Skinwalker Ranch

 

Skinwalker

In Navajo culture, a skinwalker  is a type of  witch who has the ability to turn into or  possess  animals. They are considered evil and  can be male or female.  The nearest creature in western mythology would be a werewolf, The Navajo are reluctance to talk about them,

"We as Native people are now opened up to a barrage of questions about these beliefs and traditions ... but these are not things that need or should be discussed by outsiders. At all. I'm sorry if that seems 'unfair', but that's how our cultures survive.”

(Keene, founder of the website Native Appropriations on being asked about skinwalkers in literature.)

The legend came to the notice of the wider world with the story of the skinwalker ranch.

The so called Skinwalker Ranch, previously known as Sherman Ranch, is a property located southeast of Ballard, Utah,Claims about paranormal events at the ranch first appeared in 1996 in the Salt Lake City, Utah, Deseret News,

Robert Bigelow, founder of the National Institute for Discovery Science, purchased the ranch for $200,000 in 1996, after being convinced by the stories of cattle mutilations, and strange lights told by the family of former ranch owner Terry Sherman.Bigelow set up round-the-clock surveillance of the ranch, hoping to get to the bottom of the paranormal claims.

In 2005, Colm Kelleher and co-author George Knapp published a book, Hunt for the Skinwalker, Kelleher and Knapp, reported they saw evidence of  incidents that include vanishing and mutilated cattle, sightings of unidentified flying objects or orbs, large animals with piercing red eyes and invisible objects emitting  magnetic fields. However, the investigators admitted to "difficulty obtaining evidence consistent with scientific publication".

There was a TV series made of the investigations at the Ranch which further extended its fame.

The  Sherman’s family ranch was 400 miles north of Navajo Nation so skinwalkers unlikely..

Author Robert Sheaffer believes the events  at the Skinwalker Ranch to be "almost certainly illusory", as the previous owners of the property, who had lived there for 60 years, say that they saw no strange things of any kind . Sheaffer considers the "parsimonious explanation" to be that the Sherman family invented the story "prior to selling it to the gullible Bigelow", with many of the more extraordinary claims originating solely from Terry Sherman.

All I can suggest is read the literature and watch the TV series and make up your own minds.In view of the lack of Navajo nation in the area ,the skinwalker legend seems unlikely. However as I have said in the past certain areas seem to attract strange phenomena .Or do they attract the people that see them? You decide.

 

 An article for those interested in the ranch:

https://www.history.com/news/skinwalker-ranch-paranormal-ufos-mutilation