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In the ranching heartland of America, a plot of land known as Skinwalker Ranch has been dubbed the strangest place on Earth.
The ranch is a large 480-acre property located in northeast Utah, Uintah County, not far from the small town of Roosevelt.
This property borders the Ute Indian Reservation, whose people are said not to enter this area, as they believe the territory is a hotspot for Skinwalker activity.
The Ute people take this very seriously, believing the Skinwalkers to be powerful spirits who inhabit the land due to a curse placed upon them and the land generations ago by the Navajo tribe.
The Ute and Navajo tribes have a deep and complex past together, featuring a lot of conflict and territorial disputes.
While there may not be a singular definitive event that can be pointed to in which the belief of the curse originated, the most popular belief is that it arose due to these conflicts.
For instance, in the 19th century, the Navajo people had claimed the basin and the area in which the ranch would later be built.
The Navajo people thought of this land as a paradise, as it provided crystal-clear water and prime hunting spots.
But this wouldn’t last.
The land was coveted by others.
The Ute tribe came in force and attacked, took Navajo prisoners, and sold them to the Spanish while staking their own claim on the area.
People believe that this was the reason the Navajo were said to have retaliated with a curse in the form of a spirit that could shapeshift into anything it wanted.
Thus, the Skinwalker was born.
However, others have debated that the goal of this legend may have been to dissuade European settlers from the land in the first place.
The Skinwalkers themselves are dark creatures birthed from black magic, and this is a magic that they wield.
As the name might suggest, they are said to have the ability to shapeshift into whatever they desire, perhaps deciding to appear as an animal, or in some cases resemble a person.
In their natural state, it’s said that their eyes glow red, which makes them stand out in the darkness.
Their physical prowess is said to be far greater than our own, being faster and stronger.
They are also said to be capable of affecting people mentally, driving them mad or making them act in ways that they wouldn’t normally.
One way or another, the folklore paints them as creatures that are best avoided at all costs.
Whether or not the curse is real, imagined, exaggerated, or always intended to keep people away, at the center of this whole story is the ranch.
The Ute people say that this ranch is the path of the Skinwalker, and tribe members, as said, do not venture too close, believing it to be dangerous.
The earliest mention of unusual things happening in this region that I could find came from the late 1700s.
Spanish explorers searching for the Spanish Trail passed through the Uintah Basin, the future site of the ranch.
At night, while sitting together in their camp next to their warm fires, they would describe seeing unusual things and lights moving in the sky above.
Unfortunately, detailed and verifiable records from the 1700s in this area are scarce.
But there are accounts by explorers and missionaries of observing things that they did not understand, mostly while these groups traversed what is now New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and Arizona.
They documented their journeys and encounters with the Native Americans.
Among these accounts, there are occasional references to celestial phenomena like comets and meteors, but there are also more unusual accounts of strange lights or things in the sky.
For instance, in 1776, Father Escalante was part of an expeditionary group trying to find a land route from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Monterey on the coast of California.
During a portion of this trip, they found themselves in Utah, and specifically the Uintah Basin, where Escalante reported seeing — and I quote — “a strange fireball fly across the sky.”
I believe that most of these incidents were interpreted through a religious lens.
The legend of this place didn’t want to just remain in the past.
Moving towards the present, in 1911, settlers in the area reported hearing strange noises whose point of origin they did not understand.
The sounds were described as large, distant, echoing bangs resembling the sound of thunder.
At first, these sounds disturbed those in the area, but they became frequent, occurring through day and night all year round.
Later, these sounds were thought to be the result of rock crashing against one another along the fault present there.
Aside from that, the earliest accounts from the 20th century that I can find seemed to begin in the 1950s and onwards.
For instance, similar to Escalante’s observation, in the summer of 1956, a description was given by a local that was quite reminiscent.
Sandy Richmond stated that while to the east of Bridgeland, it was observed that an orange ball around 100 feet overhead flew above a hill and down towards the river.
It was said to be humming and fast.
This was around 30 miles or so away from the ranch.
Some accounts vary slightly but remain along these lines.
For example, in mid-June of 1965, Brent D. Young of Dry Fork stated that he thought he saw a bright star in the sky, but then it got closer to him before flying away.
There are many others of this type, but also those who have reported seeing something more detailed than just a light in the sky.
From the 60s and onwards, there are incidents of particularly awful things occurring in regard to cattle and other animals, which I have a full video on the topic on my Patreon because it’s difficult to go in depth on YouTube.
These incidents typically involve animals disappearing, then the body being found with odd qualities and circumstances sometime later.
Again though, whether these incidents have a rational explanation or not, Uintah County became a hotspot for this kind of unusual activity.
Now this brings us to 1994, when Gwen and Terry Sherman purchased the ranch from Kenneth and Edith Myers, who had owned it since the 1930s.
At some point, as the Myers aged, they left the ranch to live elsewhere, essentially leaving it abandoned, though it was on occasion visited by members of the Myers family.
Wanting to live a peaceful rural life, the Shermans felt that they could fix the place up to their liking and move their family and livestock to the site.
