werewolf.
DOVER: The subject of skinwalkers
is as serious as a heart attack.
This is not something
to trifle with.
Even talking about them
puts me in some danger.
The skinwalker
is somebody who is evil.
They want to control people,
communities, regions,
and have that power over people,
and they do this by fear.
JIM MORSE: The Utes,
to this day, are very respectful.
They're very mindful.
Matter of fact, they stay
at an arm's length, um,
from the Skinwalker Ranch.
Uh, they firmly believe
that this ground is cursed and
that, not only the Uintah basin,
but this concentration
of this phenomenon,
this host is on
the Skinwalker Ranch.
NARRATOR: Could a
monster known as the skinwalker
really stalk the grounds
of Skinwalker Ranch?
And if so, was it conjured up
by Navajo witch doctors?
Or is it connected
to the paranormal,
and perhaps
otherworldly, activity
that has been reported
on the property for centuries?
Investigative journalist
George Knapp
was one of the first reporters
to expose the strange stories
at Skinwalker Ranch
back in the mid-1990s,
when he conducted extensive
interviews with the Shermans,
the family of ranchers
that owned the property.
This guy shows up one day
while the ranching family
is still there.
He's built like Grizzly Adams,
big burly guy with a beard,
he said he'd been drawn
to the property,
and he talks to the rancher
and says, "I just need
"to meditate
for a couple of minutes.
"I'm drawn here.
I need to do this.
Can you let me on the property?"
The rancher kind of
bemusedly says, "Okay,
come on in." He lets the guy in.
The rancher and his son escort
him to the middle homestead
and the rancher and his son
are watching the guy
and just kind of
chuckling to themselves.
They hear this thing
in the brush,
and then they look over
and there's something moving.
And then it comes out
of the brush,
right up to where this guy is,
and it-it looked like
the creature in Predator
with the camouflage,
the opaque c-camouflage,
the invisibility technology.
This thing comes right up
to this guy and roars.
(roaring)
KNAPP: Scares the hell out of this
guy who opens his eyes, flies back,
lands on his back.
The rancher and his son
go rushing over to him.
He's petrified, grabbing them,
won't let go.
They escort him off the property
and he swears it's the devil,
it's Satan, you're gonna burn
for this kind of stuff.
NARRATOR: Is it possible
that the terrifying creature
witnessed by both the ranchers
and their mysterious visitor
was what the Navajo call
a skinwalker?
Was it a being
from another world?
Even another dimension?
Such stories have inspired
countless curiosity seekers
to make pilgrimages
to the ranch.
But for those who have lived
and worked there,
like current ranch
superintendent Tom Winterton,
Skinwalker Ranch is not a place
to be taken lightly.
I'd been warned
not to dig on this ranch,
which I thought
was absolutely ridiculous.
Yeah, it's-it's a ranch,
for crying out loud.
That's what you do. You dig
fence holes, you dig ditches.
And so I paid
zero attention to it.
And whether it's related or not,
I ended up getting
this severe head injury
that causes my head to swell up.
I had fluid that separated
the fatty tissue from my skull,
and to this day, my doctors
still haven't come up with
an explanation of what happened.
What they did say was that
what happened to me
just was not medically possible,
but I'd be lying if I didn't say
that there are things
that have happened here
that have shaken me to my core.
When we patrol the-the perimeter
of the place,
both on foot
and with our vehicles, um,
we are heavily armed.
And that's not necessarily
because we're looking
to hurt anybody.
It's more of we don't know
what we're dealing with,
- and it's a dangerous place
- Morning.
MAN:
Hey, Caleb. How you doing, man?
ARNOLD: Between the
natural things that are here
and then also the unknown.
NARRATOR: What could possibly
explain so many incredible encounters
being reported on a single
512-acre stretch of land
and by multiple groups of people
over a span
of hundreds of years?
Do the many accounts of UFOs
point to an extraterrestrial
connection?
Perhaps further clues
can be found
by more closely examining
the stories
of the skinwalker
and its connection
to ancient gods.
The mid-1990s.
The current caretakers
of the ranch, the Shermans,
are entering their third month
on the property
when they begin to experience
what they believe
to be paranormal activity.
They give their accounts
of the strange events
to investigative journalist
George Knapp.
So, the wife goes
grocery shopping,
she buys enough food
for a couple of weeks.
She comes home, takes all
this stuff out of the bag,
puts it in the cabinets
and goes out of the room,
comes back,
all the stuff's
back in the bags.
She takes a shower
in the morning,
locks the door,
has a towel and a hairbrush.
Gets out of the shower,
the door is still locked,
but the towel
and the hairbrush are gone.
The hairbrush is found later
in the freezer.
NARRATOR: Initially,
it was only Mrs. Sherman
who witnessed the poltergeist
activity on the ranch.
But it wasn't long before her
husband had his own experiences.
The rancher's out using
a post hole digger,
digging this big, heavy
piece of equipment.
He's digging holes
to put fencing in.
He stops for a second,
wipes his brow, looks around,
the post hole digger is gone.
He finds it three weeks later,
75 feet up in a cottonwood tree.
NARRATOR: The Shermans' experiences,
while bizarre, are not unique.
We're gonna pull some data
up here that we took,
- so lets take look at this.
- NARRATOR: Members of the team
currently investigating
Skinwalker Ranch have reported
similar poltergeist-like
phenomena on the property.
One of the weird experiences
I've had is
I was in my bedroom
in the command center
trying to go to sleep.
There was no one else around.
And it felt like someone
came up and kneed the bed.
- (wood creaking)
- And it jostles the whole thing.
I got up and wandered around
to see if something happened.
There was nothing really that
could've made just a big shake
of the bed as if some individual
had bumped into it.
WINTERTON: I've heard
voices on multiple occasions.
I've had individuals with me
that heard the voices, too.
The interesting thing is
is that I have no idea
whether that's an actual
audible voice
or something
that's playing out in my head.
And there are specific places
on the ranch
where you walk into it and it's
almost as if you're walking
into a room of people.
You're, like, asking,
"excuse me,"
as you walk through the space,
'cause you feel
like you're gonna
bump into somebody.
NARRATOR: But if paranormal
activity really is occurring,
what could be causing it?
Author and researcher
Lynn Picknett believes
that all of
the strange phenomena
occurring on Skinwalker Ranch
must be interconnected.
When you're looking at the
phenomena at Skinwalker Ranch,
you're looking at all sorts
of manifestations.
But perhaps, really, you're
looking at one phenomenon.
Certainly, one of
the most dramatic type
of phenomenon ever in paranormal
is a poltergeist phenomenon
meaning literally "noisy spirit,"
but a destructive haunting.
It's very likely
that all of the various,
multifarious,
uh, paranormal incidents
at the Skinwalker Ranch
are caused by one entity
or one source of energy,
and it's not good energy
and it's not a good entity.
NARRATOR:
While paranormal researchers
often attribute
poltergeist phenomena
to either a spiritual entity
or telekinetic energy,
according to the Navajo,
it also fits the profile
of the skinwalker, which is a
shape-shifter and a trickster.
The, uh, idea of the skinwalker
being a prankster comes
from a lot of Navajo tales
where they talk about
the coyote being a trickster.
