Skinwalker Ranch: Top theories to explain what’s really going on
For some two centuries, rumours and stories have spread throughout the state about strange goings-on at the Sherman Ranch.
Image: Skinwalker Ranch
Curse of Skinwalker Ranch is returning for its fourth season investigating reports of paranormal and UFO-related activity at the 500-acre ranch in Utah. The team, led by aerospace engineer Travis Taylor, use state-of-the-art technology to see if they can get to the bottom of the mysteries once and for all.
The new season of Curse of Skinwalker Ranch starts Wednesday, 6th September at 9pm on Sky HISTORY.
Zombies, werewolves, demons, ghosts, cryptids, UFOs, strange electromagnetic signals and mutilated cattle... No, we’re not talking about our last Halloween party that got out of hand. We’re introducing an article looking into the bizarre mystery of ‘Skinwalker Ranch’.
If you stumbled across the place and hadn’t been tipped off about it, you might not think much of Sherman Ranch in Ballard, Utah. Just over 500 acres of land that borders a Ute Indigenous Reservation, at a glance it doesn’t look much different to the rest of Uintah County. Look closer, however, and you may just see something unbelievable…
Or you may not.
For some two centuries, rumours and stories have spread throughout the state about strange goings-on at the Sherman Ranch. All, some or none of which may be true. Folk tales of UFO activity, crop circles, cows killed and exhumed with laser precision, poltergeists, demonic red-eyed wolves and shape-shifting entities have been whispered, spoken and shouted about over the years.
Of course, its true history is as long as it is odd. But let’s take a quick look into what might be going on at what’s now known as Skinwalker Ranch and examine some of the main theories behind the strange phenomena it attracts...
A Native American curse
Initially, the ranch became synonymous with UFO sightings, but soon eyewitnesses began reporting mysterious humanoid apparitions, along with sightings of what’s been described as ‘evil witches’ and ‘wolf-life creatures’. One popular explanation, and the origin of the ranch’s new name, is that the ranch is plagued by ‘Skinwalkers’, shapeshifting demons from Native American lore.
The concept is one deeply ingrained into Navajo history. But with no Navajo people for hundreds of miles, why would Skinwalkers be appearing and terrorising people in Ute territory? Well, one theory is that the Skinwalkers are there as a curse and a punishment, after the Ute people mistreated the Navajo some centuries ago. The idea is that the earth under the feet of all that step on the ranch is spiritually tarnished for eternity.
An interdimensional portal
Of course, there’s very little evidence to support the theory that Skinwalker Ranch’s unusual incidents are due to it hosting a portal between dimensions, but it has been mooted by some more creative types. Several folk claim to have seen bright orange and/or blue lights in the night that flash, dominating the sky. They’re said to last around ten seconds and can be viewed around 1,000ft in the air.
The idea is that these odd creatures and spaceships enter and leave via these connection points. From and into a parallel universe or alternate reality. A plane of existence that exists adjacent to ours but, for some reason, connects to ours only very occasionally and only in the night skies about a ranch in northeast Utah.
A collective delusion
The only other possibility could well be that nothing truly out of this world happens on the ranch, but that no one is lying. Shared psychosis, shared delusional disorder, SDD, folie à deux... call it what you will. It's all the same thing. A psychiatric syndrome whereby otherwise healthy people share an idiosyncratic belief or deception. Basically, everyone’s imagining it.
Is this a likely scenario? Not particularly. Is it impossible? Absolutely not.
What do we reckon is going on over in Utah at Skinwalker Ranch? Who knows? All we know is that it’s all very, very strange. And strange is what makes life interesting.