While they may have been hoping for a peaceful existence, given their later accounts that we’ll get into, their time at the ranch was anything but peaceful.
The Shermans had the ranch for two years before making the hard decision to leave.
In their own words, they could no longer stand what was happening to them and their family at that place.
During their ownership of the ranch, the Sherman family made some extraordinary claims of having been subject to highly unusual incidents.
Terry himself already had a lot of experience raising cattle and believed this to be the perfect place not only to raise them, but also his two children.
On the very first day that the Shermans arrived at their new home, Terry was greeted by what he considered a very strange and unusual sight.
Terry described that there were deadbolts on the doors and windows as if to keep intruders out in the middle of nowhere.
Some of the doors and windows had deadbolts on both the inside and outside, and metal bars placed over the windows.
Attached to their property were large chains that looked to Terry like they served the purpose of restraining heavy animals.
His best guess was that the Myers must have positioned large guard dogs to the front and back of the property.
What they were supposed to be guarding against, Terry wasn’t sure, and said that it was something that confused him.
But he set that aside and began unpacking.
On that very first day, while unpacking, Terry and the rest of the family spotted what he thought was an enormous coyote or wolf in one of their pastures.
To make matters even more bizarre, this wolf started to approach the Shermans.
Terry said that it didn’t appear aggressive, and therefore felt it was tame and must have been owned by a local.
According to the Shermans, this wolf was massive, and it allowed the family to pet it, displaying no signs of aggression at all.
Terry was just in awe at how big this thing was, and the family didn’t believe that this was just a regular wolf.
It was incredibly muscular and far taller than you’d expect for a wolf.
That day it had been raining quite heavily, and the Shermans described that it smelled of wet dog.
After a few moments of awe, confusion, and wondering just what they were looking at, the wolf wandered over towards a livestock pen.
There, it found an unsuspecting calf.
This calf was curious and pushed his head between the corral bars, which is when the wolf struck, grabbing it with its teeth and trying to force the calf through the bars.
Terry and his son grabbed some nearby sticks and began hitting at the wolf, which probably wasn’t the best idea, but thankfully it didn’t turn against them.
This didn’t work, though, and the wolf was not fazed by the blows.
Things immediately took a bizarre turn.
Needing to handle this quickly before further damage was done, Terry told his son to retrieve his Magnum.
He opened up on the wolf with four rounds.
Each round struck it from a closer distance until he was right up against this thing.
The wolf seemed unfazed, he reported, but it did release the calf.
It just stood there watching the family and made no attempt to run away or leave.
Terry continued using even greater firepower, but all the impact produced was a piece of tissue and hair from the creature.
The wolf remained calm and trotted off across a pasture into a wet, brushy area.
Terry and his son tracked the creature for over a mile away from the ranch, but he was unable to keep up with it and then lost it completely after watching it enter into a treeline.
Despite this, the ground was wet and they could clearly see a direction of travel, but soon the tracks just came to an abrupt end, and they could follow it no further.
The pair didn’t really know what to make of this, so they stuck around for a while just looking before heading home, hoping that they’d scared it off for good and would be left alone.
Upon returning home, the retrieved tissue apparently had a very strong odor, that of rotting meat.
In the days to come after this incident, the family did see other canines on the property, but they didn’t have another incident like this until some weeks later.
This time, though, it would be Gwen that was the recipient of the unknown.
It was either the same creature as the one the family came into contact with on moving day, or perhaps a similar one, but Gwen stated that she was inside her car when this thing walked up to her.
She said that whatever it was, it was so big that its back was parallel with the top of her window as it stood beside the car.
She also said that this enormous wolf was accompanied by another canine that she could not identify.
The Sherman family just wanted and hoped for normality to return, but these incidents were only the first of many that would disturb the family, and we’ve barely even scratched the surface yet.
Over the course of the next two years, the wolves weren’t the only things that bothered them.
They were plagued with a range of strange occurrences that both they and neighbors had reported to the police.
While driving into the ranch on a very bright afternoon, Terry and Gwen saw something in the distance chasing and attacking one of their horses.
The description of this thing was that it was low to the ground, looked heavily muscled, perhaps weighing 200 pounds, with red curly hair and a bushy tail.
From the distance they were at, they didn’t know if it was some kind of hyena or another one of these canine-like creatures.
Terry chased this thing down and got within 40 feet of it, and said that it was so fast that it just vanished.
Terry was shaken, and upon inspecting the horse, found numerous claw marks on its body and legs.
Interestingly enough, a few months after this incident, it was stated that the wife of the deputy sheriff reported seeing a similar muscular reddish beast running across the property.
Another visitor to the ranch had an ominous encounter in the middle homestead.
This visitor, along with Terry and his son, said that they saw a large, blurry something moving through the trees toward the pasture, covering 100 yards in seconds.
The account goes that this thing came upon the visitor quickly, and upon reaching him, let out a furious roar that was loud enough to be heard hundreds of yards away in all directions.