But the skinwalker
doesn't always use
the guise of a coyote,
he'll use the guise of a wolf.
He'll use anything
that he has the skin for.
Uh, it's said
that they can change into owls,
they can change
into crows or ravens,
um, they can change into bobcats
if they have that skin.
Our view on it is that
they're manipulating
the DNA of their own body.
NARRATOR: Stories of
beings like the skinwalker
that change shape
and deceive humans
can be found in cultures
throughout the world.
Sometimes identified
as trickster gods,
they are often described
as coming from another world,
or another dimension.
We have the Scandinavian stories
of-of Loki,
who's very much,
uh, of a trickster.
We have Celtic stories
of the-the fairies
who are also tricksters.
We have stories of-of Krishna
being also a trickster-type god
who likes to make jokes
on people.
So, throughout the world,
we have these stories
of trickster beings who can also
shape-shift into other bodies.
This seems to be some entity,
uh, an extraterrestrial,
who's acting as a skinwalker.
Perhaps he's an alien
who's caught
in this interdimensional doorway
and manifests from time to time
and ultimately
terrorizes this ranch.
NARRATOR: Is it
possible that the skinwalker
is an extraterrestrial being
that has crossed over
from another dimension?
A parallel universe?
Ancient astronaut theorists
suggest that in addition
to the stories
of trickster gods,
primitive rock art
provides evidence
of an otherworldly connection.
At Nine Mile Canyon,
just 60 miles south
of Skinwalker Ranch,
mysterious-looking
creatures abound
with giant antennae
and oddly-shaped heads.
For many members of both
the Navajo and the Ute tribes,
they represent
ancient visitors from the stars.
When you see these figures,
I have been told
that these are star people,
these are people from, uh,
other worlds or other dimensions
that have shown up and, uh,
met and communicated
with the, uh,
ancient people that live there.
A lot of the rock writing
that have
what might be considered portals
that are like a spindle
are holes within
the universe that allow you
to go into different dimensions.
NARRATOR: Not far from Nine
Mile Canyon are similar petroglyphs,
at Sego Canyon, San Rafael Swell
and Temple Mountain.
TSOUKALOS:
They look like spacemen.
You have these
strange creatures that,
for all intents and purposes,
seem to be floating
up in the sky.
Hey appear to wear helmets.
Very strange.
CHILDRESS: These figures
have vortex symbols around them.
You have to wonder exactly
who is making these petroglyphs
and what they were seeing,
because they look like
they're extraterrestrials.
NARRATOR: Do the petroglyphs in
the areas surrounding Skinwalker Ranch
point to Utah being a place
of ancient and perhaps
even modern alien visitation?
And do the spiral
petroglyphs indicate
that there could even
be some sort of portal
in the Uintah Mountains,
opening to other dimensions?
Fort Duchesne, Utah
17-year-old Larry Cesspooch
is with his friends
driving along an infamous
stretch of road
near Skinwalker Ranch.
As they approach a spot
known as Dead Man's Curve,
named for the high number
of car crashes
that have occurred there,
they spot a bright object
in the sky.
We were driving around,
with a bunch of us,
and we come around
Dead Man's Curve and, uh,
the driver looked in
his rearview mirror and said,
"Oh, what the heck is that?"
It was a fireball,
and that fireball
was coming up behind us.
And so we told him to go faster,
and this thing
just flew over our head.
When I told my mother, she had
talked about a similar incident
when she was younger.
And other tribal members
have seen that fireball.
NARRATOR: Other reports
indicate that the local residents
have been regularly witnessing
similar strange events,
both in and around
Skinwalker Ranch, for decades.
The various accounts
describe flashing lights,
floating orbs and UFOs.
ARNOLD: In this entire area,
there have been hundreds
of reports of UFOs, you know,
multiple people
seeing the same ones.
This particular part of the area
has kind of gotten the nickname
of UFO Alley
because of the number
of those sightings
that had been reported.
JOHN ALEXANDER:
We did see tears.
We had openings
in the sky, voices,
crafts coming through, orbs.
Is that E. T.?
Uh, hard to say.
Reality of the events
is absolute.
ERIK BARD: I have personally
watched as portions of the mesa,
as large as 500 to 600 feet,
appeared to glow.
We may be looking at
a terrestrial light source,
or we may be looking at
something far more interesting.
NARRATOR: In the 1990s,
the owners of Skinwalker Ranch
also witnessed strange orbs
in the sky.
When they relayed their
experiences to George Knapp,
he found that the UFOs were tied
to the other paranormal activity
taking place on the property.
They start hearing
heavy footsteps
outside their bedroom window
at night.
Then they start seeing
these dark, humanoid shapes
in the windows at night.
(creaking)
Then they start hearing
the footsteps inside the house.
(heavy footsteps)
Then they wake up at night,
and there's the thing
at the bottom of their bed.
They would go out at night,
they'd walk around,
they'd start hearing disembodied
voices in the sky
above their heads,
speaking some strange language,
almost like mocking them.
They start seeing little orbs
floating around,
seemingly intelligently
controlled,
flitting around in the trees.
NARRATOR: Is it possible
that reports of floating orbs,
poltergeist activity,
and the creature known as
the skinwalker
are not separate phenomena?
Might they be better understood
by considering them
all together?
Another story told to
George Knapp by the Shermans
may reveal yet another aspect
to the Skinwalker Ranch mystery.
KNAPP: The first day
they're on the property,
they see an animal of some sort
over on the brush line,
and it starts coming
toward them.
The men realize,
"That's a wolf."
It's huge.
The back of the wolf
came up to the middle
of his chest.
(snarling)
They petted this thing.
It was a real,
physical creature.
- Now, the calves are in the corral.
- (distressed lowing)
They're all backed up
against one side,
scared of this wolf.
Except one calf
makes the mistake
of sticking its snout out
between the bars of the corral.
- (growling)
- The wolf sees it
leaps in the air, like, 20 feet,
chomps down on the head
of this calf
and is trying to drag it
out of the corral.
His son grabs a .357
out of the truck
and brings it over,
Dad pops a shot into this wolf.
No yelp, no blood, no anything.
Shoots it a second
and third time.
Now this is the fourth shot
they've put into this wolf,
and then a fifth shot
goes right into the chest,
a chunk of flesh and fur
comes popping off the side
and falls on the ground.
And this wolf just casually
turns around and starts
walking away, he's had enough.
Five shots in this thing
and didn't kill it.
NARRATOR: The Shermans say
they pursued the wolf into the brush,
following its tracks
on the wet ground.
KNAPP: They get to a clearing
beyond the brush, a muddy area,
the tracks go all the way out
into the middle
of the muddy field and stop.
It's gone. It's as if it had
been sucked up into the sky.
NARRATOR: Later,
when the Shermans told this story
to a group of scientists
that had come to investigate
the ranch, they were shown
a series of photographs
and asked if any of them
resembled the animal
they encountered.
KNAPP: They have a lineup
of different types of wolves,
to ask each of
the family members,
show us what this looked like.
And the one that
they all identified
is what's known as a dire wolf.
Dire wolf, of course, has been
extinct for 10,000 years.
