He Bought the World’s Most Mysterious Ranch to Debunk It

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How did this ranch ever even wind up on your radar? It’s an unlikely story. I was skeptical but willing to listen.
Were simultaneously advising an elusive billionaire out of Las Vegas named Robert Bigalow, asking if I would be interested in having a discussion and meeting regarding a ranch in northeastern Utah known as Skinwalker Ranch. You didn’t have any idea how much activity was actually happening there.
>> The [music] ranch was part of a Pentagon funded black budget program. I found Skinwalker Ranch from a buddy of mine that I used to work with at CIA. He passed me the program and and I dove in and I was just I’ve been infatuated with it ever since.
And there’s just there’s so much going on there. You have cattle mutilations, you have radiation spikes, you have more UAP UFO activity than than anywhere else I’ve ever heard of.
>> Yeah. you have all these these weird injuries happening to people that out there. I mean, how did this how did this branch ever even wind up on your radar?
Well, it’s an unlikely story. Uh, but about 13 years ago, I was funding an advanced physics effort. Uh we had actually transformed a a large percentage of our of our hangar facility of our family’s aviation uh management and hangar facility at the Provo airport into an engineering lab testing physics theories dealing with gravitational physics. Uh it was an interesting effort was something I did not publicize and we ultimately using scientific rigor and discipline disproved the uh the core claims and the theories that were being advanced. But through that effort [clears throat] >> what hold on what got you interested in that?
>> Yeah, it was a former client. So, I had a a client that I represented back in the mid 90s that was a a genius software development executive that ended up forming a a company that became the world’s leading internet consulting firm. And he he left that firm ultimately uh to fund efforts relative to the UFO phenomena. uh had claimed that he had his own experience, had been visited. I found it all to be quite unbelievable, but I could not uh deny his success in business. I’d had the privilege of negotiating his first headquarters transaction and uh and and working with him at a young age. And when when uh reconnecting with him in late 2009 going into 2010, uh he claimed that he’d spent tens of millions of dollars focused on really discovering the the technology or the principle of action that would enable uh gravity, you know, anti-gravity and overun energy. I was I was skeptical.
uh but willing to to listen. He he was he was a very um celebrated respected uh tech mogul in his 20s in the in the ‘9s.
I mean he sold his first company to Noville uh as a teenager and uh as I’d mentioned he he he’d built the the world’s largest internet consulting firm.
>> Wow. uh that I had the privilege of of advising and working with. So hearing his claims, I was intrigued. I was willing to invest uh even willing to to devote some of our facilities and resources to to the effort. Well, it ended up becoming a very challenging endeavor. But through that experience, I developed relationships with a team of science adviserss that unbeknownst to me were simultaneously advising an elusive billionaire out of Las Vegas named Robert Bigalow of Bigalow Aerospace who as a as a real estate developer uh and entrepreneur was was a kindred spirit of sorts. And so it following the closure of that research project back in 2013, uh I was surprised to receive a call from the two senior science adviserss that had had been on our board uh with the question uh as you know asking if I would be interested in having a a discussion a meeting with Mr. in Bigalow regarding a ranch in northeastern Utah known as Skinwalker Ranch. They asked me if I’d heard of this place. I told them, “Yeah, I I was familiar with a book that had been published, you know, back in the mid 2000s called Hunt for the Skinwalker.” Uh, I chuckled and told them I I didn’t know that there was any truth to it, but I remember it being a uh an entertaining read at the time. Uh, but I told them I said, “You know that I’m a skeptic. I’ve never seen a UFO, a ghost orb. You’re also aware that I just concluded funding a project where we by using scientific rigor and discipline debunked the core claims. And I’m really not interested in in, you know, these these French topics.” and I I happen to believe that there’s most likely a natural prosaic explanation for the claims that are being made. Well, they they proceeded to say, “Well, Brandon, there’s a lot more going on than meets the eye. and you as a as a real estate mogul and adviser in the inner mountain west, you know, uh, seemed to be a potential fit to joint venture or at least have a discussion with Mr. Bigalow. And I I agreed. I I I jumped at the chance to at least have a meeting, to have a discussion. Flew down to Las Vegas and found myself at Mr. Bigalow’s uh Bigalow Aerospace Compound, which is the closest thing to a James Bond villain lair that I’ve ever seen. I mean, it’s a it’s an incredible facility. I mean, huge buildings that house full-size space stations and space habitats that have been designed where they’re they’re they’re doing the materials science and the life safety uh testing and uh and engineering to to really position Bigalow Aerospace, at least at the time, to be the real estate development company of space.
>> Wow.
