What Is the History of the Mysterious Skinwalker Ranch, and Who Owned It Before Robert Bigelow?

Cattle mutilation events that were occurring with their prized cows, but also poltergeist-like activity and even UFO sightings that were occurring on a pretty regular basis.

The fact that the Navajo tribe cursed this property as a result of conflict with the Ute tribe and the federal government is something that has been confirmed over and over by members of the community, by elders. This goes way previous to Robert Bigelow.

In 1996, the Shermans owned it from 1994 to 1996, only two years, and sold it for two hundred thousand dollars. What did they sell it because of all the activity that was happening?

Yeah, well if you go back in time, the property was originally homesteaded. I mean you had Native Americans that were part of the process, and you had old early homesteaders that built the structures on the property and resided on the property going back to the late 1800s, early 1900s.

By the 1940s, the Myers family, and specifically Kenneth and Edith Myers, proceeded to live there and ranch on the property and stayed there their entire lives. Both Kenneth and Edith ended up passing away in the late 80s and early 90s. Kenneth passed away in the late 80s, and Edith ended up being put in assisted care, I believe in the early 90s. Their brother-in-law, who had legal authority over the estate, sold the property in 1994 to the Sherman family who desired a place to raise cattle and their family.

Shortly after the Shermans acquired the property, they were overwhelmed with not only cattle mutilation events that were occurring with their prized cows, but also poltergeist-like activity and even UFO sightings that were occurring on a pretty regular basis. They were being terrorized.

Word filtered out through the community that the Shermans were experiencing this, and they were talking to their neighbors and calling people in. It caught the attention of a journalist at the Deseret News, a guy named Zach Van Dyke, who came out, was convinced that they were credible, that they were telling the truth, and wrote several articles detailing the accounts of UFO activity, bizarre cattle mutilations, and other strangeness on the property.

Those accounts made their way to one Robert Bigelow in North Las Vegas. Mr. Bigelow had established the National Institute for Discovery Science, a separate side project and program for investigating strange phenomena including UFOs and cattle mutilation. He quickly flew in on his private jet accompanied by Colonel John Alexander and cut a deal with the Shermans, acquired the property quickly, kept Mr. Sherman on for a short period of time to help with the transition.

His team of scientists not only locked down the whole property and secured it, but they proceeded to put up observation towers with bait pens surrounded by razor wire. There are three observation towers located across the property that incorporate bait pens where they would use animals as biosensors to hopefully draw out whatever entities were there on the property, predator-like activity as they described it.

They proceeded to launch a rigorous investigation at the time in 1996 that continued on for years.

Of course, years later, the events, the activity, the investigation at Skinwalker Ranch was brought to the attention of officials at the Pentagon. They had several visitors who had experiences, very compelling, undeniable experiences of paranormal activity, and that led to the black budget Pentagon-funded program that involved the ranch at its center, and the rest is history.

By 2013 that program had ceased for various reasons. Mr. Bigelow was actively engaged with growing his aerospace company and jumping into the private space race as we discussed, and the ranch to a degree had faded.

At the time I was led to believe that it was simply because Mr. Bigelow was just very busy with getting his modules and his space habitats up in orbit and ultimately on the moon and Mars, which I believe is true. But also I’ve learned he ascribed negative events afflicting his family to really his ownership of the ranch.

Really, Mr. Bigelow blamed the ranch for dark disturbing events that happened in their lives. It’s not my story to tell, it’s been told by others in the media and advisors, but owning the ranch was not a positive experience for him.

Even before him though, this went back to Native American tribes. I mean even in the show, yeah, you know, I believe—correct me if I’m wrong—are they hydroglyphs? Is that what you call them? Petroglyphs.

There’s rock art, there’s a megalithic site as well that we’ve investigated in the area, but there’s a lot of rock art and evidence of the ancients, of the Native Americans working on the property.

There’s also a strange Masonic symbol that is etched into the face of the mesa that many have claimed symbolizes “As Above So Below.” There are a lot of things relative to the history that are intriguing and a little bit ambiguous.

But the Native American history, the tradition, and the fact that the Navajo tribe cursed this property as a result of conflict with the Ute tribe and the federal government is something that has been confirmed over and over by members of the community, by elders.

The ridge that runs the expanse of the property, that mesa plateau or that ridge, has been referred to as Skinwalker Ridge for a very long time.

In fact, when the Bigelow team first descended on the property and set up their investigation and heard the accounts of the curse, the Skinwalker curse and the lore that surrounded this property, it ultimately was referred to as Skinwalker Ranch as opposed to the Utah Ranch.

For a period of time it was just simply the Utah Ranch or the Bigelow Ranch in Utah, and then took on the identity of Skinwalker Ranch as they just simply started referring to the property as such as a result of the Native American lore.

What is a skinwalker?

A skinwalker is a shape-shifting demonic entity. It’s essentially a Native American witch or warlock that sells their soul in exchange for immortality, the ability to take on the skin or shape-shift, often times in the form of a wolf, a dire wolf, or a werewolf-like creature, but they can also take on the shape of other animals as well.

It’s a topic that I’ve found the Native American community likes to stay away from. They don’t like to discuss it. To even say the name “Skinwalker” is negative, and it’s a key part of their cultural tradition and history.

Skinwalkers to the Native Americans and the Uinta Basin are just as real as this chair, as this bottle of Diet Mountain Dew. It’s a very real part of their cultural history.

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