SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — With Season 5 of the critically acclaimed docuseries “The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch” releasing Tuesday, April 23, ABC4.com sat down with ranch owner Brandon Fugal and ranch superintendent Thomas Winterton to discuss “the most scientifically studied paranormal hotspot on the planet.”
Skinwalker Ranch is a 512-acre secure site — and the most Googled landmark in the U.S. in 2022 — that has been monitored for decades with armed security and surveillance 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The remote location was the center of a Pentagon-funded black budget project studying UFO activity, cattle mutilations and strange phenomena, and is also known as a living laboratory for studying other intelligences and possible inter-dimensional phenomena.
While excitement about the new season is palpable, we asked Fugal and Winterton which incident — since the inception of the docuseries — has offered the strongest evidence of paranormal activity pointing to skinwalkers, creatures, or extra terrestrials at the ranch.
“During our first season, Jim Morse, who was our community liaison, and has been part of the management to the ranch since my purchase, revealed that he witnessed some creature with glowing eyes that walked up the mesa and then disappeared into thin air. He had a witness with him … He was not alone,” Fugal said. “That was a significant moment for him. I do not believe that he has felt safe being on the property at night, late — certainly not alone — ever since.”
While this incident may have deeply affected Morse, as well as provided yet another account of a “shadowy figure” at the ranch, Fugal pointed out that in Season 4, one instance of paranormal activity has stood out to him the most: “The unidentified aerial object that descended from the sky, dropped into the mesa plateau, disappeared, and then was seen exiting from the base, all captured on camera … was compelling, especially given the erratic and unusual spectrum analyzer readings that were taking place at the same time.”
Winterton added, “I’d have to agree with Brandon … The object that appears to go into the mesa and then come out was quite profound. I would say that’s probably one of the top.”
Fugal and Winterton are referring to the rocky mesa bordering the north side of Skinwalker Ranch — a place where they drilled into the mountain and found a significant amount of metallic material not naturally found there, and consistent with spacecraft materials. But these instances weren’t the only strange occurrences to have taken place at the mesa.
Previously, Fugal’s team invited a group known as “Blazing Bear” — made up of Native Americans each representing different tribes — to the ranch, where the group performed a traditional drum circle ritual at the base of the rocky mesa. The sacred ritual, consisting of specific sound frequencies said to potentially open portals, or wormholes, to other dimensions in the universe, caused an unusual event.
The plan was to film the area using thermal cameras while Blazing Bear performed the ritual at the base of the mesa, below a spiral of boulders that had been found on top of the ridge. The team found that during the ritual, the area of the rocky spiral lit up on camera — a “heat anomaly” — and dimmed after the ritual ended.
Fugal and his team look to use everything at their disposal, which is truly a wide range of scientific capabilities, to explore the ranch. And aside from what they see on camera, the experimentation seems to continually reveal disruptions in the advanced electronic equipment used.
Fugal continued, “We’ve seen some of the most sophisticated scientific platforms rendered either completely useless at times, or outright manipulated, in conjunction with the research activities and experiments that have occurred … To have numerous, third-party, subject matter experts witnessing and documenting the reality of these strange events and their own sophisticated equipment malfunctioning is significant evidence that we’re definitely not alone, and something much more stranger than fiction is occurring at Skinwalker Ranch.”
Touching on the subject of “not alone,” we asked Fugal and Winterton how they felt about the Pentagon’s 2020 release of UFO materials.
“We believe the public has a right to know. Our investigation at Skinwalker Ranch is our contribution to disclosure,” Fugal replied. “We have yet to determine the origin and agenda associated with the phenomena that we are documenting … We are often asked, ‘Is it aliens, beings from other worlds? Is it inter-dimensional or multi-dimensional in nature? Or is it spiritual? Could it be angels and demons?’ … The answer, although elusive, appears to be all of the above. What we are witnessing appears to be a diversity of origins and agendas based on a data-driven approach.”
While the lure of mysterious events continues to draw viewers in, Fugal said he’s more excited than ever for their fifth season of probing this unique piece of property that Fugal himself refuses to let his own children visit.
“I’m very uneasy about what we are dealing with. We’re dealing with forces and entities — intelligence — that in some cases has proven to be malevolent,” Fugal said.
Despite the possibility of forces with negative intent, Winterton added that there are three things their team set out accomplish in the new season: “Exploration and discovery in new parts of the ranch, not explored before … a major incident with the drones that took place that has all of our attention, and a discovery inside the mesa.”
Fugal added, “In service to adhering to the scientific method, and having a focused, disciplined approach to getting the answers, we are more excited than ever at what we are about to reveal in Season 5 of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch … I acquired the property as a skeptic, having never seen a UFO or ghost or anything of the sort, so it was with great surprise that I was transformed not into a believer but an experiencer by what I have witnessed.”
“The fact that we have a hit docuseries documenting the reality of the phenomena at Skinwalker Ranch is both unexpected and extremely rewarding. I believe this is frontier science at its best,” Fugal told ABC4.
Their mission to uncover aspects of our world unknown to us has expanded, too, with a new series titled “Beyond Skinwalker Ranch” — taking the investigation beyond the fence line at Skinwalker Ranch to explore sites across the country claiming to have similar phenomena.
Engaging in their experimentation with an expanded crew, Fugal said he and his team have found occurrences that will shock the public in the months to come.
Season 5 of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch airs at 10/9c — 8 p.m. Mountain Time — on The History Channel.
If you’re curious about this location’s mysterious past, here’s a historical timeline of Skinwalker Ranch, provided by the official site:
- 1776 – The Dominguez and Escalante Expedition travels through Myton along Skinwalker Ridge.
- 1789 – Treaty broken between Utes and Navajo.
- 1860 – Northern Ute Reservation established by presidential decree.
- 1860 – Utes join US troops in campaign against Navajo: Skinwalker Curse.
- 1880 – Several bands of Ute tribes are relocated by the US government onto the reservation surrounding Skinwalker Ranch.
- 1886 – Buffalo Soldiers are stationed at Fort duch*esne, one of whom is a known Mason and may have connections to the Masonic symbols seen etched into a rock wall.
- 1886 – The US military finalizes construction of a fort in Fort duch*esne.
- 1906 – Newspaper reports “Strange Noises” from homesteaders in the Uintah Basin.
- 1937 – Purchase and Assemblage by Myers Family.
- 1940 – 1960 – Pat Stringham reports both UFO and Skinwalker activity.
- 1979 – Arnold family (owners, Hilltop) witness UFO craft.
- 1992 – Sherman family acquires ranch from Garth Myers
- 1996 – Robert Bigelow acquires property.
- 1996 – 2002 – National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS) Program operating on property.
- 1996 – 2013 – NIDS and BAASS program activities.
- 2015 – Bigelow Activities conclude.
- 2016 – Adamantium Real Estate buys Skinwalker Ranch from Robert Bigelow.
- 2019 – History Channel and Prometheus Entertainment begin filming “The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch.”
- 2019 – Kandus Linde and Tom Lewis become caretakers of Skinwalker Ranch.
- 2020 – Premiere of “The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch” airs on The History Channel.