NARRATOR: If a dire wolf is, in fact,
what the Shermans witnessed,
could it present another clue
as to what is happening
at Skinwalker Ranch?
Many ancient astronaut
theorists believe
the answer is simple.
According to them, the ranch
most likely contains
some kind of
interdimensional portal,
one that would allow, not only
travel from one dimension
to another, but to various
points in time and space.
And they also believe that
the man who knows the truth
is the eccentric billionaire
who recently owned
Skinwalker Ranch,
Robert Bigelow.
NARRATOR:
Skinwalker Ranch. 1996.
Following two years
of non-stop paranormal
and extraterrestrial phenomena,
the Shermans are driven
to sell the ranch.
The purchaser is a man
almost as mysterious
as the property itself.
The study of Skinwalker Ranch
first began
with private industry.
It was a man
named Robert Bigelow.
And he put together a team
of scientists
to study the phenomenon
and what was occurring
at the ranch.
The ranch played the role
of a living laboratory
to really be able to focus
scientifically
and try to understand
what is going on at this ranch.
NARRATOR: Billionaire Las
Vegas businessman Robert Bigelow
made his fortune in real estate.
But since then, he's turned
to investing his money
in aerospace,
and the goal of searching
for extraterrestrial life.
KNAPP: It came to the
attention of Robert Bigelow,
who's probably spent more money
pursuing the UFO mystery
than any person in history.
He flew up,
met with the rancher,
uh, took his team up there,
heard the experiences himself
and bought it.
He put a team of scientists
on the property,
cameras, scientific gear,
so for the next seven years
after he bought it,
he had people on the property
pretty much 24-7.
I was with, uh, Bob Bigelow
the day he went up
and, uh, physically bought
the ranch.
I was the first one
to spend the night on the ridge
overlooking the ranch itself.
Bottom line is, some very, very
strange things happened there
that just defy description.
NARRATOR: The year before
the purchase of Skinwalker Ranch
Bigelow had founded
the National Institute
for Discovery Science, or NIDS.
Staffed with personnel
from a variety
of different disciplines,
NIDS was formed to study
a wide range
of unexplained events,
from the supernatural
to the extraterrestrial.
When Bigelow moved into
Skinwalker Ranch,
he took his NIDS scientists
with him,
mounted cameras
and other monitoring devices
over the entire property,
and sought to study
the paranormal phenomena
up close and in person.
He even built a laboratory
on the property.
He also protected the perimeter
of Skinwalker Ranch
with impenetrable security,
and has kept his findings
hidden from the public
to this day.
TSOUKALOS: You have to ask
yourself why would Bigelow
throw millions and millions
of dollars
at that particular project?
What's going on there?
And interestingly,
Robert Bigelow,
after he sold this ranch,
never came forward
to release what
he actually experienced.
He kept all this information
to himself.
Okay, either
he's not saying anything
because it's so incredible,
or because
there's nothing there.
So because he's such
an elusive figure,
it's a question,
which one is it?
NARRATOR: While
Robert Bigelow did his best
to keep his investigation
of Skinwalker Ranch
off the public radar,
he himself became
front page news
on December 16, 2017,
when The New York Times
ran an explosive story entitled
"Glowing Auras and Black Money:
The Pentagon's Mysterious
U. F. O. Program."
The article reported
that in 2007,
$22 million was allocated
for a top-secret
U.S. government
to investigate UFOs,
called the Advanced Aerospace
Threat Identification Program,
or AATIP.
The driving force
behind this project
was none other
than Robert Bigelow,
whose company Bigelow Aerospace
conducted the bulk
of the research
from their headquarters
on Skinwalker Ranch.
LINDA MOULTON HOWE:
Bigelow Aerospace
is the one who received
most of the $22 million
to do aerospace investigations.
All of the news that came out
in mid-December,
and nobody ask anybody,
"What about the warehouse
that has extraterrestrial
artifacts in it?"
NARRATOR:
When questioned about AATIP,
government officials have stated
that it was meant
to identify craft
not from other worlds
but from other countries.
However, this view is not shared
by Robert Bigelow.
Did his investigation
of Skinwalker Ranch
convince him
that extraterrestrials
are present on Earth?
Rumors include having found
some exotic materials
on the property.
There's talk of certain rods
made up of exotic elements
from the periodic table.
Some kind of base or perhaps
an ancient alien artifact
beneath the property.
The findings of Bigelow's team
have never been fully disclosed.
There are all sorts
of rumors and stories
about things that happened
while the Bigelow team was here
on the property.
They talked about the side
of the mesa opening up
and a spaceship flying
into some sort
of underground base.
NARRATOR: Could Robert
Bigelow's experiences confirm
that Skinwalker Ranch
is not only a place
of extraterrestrial visitation
but also contains a portal
through space and time?
Some ancient astronaut theorists
suggest that there is something
even more profound at work
and that Skinwalker Ranch
isn't only
a special place on Earth
but an important location
for the universe.
NARRATOR:
At Skinwalker Ranch,
a number of strange happenings
have been reported.
Everything from sightings
of prehistoric beasts
and poltergeist activity
to shape-shifting monsters
and mysterious orbs of light
in the sky.
But one detail
seems to be consistent:
The manner in which
these frightening phenomena
suddenly come about,
as if out of thin air.
Could it be that some sort
of portal through space and time
really does exist in this area,
as many ancient astronaut
theorists believe?
And while most
of Robert Bigelow's activities
on the property
have remained top secret,
investigative journalist
George Knapp was able to learn
of at least one
extraordinary encounter.
There was one night, the
one of the most dramatic things
that happened,
there, two of the scientists
these are PhD-level people.
They walk around
the middle homestead
and two guys are up on
Skinwalker Ridge looking down.
They've got infrared
equipment, watching.
And one of them with the
infrared sees what looks like
a dirty snowball of light
just hovering a couple
of feet off the ground
and he walkie-talkies
these guys down there,
"Hey, do you see it?"
"Yeah, we see it,
it's kind of vague."
Then he says, "Hey, something's
happening, it's changing."
Our guys are on the ridgeline
looking down,
and you see a light appear
above the ground expand.
KNAPP: This ball of
light was stretching out.
It became a tunnel of light.
Into this tunnel comes
a humanoid figure.
Some kind of monster reached up,
pulled his shoulders
and come out.
KNAPP: Seven or eight feet tall,
black, featureless.
When it gets out, the tunnel
collapses into a ball again.
It was almost as if it was
a dimensional tunnel,
that it was coming
from some other reality.
NARRATOR: According to
both the Navajo and Ute tribes,
such portals do exist.
You have to go back to the story
of the emergence of the Navajo.
The story there is that
they went through
several underground worlds,
and in coming to this world,
through a hole in the ground,
or through a portal, if you may.
CESSPOOCH:
There are holes
portals, if you want
to call them that
within the universe
that allow you to go
into different dimensions,
and those have existed for eons.
So those who know about them
can travel back and forth.
NARRATOR: Ancient
astronaut theorists point out
that emerging scientific
theories support
the Native beliefs that other
dimensions not only exist
but that travel
between them is possible.
REDFERN:
Quantum physics, essentially,
allows for the existence
of multiple dimensions
that coexist with ours.