>> And uh Mr. Bigalow uh had an interest in in potentially selling the the Utah property. He had expressed uh he had expressed not only willingness to consider the sale but the the fact that he was very busy and occupied with uh you know negotiating deals with SpaceX and NASA and others uh you know playing a key role in the private space race.
Uh, we we had a great visit and I think developed a good relationship. I I told him that I was a skeptic, that I’d never seen a UFO or a ghost or orb or anything of the sort and that I would be bringing in my own team. I also asked him for any of the data. Uh, and he said, “Well, I’m selling the property on an ASIS basis.
I’m not willing to turn over any data.” not only because the ranch was part of a Pentagon-f funded black budget program between 2007 and 2013, but he he went on to say that he felt, you know, he wanted to keep that that private. And I agreed. At the end of the day, I felt that starting with a clean slate would would help me establish a baseline and most likely help me even better establish that there was a natural explanation for the reports.
>> You wanted a clean slate. You didn’t want the the previous data or research.
>> No, I didn’t push. I I asked respectfully and and I respected his his response and his request. Did he So was it was it [clears throat] was he unable to pass the the research and the data because it was a black budget program or or did he just he just wasn’t willing to share?
>> Yeah, I think I think it was both.
>> Time doesn’t slow down and really you

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>> Did he want you to continue the research at the ranch?
>> Uh, I think he saw he saw in me a worthy successor as someone who would at least be the appropriate owner taking it forward given my real estate background, proximity to the ranch. You know, I I live about 2 and 1/2 hours away. It’s only about a 45minute flight via helicopter.
Uh and and he had heard positive things about me from his science adviserss. his science adviserss had um had told him that I had managed the the project that we had shared in common uh with professionalism and and I think that uh that meant something to him. He was not putting the property up on the market for sale. I mean the property was never offered or marketed for sale. This was a very private transaction, private dialogue and and I told him that I would acquire the property uh so long as my identity would be kept confidential.
And I worked with my legal counsel to structure the entities that would shield my identity. In fact, my name wasn’t wasn’t on any of the paperwork by design. I had registered agents that uh that managed that process and truly wanted to stay below the radar and not have my identity associated with the ranch in any way.
>> What What year was this?
>> 2016. So, I closed closed on the property the first week in April 2016 and proceeded to bring in my own team and assess really whether there there was any reality to the claims that were being made. At the time I was on the the board of the National Parks Council, the Boy Scouts of America, and uh honestly was intending to donate it uh to the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts for a for a potential site that you were where that those experiences that could be had because I didn’t think that there was anything truly unusual. I felt like, you know, my investigation and and research would ultimately confirm that there was nothing there was nothing paranormal or disturbing about this incredible piece of property. And so when I flew in and saw the property for the first time, I was shocked at how beautiful how strikingly beautiful the landscape was. as the helicopter came in and I was looking over at my brother who was piloting and looking back at Jim Morse who I was recruiting to come in and be really the face of the property at the time and be the ranch manager and the community liaison. I was taken aback by how beautiful the property was and the diversity of the landscape. Here you have this red rock mesa that runs the entire expanse of the property from east to west. You have waterways that biseect the property. You have these old pioneer homesteads that are still standing uh that uh that that provide a very unique interesting backdrop and uh and it is a a working uh ranch. I mean, there has been cattle brought on and off the property periodically, and I’ve I’ve maintained that use through my stewardship over the course of the last, you know, seven plus years as well. And so, when I flew into the property, I was just shocked at how how beautiful it was. You could shoot any number of Hollywood films of John Wayne westerns on this property or even Westworld which is uh you know a favorite of mine. Uh it’s it’s that diverse and that strikingly uh unique. And I proceeded to to engage professionals to bring in a superintendent within days, Thomas Winterton, who helped assess the physical facilities and what we needed to do in order to install certain things. And we had caretakers at the time. I had a uh a a uh professional an ex Marine who uh was a drone expert that was tasked with not only conducting drone surveillance of the property but also developing a historical record of the landscape to better understand every inch of this 512 acre uh assemblage.
How? So when you when you took over when you took possession of Skinwalker Ranch, you really had you didn’t have any idea how much activity was actually happening there.
>> No.
>> On top of that, you were you were a skeptic. You had mentioned last night that you had purchased Skimwalker Ranch to basically debunk the entire >> Yeah.
>> UFO UAP topic. So, what I’m curious about is how do you how does somebody that has been conducting experiments with the US government on a black budget program who very much believes in all of these phenomenons that are happening?
How do you determine the value when you’re selling to a skeptic who wants to acquire it to debunk the ent the entire operation? Yeah, it’s it’s a it’s a negotiation. It’s subjective. But I think Mr. Bigalow knew that I would that I was respectful. He knew that I would handle the property with care, with respect. I think that he he respected my desire for anonymity, for privacy.