The description of this thing was that it was nearly invisible.
The visitor stated that he was so scared and wound up over what happened that he grabbed hold of Terry as hard as he could.
The Shermans reported other such intense incidents with beings that they described as nine feet tall and void-like in terms of color.
In circles interested in such things, these beings are often referred to as shadow people.
These incidents would often be followed by overwhelmingly strong odors within and outside the home.
Not all of the incidents were as intense as these.
Others were trickster-like.
For example, Terry and the family began noticing that certain items would go missing around the ranch — items you wouldn’t expect to just disappear, like heavy and large equipment.
Terry reportedly stated that a 70-pound post digger outright disappeared after he placed it down, left the area for a few minutes, and came back to find it gone.
Allegedly, this post digger was found sometime later, 20 feet up in a tree.
Similar to those in 1911 who heard thunderous distant rumbling, the Shermans claimed to hear what sounded like heavy machinery being operated beneath the ground.
Others were just outright weird.
It was stated that the Shermans observed their pastures lighting up at night like a football stadium.
They were quoted as saying they’d seen shafts of light that seemed to emanate from the ground.
These incidents correlated with seeing strange lights in the sky, and on occasion they could see what these lights belonged to.
The descriptions given by the Shermans are reminiscent of those given in the 1950s, 60s, and beyond.
For example, in the spring of 1956, a man named Sam Brumley, three miles east of Roosevelt, reported seeing a silver dome hovering and moving in the sky.
He said it was around the size of a small house and humming as it traveled.
He was out hunting and used a scope for a better view, stating that he believed he saw a person standing at a window inside the dome.
He also said he felt a pressure bearing down on him that he believed emanated from the object.
Months later, on July 20th, 1956, Bill Locke, 72 miles west of Roosevelt, saw another silver dome traveling at great speed.
He said it had a dark band around the middle, whistling and screeching as it flew.
One evening, the Shermans reported seeing something similar.
Not dome-shaped, but rather shaped like a refrigerator.
During this incident, Terry, his son, and his nephew witnessed lights on their land some distance away from the home.
They thought someone was trespassing with an RV.
As they approached, the lights lifted in total silence and began moving away.
They watched as the object rose around 50 feet into the air.
Terry realized it wasn’t an RV.
He described it as a refrigerator-shaped craft flying silently above them.
The series of weirdness at the ranch was deeply confusing, disturbing, but also interesting to Terry.
At night, he would patrol the land and see lights moving in the darkness and silent hovering objects, sometimes big, sometimes small.
These objects would flash an array of colors and seemed to be looking for something.
Gwen also saw one from her car and initially thought it was an RV.
She then saw a doorway open and a very tall figure — perhaps seven feet or taller — wearing a black uniform, staring directly at her.
In another incident, Terry’s nephew reported hearing a disembodied conversation in a language he didn’t understand, mocking in tone, emanating about 20 feet above them.
Dogs reacted with fear, barking and growling.
Glowing orange orbs were the most common experience on the ranch.
Terry said he watched them zip around for hours using a scope.
He believed the area housed a portal.
He described an orange section of sky with a blue hole in the center, from which objects emerged at great speed.
Physical manifestations also occurred.
One morning, Terry found a large hole in the ground with perfectly smooth edges, resembling concentric circles.
They also found crop-circle-like formations — three flattened grass circles about eight feet wide, arranged in a triangular pattern.
There was only one road in and out of the property.
As time went on, incidents escalated.
The family was never directly harmed, but events grew more disturbing.
Cattle mutilations became severe.
Cows disappeared and were later found with eyes missing or crescent-shaped cuts.
There were no tracks, no fluids, and a strong musky odor.
Dogs became fearful.
Cats vanished.
Fourteen prized animals were lost.
In one case, all four bulls vanished and were later found crammed inside a locked metal trailer, appearing dazed.
Metal bars were magnetized and later demagnetized.
The final straw came in May 1996.
A blue orb lured three dogs into brush.
Terry heard yelps, then silence.
In the morning, he found three circular patches of dead vegetation with black greasy remains.
The family believed the dogs had been incinerated.
They decided to leave.
They sold the ranch at a loss to Robert Bigelow in September 1996.
Bigelow founded NIDS.
Scientists, astronauts, and researchers investigated.
They experienced similar phenomena.
Cattle mutilations continued.
Strange lights, creatures, radiation readings, and orbs were documented.
Later, the DIA, AAWSAP, and government personnel became involved.
Some experienced the Hitchhiker Effect, where phenomena followed them home.
Families reported shadow figures, orbs, creatures, and disturbances.
Skepticism exists.
The original owners denied all claims.
Some neighbors saw nothing.
Others reported sightings.
No definitive explanation exists.
Hallucinations, social contagion, government experiments, or unknown phenomena have all been proposed.
In the end, there is no clear answer.
Belief remains split.
Some believe it’s real.
Some believe it’s fiction.
Others remain open-minded.
Thank you for watching.
Thank you to the patrons.
Please like and subscribe.
Stay safe.
Peace.
