Quick Info
Deep in the remote Uintah Basin of Utah lies a 512 acre ranch long feared by the Ute people as a place where Skinwalkers, powerful witches who could shift into animal form, gathered and practiced dark medicine. When Terry and Gwen Sherman bought the property in 1994, they had no idea they were stepping into one of the most intense and well-documented outbreaks of high-strangeness in modern history.
Almost immediately the family began experiencing cattle mutilations with surgical precision, glowing orbs that moved intelligently through the fields, invisible creatures that left footprints but could not be seen, strange portals opening in the air, and poltergeist-like activity inside their home.
The Shermans were ordinary, honest ranchers with no interest in the paranormal. Their terrifying experiences, later investigated by journalist George Knapp and biochemist Colm Kelleher through the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS), turned Skinwalker Ranch into a landmark case that continues to challenge everything we think we know about reality.
The Land and the Ute Legends
For generations the Ute people have spoken of this patch of land as cursed. They called it a place where skinwalkers, powerful witches who could shift into animal forms, roamed freely. Navajo elders who lived nearby also warned that the area was a gathering place for malevolent entities. The Ute would rarely travel through the basin at night and actively avoided certain ridges and canyons. When settlers arrived in the area, the warnings from the local peoples were largely ignored.
The Sherman Family Moves In
In 1994, Terry and Gwen Sherman bought the 480-acre ranch for its beautiful isolation and good grazing land. Almost immediately strange things began. Cattle were found dead with surgical precision cuts and no blood on the ground. One bull was found with its rectum cored out and its tongue removed without a drop of blood. The family started seeing glowing blue orbs floating through the fields. Dogs would cower and refuse to go outside at night.
“We saw things that just didn’t make sense. Orbs would follow us around the property like they were watching us.”
— Terry Sherman
The family also reported seeing large, wolf-like creatures that stood on two legs and were unaffected by bullets. One night Terry shot a creature point-blank with a high-powered rifle. It simply turned, looked at him, and walked away unharmed. The video below with Art, George and Colm has a lot more, very vivid, details to this Wolf story.
George Knapp Gets Involved
Investigative journalist George Knapp first heard about the ranch while covering UFO stories in Utah. He visited the Sherman family and was shocked by their sincerity and the sheer volume of bizarre events. Knapp began reporting on the case and eventually introduced the family to aerospace billionaire Robert Bigelow.
Robert Bigelow Buys the Ranch
In 1996, Robert Bigelow, founder of Bigelow Aerospace and a longtime investor in paranormal research, purchased the ranch from the Shermans. Bigelow had a deep personal interest in consciousness, UFOs, and the survival of consciousness after death. He formed the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS) and brought in Colm Kelleher, a biochemist with a background in virology and immunology, to lead a serious scientific investigation on the property.
Bigelow invested significant resources, installing cameras, sensors, and monitoring equipment across the ranch. For the next eight years, Kelleher and his team lived on site and documented an astonishing range of phenomena. The goal was to apply rigorous scientific methods to what had previously been dismissed as folklore or exaggeration. Bigelow’s involvement elevated the case from local rancher stories to a well-funded, long-term study that produced thousands of pages of reports, video footage, and sensor data.
“We saw objects that appeared and disappeared right in front of us. We had electronic equipment fail for no reason. And we experienced phenomena that simply should not exist according to known physics.”
— Colm Kelleher
Bigelow’s purchase and the subsequent NIDS investigation marked a turning point, transforming the ranch from a private family nightmare into one of the most intensively studied high-strangeness locations in the world.
The NIDS Investigation
In 1996 Bigelow purchased the ranch and brought in Colm Kelleher, a biochemist, to lead the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS) team. For eight years Kelleher and his scientists lived on the property, installing cameras, sensors, and monitoring equipment. What they witnessed was beyond anything they expected.
“We saw objects that appeared and disappeared right in front of us. We had electronic equipment fail for no reason. And we experienced phenomena that simply should not exist according to known physics.”
— Colm Kelleher, co-author of Hunt for the Skinwalker
The team documented glowing orbs that moved intelligently, invisible entities that left footprints in snow but could not be seen, and “portals” where objects seemed to enter or exit our reality. Cattle continued to disappear or be mutilated in ways that left no tracks. Investigators themselves suffered strange health effects and psychological disturbances. Kelleher later described the ranch as the most intense high-strangeness location he had ever studied.
What Happened Between 2005 and 2016
After the main phase of the NIDS investigation ended around 2004, the ranch remained under Robert Bigelow’s ownership, but the intense on-site scientific work slowed considerably. Bigelow was increasingly focused on his aerospace company and other projects, including inflatable space habitats for NASA. Some low-level monitoring continued, but the large team of scientists living on the property was no longer there.
In 2007–2008, the ranch became indirectly connected to a new Pentagon-funded program called the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP). Bigelow’s company, BAASS, won the contract to study advanced aerospace threats, and the Skinwalker Ranch data played an important role in shaping the program. Colm Kelleher moved into a leadership position at BAASS during this time.
Phenomena reportedly continued on the ranch in a more sporadic way. Occasional orb sightings and other anomalies were still noted by those who visited, but nothing matched the sustained intensity of the Sherman years or the peak NIDS period. The ranch stayed a private research asset rather than an active daily investigation site.
This quieter phase lasted until 2016, when Bigelow sold the property to a new owner. The sale marked the end of the Bigelow/NIDS era and the beginning of a new chapter for the ranch.
Timeline of Skinwalker Ranch
- Pre-1994 – Long Ute and Navajo legends of skinwalkers and cursed land in the Uintah Basin.
- 1994 – Sherman family buys the ranch and strange events begin almost immediately.
- 1996 – George Knapp reports on the case; Robert Bigelow buys the ranch and forms NIDS team led by Colm Kelleher.
- 1996–2004 – Eight years of scientific investigation with extensive documentation of orbs, cryptids, portals, and mutilations.
- 2005 – The Hunt for the Skinwalker book is published
- 2016 onward – Brandon Frugal buys Skinwalker Ranch and it remains a focal point for serious paranormal research.
Why This Case Still Matters
Skinwalker Ranch stands apart because it wasn’t just lights in the sky. It was a sustained, multi-year outbreak of every kind of high-strangeness phenomenon on one single piece of land. The Sherman family’s honesty, combined with George Knapp’s careful journalism and Colm Kelleher’s rigorous scientific approach, makes it one of the most credible and disturbing cases in modern UFO and paranormal history. The Ute legends give it a deep cultural context that most other cases lack. Even today, researchers continue to study the area, hoping to understand what, or who, is really there.
Art Bell, George Knapp & Colm Kelleher talk about Skinwalker Ranch
More videos from @ArtBellsClips on YouTube
What Do You Think?
After reading about the Ute legends and the Sherman family’s experiences, and listening to Art, George and Colm talking about Skinwalker Ranch, what’s your reaction? Do you think the ranch is truly a hotspot for UFO, Orbs, Paranormal, Skinwalker activity and other unknown phenomena, or could there be another explanation? Why do you think the NIDS team were never able to fully solve the mystery?
Why do you think Bob Bigelow still hasn't relased any, like not a single line, of the data they collected while at Skinwalker Ranch? I 100% believe there is a something there, I'm not sure what that something is but it's real. To be fair if the Ute people told me "hey that place is evil, be careful" I'd take their word for it. This is one of the most documented and disturbing cases in modern paranormal history and I'm so glad that Brandon bought the place.