What we're seeing at places
like the Skinwalker Ranch
are strange creatures,
unusual entities coming through
the portals and the doorways.
It's entirely possible
that creatures and beings
from other realms of existence
could quite literally jump from
their dimension into our world.
More and more,
scientists are talking
in these extraordinary esoteric
terms about very powerful places
where realities
blend or blur together.
From the descriptions
of Skinwalker Ranch,
this could well be
one of those bleed-over places.
NARRATOR: While the theory
of a portal at Skinwalker Ranch
may seem incredible,
futurist Caroline Cory takes it
even one step further.
CAROLINE CORY: We know that the
physical universe is based on geometry.
We are now predicting
that there is a matrix,
a grid patterning system
around the planet
that is a web-like structure
with specific entry
and exit points
that allow
certain phenomena to happen
that seem supernatural
or paranormal.
If there are tears exactly
at these locations,
you're going to have all kinds
of anomalies that would happen
because of these tears.
You're going to perhaps,
uh, see an anomaly in the sky
or you could also see
a prehistoric animal
cross over
because there's a tear
in this fabric of space itself.
NARRATOR:
A tear in the fabric of space?
Could it be
that Skinwalker Ranch
is not only home to a portal,
but some sort of cosmic tear
through which entities
from other dimensions,
other parts of the universe
and even other points in time
could be entering our world?
Local tales and traditions do,
in fact, support this theory.
DOVER:
A lot of our investigations
have found that these things
are coming in,
uh, through unknown portals.
Whether the portals
are in the sky or on the ground.
What we've seen from people
describing this to us
is they hear a loud pop.
That the sound actually travels
through your body physically,
and it jolts you.
NARRATOR: Could there
truly be a scientific explanation
for the various phenomena
at Skinwalker Ranch?
One that humans are not yet
equipped to fully understand?
Maybe a more important question
is should we seek to get to the
bottom of this mystery at all?
Or are we better off just
leaving Skinwalker Ranch alone?
There are some who believe
that while Skinwalker Ranch
is a dangerous place,
it may also hold the key to
humankind's ultimate survival.
NARRATOR: After conducting
a 20-year investigation,
the NIDS team ceases all
operations on Skinwalker Ranch.
Robert Bigelow has
sold the property.
Robert Bigelow owned
the property for 20 years,
and in 2016, he sold it.
He'd had enough.
And one of the reasons
that he and his team didn't want
to have that property anymore
is because there's danger there.
It's real. Bad things happen
to people and animals
on that property.
NARRATOR: Fortunately, the person
Robert Bigelow has sold the property to
is committed to continuing
with the investigation,
Salt Lake City real estate
entrepreneur Brandon Fugal.
MORSE: This new owner here, his
obsession and his willingness
to really put his money where
his mouth's at, it's a new game.
- Tom. Oh, my friend.
- Hey, good to see you.
BRANDON FUGAL: I was approached
by several scientists
that had worked with me
on a past project,
were close confidants
of Bob Bigelow,
and they saw an opportunity for
Mr. Bigelow to pass the torch
to someone who not only
had the bandwidth
but the resources to really
take the investigation
and the scientific effort
at Skinwalker Ranch
to the next level.
It's the greatest
science project of our time.
The team that I have handpicked
all bring complimentary
skill sets to the table,
whether it be in areas
of scientific investigation,
physics,
construction management.
I don't believe that there
has been any investigation
into the paranormal
or supernatural
that has ever brought to bear
both the resources
and the professionalism and
the sophistication of equipment
that we've brought to this
effort and to this property.
The kinds of devices that we've
deployed across the property
include, of course, surveillance
cameras with audio channels
that allow us to both see
and hear what's taking place
at various locations
on the property.
We also have geophones.
These are devices that sense
the vibrations of the ground
due to what may be activity
taking place in beneath our feet
here on this property.
We have devices that sense
electromagnetic disturbances
across a wide range
of the electromagnetic spectrum.
TAYLOR:
What we want to do
is we're gonna measure microwave
and RF spectrum at altitude.
It's highly possible that there
is something going on here.
We should have film cameras,
infrared cameras,
starlight cameras
and visual observations
going on all the time
looking for things.
But we're gonna get
to the bottom of it.
ARNOLD:
Coming into Skinwalker Ranch
makes you kind of scrub
your preconceived notions
about things
and, you know,
it makes you wonder,
are we alone in the universe?
Is there a higher power?
It can be frustrating and
exhilarating at the same time,
trying to unravel
these types of things.
NARRATOR: Will the new
investigation already underway
at Skinwalker Ranch
finally provide some answers
to the mysteries
that have persisted
for more than 200 years?
And if so, will we wish
we had left well enough alone?
CORBELL: The implications
of understanding our universe,
our reality so much more
it's an opportunity.
So Skinwalker Ranch
poses to us this opportunity
to confront these things
that maybe even scare us.
This phenomenon is real.
It is happening,
whether we like it or not,
and it could alter
the basic fabric
of how we relate
to the external world.
There is something profound that
is going on at Skinwalker Ranch
and the surrounding area.
And it begs to be studied.
In a remote valley in Utah,
there is a ranch
that some say is evil.
GEORGE KNAPP: Bad things
happen to people on that property.
There's danger there. It's real.
NARRATOR: Terrifying
creatures prowl the land.
TRAVIS TAYLOR: There's
stories of cloaked beasts
running out of the woods
and chasing people.
This thing comes right up
to this guy and roars.
NARRATOR: Ominous
lights appear in the sky.
I have personally watched as
portions of the mesa
appeared to glow.
NARRATOR:
Animals are found slaughtered.
They had prized cattle
taken and mutilated.
NICK REDFERN:
It's not just UFOs.
It's not just strange creatures.
It's not just animal
mutilations. It's everything.
TOM WINTERTON: There are
things that have happened here
that have shaken me to my core.
NARRATOR: What is
behind the strange phenomena
that takes place
on Skinwalker Ranch?
And could solving the mystery
change our entire reality?
JEREMY CORBELL: There is something profound
that is going on at Skinwalker Ranch
and it begs to be studied.
NARRATOR:
There is a doorway
in the universe.
Beyond it is
the promise of truth.
It demands
we question everything
we have ever been taught.
The evidence is all around us.
The future is
right before our eyes.
We are not alone.
We have never been alone.
(bird screeches)
NARRATOR:
Uintah County, Utah.
Nestled in a deep valley,
surrounded by some
of the highest mountain peaks
in North America,
is an infamous
512-acre patch of land
known as Skinwalker Ranch.
The native Utes
warn of a dark presence
that exists in this area,
where strange sightings
in the sky,
encounters with
terrifying creatures,
animal mutilations,
and numerous other
paranormal activities
have been reported
for centuries.
Skinwalker Ranch has become
this nexus of activity
where people are reporting
strange things.
It's in an area in Utah that's
very much like a desert terrain,
and what's there now
is high desert prairie,
kind of, area.
Now what it actually is
and what's going on there
is a whole other question.
CORBELL: It's a very unique
place in the world
where the phenomenon
expresses itself
in dramatic form.
It's also the most
scientifically studied
UFO or paranormal hot spot
in history.