Uh, I I didn’t tell my family.
My, you know, my family, my closest business partners were purposely out of the loop and unaware of my acquisition and this new venture uh, by design.
So, it was it was an interesting launch to to the the saga that continues to unfold with Skinwalker Ranch. Uh, in the first several months, we dealt with primarily challenges dealing with dilapidated infrastructure. We had a a septic system that wasn’t working, that was backed up. I found quickly we didn’t have adequate power infrastructure to to be able to to secure the property. We we had no fiber optic connectivity uh to be able to to effectively conduct a more advanced investigation. And so the the first several months I coordinated with, you know, Thomas Winterton and Jim Morris and my caretakers and other advisers to to address the infrastructure issues of this property.
It was very very run down. There was no command center. There was no technology.
The reports that Mr. Bigalow uh received on a weekly basis were were sent via fax. There was a fax machine in 2016.
There was a fax machine that was the primary technology used for disseminating reports relative to activity at the ranch, believe it or not. And uh uh I was I was surprised to find that uh that the ranch was was in that state. I I was also surprised to find that on the perimeter fence line there were animal body parts. There were there were animal bladders hanging from the fence line. When I was first shown the property uh by exiting Bigalow security and I asked the security, I said, “What what is the nature of what the hell is that? what why why are those things hanging from the fence line perimeter of the property? and and the security at the time looked at me with a straight face and said, “Look, the Native American neighbors that surround this property, place these animal bladders on the fence line and bless them to keep the demonic spirits and entities inside this property and off of their property.” And I I quickly learned that the tribal leaders in the Uenta basin and surrounding the property had been telling their people not to even look the way of the ranch.
That they were they were told don’t even look the way of the property or else you may have demonic forces, entities that would follow you.
and uh and that’s something that is that has been discussed and documented uh but is is a is an interesting part of the history. So I I was very surprised when first inspecting the property and visiting the property at what I found.
Um, after a couple of months, my surveyor uh contacted me one day with uh with a report that he just captured the image of a UFO. It was right about noon in uh June of 2016. And I said, “Really?
Are you sure?” And he said, “Yeah, I I I have I have it on my my camera.” And I told him, “Will you stop everything right now?
Don’t talk to anyone else. Drive straight to my office because I want the metadata. I want to download that picture without it being corrupted, without it being compromised. I want it directly on my graphic director’s computer to be analyzed if if you really believe that you’ve captured something. And so he he did. He drove 2 and 1/2 hours straight to my office in Salt Lake City and downloaded that image right there in front of me, you know, with my graphics director. We still have the metadata and it was an interesting image. In fact, uh it reminded me of the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars fame >> really.
>> Um and uh and it was it was interesting.
I checked uh the the flight records to see if there was any any activity, any commercial or private uh air traffic that would match up with that in the basin during that time uh that that again corresponded to that metadata and there was none. And it was uh it was intriguing. Was I convinced that there were that the the UFO phenomena was was real? you know, that there was some extraordinary, you know, you know, cause or origin to this. No, but I was intrigued. Several weeks later, I get another call. Brandon, I’ve got another image. We myself and the caretakers just saw a glowing object appear right outside of Homestead 1 or right outside of the ranch house. and I’ve got the images and I I I need to show you this. And I I told him, “Drive straight to my office.” Um, please get here as fast as you can. And sure enough, it it was an intriguing image.
We had the metadata. It was very different than the UFO that was captured weeks before.
>> How so?
>> Uh, it it had a different shape, different characteristics. Do you still have these images?
>> I’ll share those with you. You bet.
>> I’ll put them up on screen.
>> You bet. Um and and those those created some interest. I still was unconvinced.
I mean, we have the Utah test and training range out west of Hill Air Force Base. I mean, I’ve I’ve worked u as the the commercial real estate advisor to Falcon Hill and that aerospace research park, and I’m aware that that there are programs that that that are out there, and there are tests being conducted that uh could very well be potentially connected with some of the the uni unidentified aerial phenomena that uh that have been reported. So, I I remained curious but unconvinced.
And then in October of 2016, I received a call from one of my adviserss saying that a certain individual, a prominent doctor out of Las Vegas, who had been working on Area 51, had been a consulting physician, Terry 51, had as his number one request, his number one wish on his life bucket list to visit Skinwalker Ranch. No matter where you’re watching Shawn Ryan Show from, if you get anything out of this, please like, comment, subscribe, and most importantly, share this everywhere you possibly can. And if you’re feeling extra generous, please leave us a review on Apple and Spotify podcasts.