NARRATOR:
Native American legends say
that there has been
an otherworldly presence
at Skinwalker Ranch for as long
as humans have existed
in the area,
which, according
to archaeological evidence,
is at least 10,000 years.
And the very first
European settlers
to pass through this land
in the late 1700s had their own
bizarre experiences,
which they recorded
in their journals.
KNAPP:
The first Europeans
to cross the Uintah Basin,
the, uh, Franciscan monks,
reported seeing things
over their campfires at night,
really weird objects
that we would call UFOs.
The Native Americans,
the indigenous tribes
have been there, have had these
experiences for generations.
It has, for as long as humans
have lived there,
it's been the site
of paranormal activity
strange things in the sky, UFOs.
There are so many stories
about Skinwalker Ranch
that range from
cattle mutilations going on.
There're stories that if you dig
on the property,
you'll get sick.
Even strange stories
of cloaked beasts
running out of the woods.
You've seen UFOs.
They have seen
different creatures.
They have seen weird things
happening up in the sky.
So you have all these
different phenomena
that happened on that ranch,
so some have referred to it
as a veritable Disneyland
of the paranormal.
NARRATOR: The most notorious
of the paranormal phenomena
associated with Skinwalker Ranch
is the creature for which
the property is named.
The association
of the skinwalker
with this mysterious
plot of land
can be traced back
to the mid-19th century.
In January of 1864,
land disputes between
Navajos, Utes,
and the United States military
in Utah and Arizona
reached a fateful tipping point.
After decades of conflict,
the military removed
the Navajo people from the area,
forcing them to make
what became known
as "The Long Walk"
to New Mexico.
The Navajos blamed the Utes
for helping the military,
and so they cursed the land
that the Utes lived on up there.
And it must've been a pretty
strong curse because,
even today, there are
really interesting things
that happen up there.
NARRATOR:
Cursing the land,
the Navajo witch doctors
attempted to conjure an entity
called a "Yee naaldooshii,"
or "skinwalker."
The skinwalkers,
they're sort of typically
six to seven feet tall,
very dangerous.
It's described
as being wolf-like,
but walking on two limbs.
So, inevitably, it sort of
provokes imagery of a werewolf.
DOVER: The subject of skinwalkers
is as serious as a heart attack.
This is not something
to trifle with.
Even talking about them
puts me in some danger.
The skinwalker
is somebody who is evil.
They want to control people,
communities, regions,
and have that power over people,
and they do this by fear.
JIM MORSE: The Utes,
to this day, are very respectful.
They're very mindful.
Matter of fact, they stay
at an arm's length, um,
from the Skinwalker Ranch.
Uh, they firmly believe
that this ground is cursed and
that, not only the Uintah basin,
but this concentration
of this phenomenon,
this host is on
the Skinwalker Ranch.
NARRATOR: Could a
monster known as the skinwalker
really stalk the grounds
of Skinwalker Ranch?
And if so, was it conjured up
by Navajo witch doctors?
Or is it connected
to the paranormal,
and perhaps
otherworldly, activity
that has been reported
on the property for centuries?
Investigative journalist
George Knapp
was one of the first reporters
to expose the strange stories
at Skinwalker Ranch
back in the mid-1990s,
when he conducted extensive
interviews with the Shermans,
the family of ranchers
that owned the property.
This guy shows up one day
while the ranching family
is still there.
He's built like Grizzly Adams,
big burly guy with a beard,
he said he'd been drawn
to the property,
and he talks to the rancher
and says, "I just need
"to meditate
for a couple of minutes.
"I'm drawn here.
I need to do this.
Can you let me on the property?"
The rancher kind of
bemusedly says, "Okay,
come on in." He lets the guy in.
The rancher and his son escort
him to the middle homestead
and the rancher and his son
are watching the guy
and just kind of
chuckling to themselves.
They hear this thing
in the brush,
and then they look over
and there's something moving.
And then it comes out
of the brush,
right up to where this guy is,
and it-it looked like
the creature in Predator
with the camouflage,
the opaque c-camouflage,
the invisibility technology.
This thing comes right up
to this guy and roars.
(roaring)
KNAPP: Scares the hell out of this
guy who opens his eyes, flies back,
lands on his back.
The rancher and his son
go rushing over to him.
He's petrified, grabbing them,
won't let go.
They escort him off the property
and he swears it's the devil,
it's Satan, you're gonna burn
for this kind of stuff.
NARRATOR: Is it possible
that the terrifying creature
witnessed by both the ranchers
and their mysterious visitor
was what the Navajo call
a skinwalker?
Was it a being
from another world?
Even another dimension?
Such stories have inspired
countless curiosity seekers
to make pilgrimages
to the ranch.
But for those who have lived
and worked there,
like current ranch
superintendent Tom Winterton,
Skinwalker Ranch is not a place
to be taken lightly.
I'd been warned
not to dig on this ranch,
which I thought
was absolutely ridiculous.
Yeah, it's-it's a ranch,
for crying out loud.
That's what you do. You dig
fence holes, you dig ditches.
And so I paid
zero attention to it.
And whether it's related or not,
I ended up getting
this severe head injury
that causes my head to swell up.
I had fluid that separated
the fatty tissue from my skull,
and to this day, my doctors
still haven't come up with
an explanation of what happened.
What they did say was that
what happened to me
just was not medically possible,
but I'd be lying if I didn't say
that there are things
that have happened here
that have shaken me to my core.
When we patrol the-the perimeter
of the place,
both on foot
and with our vehicles, um,
we are heavily armed.
And that's not necessarily
because we're looking
to hurt anybody.
It's more of we don't know
what we're dealing with,
- and it's a dangerous place
- Morning.
MAN:
Hey, Caleb. How you doing, man?
ARNOLD: Between the
natural things that are here
and then also the unknown.
NARRATOR: What could possibly
explain so many incredible encounters
being reported on a single
512-acre stretch of land
and by multiple groups of people
over a span
of hundreds of years?
Do the many accounts of UFOs
point to an extraterrestrial
connection?
Perhaps further clues
can be found
by more closely examining
the stories
of the skinwalker
and its connection
to ancient gods.
The mid-1990s.
The current caretakers
of the ranch, the Shermans,
are entering their third month
on the property
when they begin to experience
what they believe
to be paranormal activity.
They give their accounts
of the strange events
to investigative journalist
George Knapp.
So, the wife goes
grocery shopping,
she buys enough food
for a couple of weeks.
She comes home, takes all
this stuff out of the bag,
puts it in the cabinets
and goes out of the room,
comes back,
all the stuff's
back in the bags.
She takes a shower
in the morning,
locks the door,
has a towel and a hairbrush.
Gets out of the shower,
the door is still locked,
but the towel
and the hairbrush are gone.
The hairbrush is found later
in the freezer.
NARRATOR: Initially,
it was only Mrs. Sherman
who witnessed the poltergeist
activity on the ranch.
But it wasn't long before her
husband had his own experiences.
The rancher's out using
a post hole digger,
digging this big, heavy
piece of equipment.
He's digging holes
to put fencing in.
He stops for a second,
wipes his brow, looks around,
the post hole digger is gone.
He finds it three weeks later,
75 feet up in a cottonwood tree.
NARRATOR: The Shermans' experiences,
while bizarre, are not unique.
We're gonna pull some data
up here that we took,
- so lets take look at this.
- NARRATOR: Members of the team
currently investigating
Skinwalker Ranch have reported
similar poltergeist-like
phenomena on the property.
One of the weird experiences
I've had is
I was in my bedroom
in the command center
trying to go to sleep.
There was no one else around.
And it felt like someone
came up and kneed the bed.
- (wood creaking)
- And it jostles the whole thing.
I got up and wandered around
to see if something happened.
There was nothing really that
could've made just a big shake
of the bed as if some individual
had bumped into it.
WINTERTON: I've heard
voices on multiple occasions.
I've had individuals with me
that heard the voices, too.
The interesting thing is
is that I have no idea
whether that's an actual
audible voice
or something
that's playing out in my head.
And there are specific places
on the ranch
where you walk into it and it's
almost as if you're walking
into a room of people.
You're, like, asking,
"excuse me,"
as you walk through the space,
'cause you feel
like you're gonna
bump into somebody.
NARRATOR: But if paranormal
activity really is occurring,
what could be causing it?
Author and researcher
Lynn Picknett believes
that all of
the strange phenomena
occurring on Skinwalker Ranch
must be interconnected.
When you're looking at the
phenomena at Skinwalker Ranch,
you're looking at all sorts
of manifestations.
But perhaps, really, you're
looking at one phenomenon.
Certainly, one of
the most dramatic type
of phenomenon ever in paranormal
is a poltergeist phenomenon
meaning literally "noisy spirit,"
but a destructive haunting.
It's very likely
that all of the various,
multifarious,
uh, paranormal incidents
at the Skinwalker Ranch
are caused by one entity
or one source of energy,
and it's not good energy
and it's not a good entity.
NARRATOR:
While paranormal researchers
often attribute
poltergeist phenomena
to either a spiritual entity
or telekinetic energy,
according to the Navajo,
it also fits the profile
of the skinwalker, which is a
shape-shifter and a trickster.
The, uh, idea of the skinwalker
being a prankster comes
from a lot of Navajo tales
where they talk about
the coyote being a trickster.
But the skinwalker
doesn't always use
the guise of a coyote,
he'll use the guise of a wolf.
He'll use anything
that he has the skin for.
Uh, it's said
that they can change into owls,
they can change
into crows or ravens,
um, they can change into bobcats
if they have that skin.
Our view on it is that
they're manipulating
the DNA of their own body.
NARRATOR: Stories of
beings like the skinwalker
that change shape
and deceive humans
can be found in cultures
throughout the world.
Sometimes identified
as trickster gods,
they are often described
as coming from another world,
or another dimension.
We have the Scandinavian stories
of-of Loki,
who's very much,
uh, of a trickster.
We have Celtic stories
of the-the fairies
who are also tricksters.
We have stories of-of Krishna
being also a trickster-type god
who likes to make jokes
on people.
So, throughout the world,
we have these stories
of trickster beings who can also
shape-shift into other bodies.
This seems to be some entity,
uh, an extraterrestrial,
who's acting as a skinwalker.
Perhaps he's an alien
who's caught
in this interdimensional doorway
and manifests from time to time
and ultimately
terrorizes this ranch.
NARRATOR: Is it
possible that the skinwalker
is an extraterrestrial being
that has crossed over
from another dimension?
A parallel universe?
Ancient astronaut theorists
suggest that in addition
to the stories
of trickster gods,
primitive rock art
provides evidence
of an otherworldly connection.
At Nine Mile Canyon,
just 60 miles south
of Skinwalker Ranch,
mysterious-looking
creatures abound
with giant antennae
and oddly-shaped heads.
For many members of both
the Navajo and the Ute tribes,
they represent
ancient visitors from the stars.
When you see these figures,
I have been told
that these are star people,
these are people from, uh,
other worlds or other dimensions
that have shown up and, uh,
met and communicated
with the, uh,
ancient people that live there.
A lot of the rock writing
that have
what might be considered portals
that are like a spindle
are holes within
the universe that allow you
to go into different dimensions.
NARRATOR: Not far from Nine
Mile Canyon are similar petroglyphs,
at Sego Canyon, San Rafael Swell
and Temple Mountain.
TSOUKALOS:
They look like spacemen.
You have these
strange creatures that,
for all intents and purposes,
seem to be floating
up in the sky.
Hey appear to wear helmets.
Very strange.
CHILDRESS: These figures
have vortex symbols around them.
You have to wonder exactly
who is making these petroglyphs
and what they were seeing,
because they look like
they're extraterrestrials.
NARRATOR: Do the petroglyphs in
the areas surrounding Skinwalker Ranch
point to Utah being a place
of ancient and perhaps
even modern alien visitation?
And do the spiral
petroglyphs indicate
that there could even
be some sort of portal
in the Uintah Mountains,
opening to other dimensions?
Fort Duchesne, Utah
17-year-old Larry Cesspooch
is with his friends
driving along an infamous
stretch of road
near Skinwalker Ranch.
As they approach a spot
known as Dead Man's Curve,
named for the high number
of car crashes
that have occurred there,
they spot a bright object
in the sky.
We were driving around,
with a bunch of us,
and we come around
Dead Man's Curve and, uh,
the driver looked in
his rearview mirror and said,
"Oh, what the heck is that?"
It was a fireball,
and that fireball
was coming up behind us.
And so we told him to go faster,
and this thing
just flew over our head.
When I told my mother, she had
talked about a similar incident
when she was younger.
And other tribal members
have seen that fireball.
NARRATOR: Other reports
indicate that the local residents
have been regularly witnessing
similar strange events,
both in and around
Skinwalker Ranch, for decades.
The various accounts
describe flashing lights,
floating orbs and UFOs.
ARNOLD: In this entire area,
there have been hundreds
of reports of UFOs, you know,
multiple people
seeing the same ones.
This particular part of the area
has kind of gotten the nickname
of UFO Alley
because of the number
of those sightings
that had been reported.
JOHN ALEXANDER:
We did see tears.
We had openings
in the sky, voices,
crafts coming through, orbs.
Is that E. T.?
Uh, hard to say.
Reality of the events
is absolute.
ERIK BARD: I have personally
watched as portions of the mesa,
as large as 500 to 600 feet,
appeared to glow.
We may be looking at
a terrestrial light source,
or we may be looking at
something far more interesting.
NARRATOR: In the 1990s,
the owners of Skinwalker Ranch
also witnessed strange orbs
in the sky.
When they relayed their
experiences to George Knapp,
he found that the UFOs were tied
to the other paranormal activity
taking place on the property.
They start hearing
heavy footsteps
outside their bedroom window
at night.
Then they start seeing
these dark, humanoid shapes
in the windows at night.
(creaking)
Then they start hearing
the footsteps inside the house.
(heavy footsteps)
Then they wake up at night,
and there's the thing
at the bottom of their bed.
They would go out at night,
they'd walk around,
they'd start hearing disembodied
voices in the sky
above their heads,
speaking some strange language,
almost like mocking them.
They start seeing little orbs
floating around,
seemingly intelligently
controlled,
flitting around in the trees.
NARRATOR: Is it possible
that reports of floating orbs,
poltergeist activity,
and the creature known as
the skinwalker
are not separate phenomena?
Might they be better understood
by considering them
all together?
Another story told to
George Knapp by the Shermans
may reveal yet another aspect
to the Skinwalker Ranch mystery.
KNAPP: The first day
they're on the property,
they see an animal of some sort
over on the brush line,
and it starts coming
toward them.
The men realize,
"That's a wolf."
It's huge.
The back of the wolf
came up to the middle
of his chest.
(snarling)
They petted this thing.
It was a real,
physical creature.
- Now, the calves are in the corral.
- (distressed lowing)
They're all backed up
against one side,
scared of this wolf.
Except one calf
makes the mistake
of sticking its snout out
between the bars of the corral.
- (growling)
- The wolf sees it
leaps in the air, like, 20 feet,
chomps down on the head
of this calf
and is trying to drag it
out of the corral.
His son grabs a .357
out of the truck
and brings it over,
Dad pops a shot into this wolf.
No yelp, no blood, no anything.
Shoots it a second
and third time.
Now this is the fourth shot
they've put into this wolf,
and then a fifth shot
goes right into the chest,
a chunk of flesh and fur
comes popping off the side
and falls on the ground.
And this wolf just casually
turns around and starts
walking away, he's had enough.
Five shots in this thing
and didn't kill it.
NARRATOR: The Shermans say
they pursued the wolf into the brush,
following its tracks
on the wet ground.
KNAPP: They get to a clearing
beyond the brush, a muddy area,
the tracks go all the way out
into the middle
of the muddy field and stop.
It's gone. It's as if it had
been sucked up into the sky.
NARRATOR: Later,
when the Shermans told this story
to a group of scientists
that had come to investigate
the ranch, they were shown
a series of photographs
and asked if any of them
resembled the animal
they encountered.
KNAPP: They have a lineup
of different types of wolves,
to ask each of
the family members,
show us what this looked like.
And the one that
they all identified
is what's known as a dire wolf.
Dire wolf, of course, has been
extinct for 10,000 years.
NARRATOR: If a dire wolf is, in fact,
what the Shermans witnessed,
could it present another clue
as to what is happening
at Skinwalker Ranch?
Many ancient astronaut
theorists believe
the answer is simple.
According to them, the ranch
most likely contains
some kind of
interdimensional portal,
one that would allow, not only
travel from one dimension
to another, but to various
points in time and space.
And they also believe that
the man who knows the truth
is the eccentric billionaire
who recently owned
Skinwalker Ranch,
Robert Bigelow.
NARRATOR:
Skinwalker Ranch. 1996.
Following two years
of non-stop paranormal
and extraterrestrial phenomena,
the Shermans are driven
to sell the ranch.
The purchaser is a man
almost as mysterious
as the property itself.
The study of Skinwalker Ranch
first began
with private industry.
It was a man
named Robert Bigelow.
And he put together a team
of scientists
to study the phenomenon
and what was occurring
at the ranch.
The ranch played the role
of a living laboratory
to really be able to focus
scientifically
and try to understand
what is going on at this ranch.
NARRATOR: Billionaire Las
Vegas businessman Robert Bigelow
made his fortune in real estate.
But since then, he's turned
to investing his money
in aerospace,
and the goal of searching
for extraterrestrial life.
KNAPP: It came to the
attention of Robert Bigelow,
who's probably spent more money
pursuing the UFO mystery
than any person in history.
He flew up,
met with the rancher,
uh, took his team up there,
heard the experiences himself
and bought it.
He put a team of scientists
on the property,
cameras, scientific gear,
so for the next seven years
after he bought it,
he had people on the property
pretty much 24-7.
I was with, uh, Bob Bigelow
the day he went up
and, uh, physically bought
the ranch.
I was the first one
to spend the night on the ridge
overlooking the ranch itself.
Bottom line is, some very, very
strange things happened there
that just defy description.
NARRATOR: The year before
the purchase of Skinwalker Ranch
Bigelow had founded
the National Institute
for Discovery Science, or NIDS.
Staffed with personnel
from a variety
of different disciplines,
NIDS was formed to study
a wide range
of unexplained events,
from the supernatural
to the extraterrestrial.
When Bigelow moved into
Skinwalker Ranch,
he took his NIDS scientists
with him,
mounted cameras
and other monitoring devices
over the entire property,
and sought to study
the paranormal phenomena
up close and in person.
He even built a laboratory
on the property.
He also protected the perimeter
of Skinwalker Ranch
with impenetrable security,
and has kept his findings
hidden from the public
to this day.
TSOUKALOS: You have to ask
yourself why would Bigelow
throw millions and millions
of dollars
at that particular project?
What's going on there?
And interestingly,
Robert Bigelow,
after he sold this ranch,
never came forward
to release what
he actually experienced.
He kept all this information
to himself.
Okay, either
he's not saying anything
because it's so incredible,
or because
there's nothing there.
So because he's such
an elusive figure,
it's a question,
which one is it?
NARRATOR: While
Robert Bigelow did his best
to keep his investigation
of Skinwalker Ranch
off the public radar,
he himself became
front page news
on December 16, 2017,
when The New York Times
ran an explosive story entitled
"Glowing Auras and Black Money:
The Pentagon's Mysterious
U. F. O. Program."
The article reported
that in 2007,
$22 million was allocated
for a top-secret
U.S. government
to investigate UFOs,
called the Advanced Aerospace
Threat Identification Program,
or AATIP.
The driving force
behind this project
was none other
than Robert Bigelow,
whose company Bigelow Aerospace
conducted the bulk
of the research
from their headquarters
on Skinwalker Ranch.
LINDA MOULTON HOWE:
Bigelow Aerospace
is the one who received
most of the $22 million
to do aerospace investigations.
All of the news that came out
in mid-December,
and nobody ask anybody,
"What about the warehouse
that has extraterrestrial
artifacts in it?"
NARRATOR:
When questioned about AATIP,
government officials have stated
that it was meant
to identify craft
not from other worlds
but from other countries.
However, this view is not shared
by Robert Bigelow.
Did his investigation
of Skinwalker Ranch
convince him
that extraterrestrials
are present on Earth?
Rumors include having found
some exotic materials
on the property.
There's talk of certain rods
made up of exotic elements
from the periodic table.
Some kind of base or perhaps
an ancient alien artifact
beneath the property.
The findings of Bigelow's team
have never been fully disclosed.
There are all sorts
of rumors and stories
about things that happened
while the Bigelow team was here
on the property.
They talked about the side
of the mesa opening up
and a spaceship flying
into some sort
of underground base.
NARRATOR: Could Robert
Bigelow's experiences confirm
that Skinwalker Ranch
is not only a place
of extraterrestrial visitation
but also contains a portal
through space and time?
Some ancient astronaut theorists
suggest that there is something
even more profound at work
and that Skinwalker Ranch
isn't only
a special place on Earth
but an important location
for the universe.
NARRATOR:
At Skinwalker Ranch,
a number of strange happenings
have been reported.
Everything from sightings
of prehistoric beasts
and poltergeist activity
to shape-shifting monsters
and mysterious orbs of light
in the sky.
But one detail
seems to be consistent:
The manner in which
these frightening phenomena
suddenly come about,
as if out of thin air.
Could it be that some sort
of portal through space and time
really does exist in this area,
as many ancient astronaut
theorists believe?
And while most
of Robert Bigelow's activities
on the property
have remained top secret,
investigative journalist
George Knapp was able to learn
of at least one
extraordinary encounter.
There was one night, the
one of the most dramatic things
that happened,
there, two of the scientists
these are PhD-level people.
They walk around
the middle homestead
and two guys are up on
Skinwalker Ridge looking down.
They've got infrared
equipment, watching.
And one of them with the
infrared sees what looks like
a dirty snowball of light
just hovering a couple
of feet off the ground
and he walkie-talkies
these guys down there,
"Hey, do you see it?"
"Yeah, we see it,
it's kind of vague."
Then he says, "Hey, something's
happening, it's changing."
Our guys are on the ridgeline
looking down,
and you see a light appear
above the ground expand.
KNAPP: This ball of
light was stretching out.
It became a tunnel of light.
Into this tunnel comes
a humanoid figure.
Some kind of monster reached up,
pulled his shoulders
and come out.
KNAPP: Seven or eight feet tall,
black, featureless.
When it gets out, the tunnel
collapses into a ball again.
It was almost as if it was
a dimensional tunnel,
that it was coming
from some other reality.
NARRATOR: According to
both the Navajo and Ute tribes,
such portals do exist.
You have to go back to the story
of the emergence of the Navajo.
The story there is that
they went through
several underground worlds,
and in coming to this world,
through a hole in the ground,
or through a portal, if you may.
CESSPOOCH:
There are holes
portals, if you want
to call them that
within the universe
that allow you to go
into different dimensions,
and those have existed for eons.
So those who know about them
can travel back and forth.
NARRATOR: Ancient
astronaut theorists point out
that emerging scientific
theories support
the Native beliefs that other
dimensions not only exist
but that travel
between them is possible.
REDFERN:
Quantum physics, essentially,
allows for the existence
of multiple dimensions
that coexist with ours.
What we're seeing at places
like the Skinwalker Ranch
are strange creatures,
unusual entities coming through
the portals and the doorways.
It's entirely possible
that creatures and beings
from other realms of existence
could quite literally jump from
their dimension into our world.
More and more,
scientists are talking
in these extraordinary esoteric
terms about very powerful places
where realities
blend or blur together.
From the descriptions
of Skinwalker Ranch,
this could well be
one of those bleed-over places.
NARRATOR: While the theory
of a portal at Skinwalker Ranch
may seem incredible,
futurist Caroline Cory takes it
even one step further.
CAROLINE CORY: We know that the
physical universe is based on geometry.
We are now predicting
that there is a matrix,
a grid patterning system
around the planet
that is a web-like structure
with specific entry
and exit points
that allow
certain phenomena to happen
that seem supernatural
or paranormal.
If there are tears exactly
at these locations,
you're going to have all kinds
of anomalies that would happen
because of these tears.
You're going to perhaps,
uh, see an anomaly in the sky
or you could also see
a prehistoric animal
cross over
because there's a tear
in this fabric of space itself.
NARRATOR:
A tear in the fabric of space?
Could it be
that Skinwalker Ranch
is not only home to a portal,
but some sort of cosmic tear
through which entities
from other dimensions,
other parts of the universe
and even other points in time
could be entering our world?
Local tales and traditions do,
in fact, support this theory.
DOVER:
A lot of our investigations
have found that these things
are coming in,
uh, through unknown portals.
Whether the portals
are in the sky or on the ground.
What we've seen from people
describing this to us
is they hear a loud pop.
That the sound actually travels
through your body physically,
and it jolts you.
NARRATOR: Could there
truly be a scientific explanation
for the various phenomena
at Skinwalker Ranch?
One that humans are not yet
equipped to fully understand?
Maybe a more important question
is should we seek to get to the
bottom of this mystery at all?
Or are we better off just
leaving Skinwalker Ranch alone?
There are some who believe
that while Skinwalker Ranch
is a dangerous place,
it may also hold the key to
humankind's ultimate survival.
NARRATOR: After conducting
a 20-year investigation,
the NIDS team ceases all
operations on Skinwalker Ranch.
Robert Bigelow has
sold the property.
Robert Bigelow owned
the property for 20 years,
and in 2016, he sold it.
He'd had enough.
And one of the reasons
that he and his team didn't want
to have that property anymore
is because there's danger there.
It's real. Bad things happen
to people and animals
on that property.
NARRATOR: Fortunately, the person
Robert Bigelow has sold the property to
is committed to continuing
with the investigation,
Salt Lake City real estate
entrepreneur Brandon Fugal.
MORSE: This new owner here, his
obsession and his willingness
to really put his money where
his mouth's at, it's a new game.
- Tom. Oh, my friend.
- Hey, good to see you.
BRANDON FUGAL: I was approached
by several scientists
that had worked with me
on a past project,
were close confidants
of Bob Bigelow,
and they saw an opportunity for
Mr. Bigelow to pass the torch
to someone who not only
had the bandwidth
but the resources to really
take the investigation
and the scientific effort
at Skinwalker Ranch
to the next level.
It's the greatest
science project of our time.
The team that I have handpicked
all bring complimentary
skill sets to the table,
whether it be in areas
of scientific investigation,
physics,
construction management.
I don't believe that there
has been any investigation
into the paranormal
or supernatural
that has ever brought to bear
both the resources
and the professionalism and
the sophistication of equipment
that we've brought to this
effort and to this property.
The kinds of devices that we've
deployed across the property
include, of course, surveillance
cameras with audio channels
that allow us to both see
and hear what's taking place
at various locations
on the property.
We also have geophones.
These are devices that sense
the vibrations of the ground
due to what may be activity
taking place in beneath our feet
here on this property.
We have devices that sense
electromagnetic disturbances
across a wide range
of the electromagnetic spectrum.
TAYLOR:
What we want to do
is we're gonna measure microwave
and RF spectrum at altitude.
It's highly possible that there
is something going on here.
We should have film cameras,
infrared cameras,
starlight cameras
and visual observations
going on all the time
looking for things.
But we're gonna get
to the bottom of it.
ARNOLD:
Coming into Skinwalker Ranch
makes you kind of scrub
your preconceived notions
about things
and, you know,
it makes you wonder,
are we alone in the universe?
Is there a higher power?
It can be frustrating and
exhilarating at the same time,
trying to unravel
these types of things.
NARRATOR: Will the new
investigation already underway
at Skinwalker Ranch
finally provide some answers
to the mysteries
that have persisted
for more than 200 years?
And if so, will we wish
we had left well enough alone?
CORBELL: The implications
of understanding our universe,
our reality so much more
it's an opportunity.
So Skinwalker Ranch
poses to us this opportunity
to confront these things
that maybe even scare us.
This phenomenon is real.
It is happening,
whether we like it or not,
and it could alter
the basic fabric
of how we relate
to the external world.
There is something profound that
is going on at Skinwalker Ranch
and the surrounding area.
And it begs to be studied.