Subject: What Is A Skinwalker? Jan. 31, 2008.
Here is some information from my friend DK. DK is one
of the very few people that I have met personally on the
Internet. We once met in the town of Mt. Shasta and made
in hike up to an area called Panther Meadows. We didn't
find too much because a sudden storm came up and we were
lucky to make it out of that area with our lives.
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I am currently reading the book "Hunt for the
Skinwalker"
by George Knapp & Colm Kelleher. It's awesome...hard to
put down. I reccommend it.
You will get an aerial view of the Sherman Ranch which
is where the book takes place.
If you use Google Earth and enter these coordinates:
40.30458,-109.8546
Tom Gorman's real name is Terry Sherman. They
changed his name in the book but everywhere else
his real name is listed!
Location: Fort Duchesne, Uintah County, Utah
Population: 1,649 -- Time Zone: Mountain
Latitude: 40.30458 -- Longitude: -109.8546 --
Elevation: 4988 Feet
More can be found at:
http://www.aliendave.com/UUFOH_TheRanch.html
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http://www.huntfortheskinwalker.com
Path of the Skinwalker
THE STRANGEST PLACE ON EARTH? - PART 1
Thursday, November 28, 2002
I'm sitting on a white plastic chair in what seems like
total darkness. Strapped to my chest and shoulders is an
array of electronic gear--microphones, a video camera, a
box that detects magnetic changes and a Geiger counter.
Somewhere in the mix is a flashlight, the only device
whose function I understand, and thus, the only device
I cannot find.
In front of me, I can almost make out the sinister
shapes of some truly spooky trees. Malevolent bugs are
buzzing in and out of my eyes and ears, and it occurs
to me that there must be a tavern open somewhere nearby,
even in this remote corner of Utah. One hundred or more
yards away, beyond a barbed-wire fence and a little
creek, are my fellow paranormal rangers, equipped with
their own video cameras, night-vision gl***** and
assorted scientific gear. They are supposed to be
watching me to see if anything happens.
On this night, I am the bait. Bait for what, I wonder?
The unspoken hope is my own inherent weirdness quotient
might give me some sort of connection to the undeniably
odd energy, or entity, that seems to have concentrated
itself on this remote rural community, and, in
particular, on this small ranch where I now sit, waiting
for something to announce its presence.
Some very strange things have happened at the precise
spot where I'm sitting. It is here that a visitor was
accosted by a roaring but nearly invisible creature,
something akin to the Predator of movie fame. It is here
that a Ph.D. physicist re****ted that his mind was invaded,
literally taken over, by some sort of hostile intelligence
that warned him that he was not welcome. It is here that
an entire team of researchers watched in awe as a bright
door or ****tal opened up in the darkness and a large
humanoid creature crawled out before quickly vani****ng.
And it is here that several animals--cattle and dogs--were
mutilated, obliterated or simply disappeared.
For as long as anyone can remember, this part of
northeastern Utah has been the site of simply
unbelievable paranormal activity. UFOs, Sasquatch, cattle
mutilations, psychic manifestations, creatures that
aren't found in any zoos or textbooks, poltergeist events.
You name it, residents here have seen it.
Retired schoolteacher Junior Hicks is the area's
unofficial historian for a ll things weird. He's catalogued
400 or so incidents, most of them involving UFO sightings,
but says there have been thousands of other cases. Hicks
estimates at least half of the 50,000 residents of this
basin have seen weird things in the sky--flying saucers,
cigar-shaped craft, zigzagging balls of light, so many
different objects that local police and the Highway Patrol
long ago stopped taking re****ts. (Many of the lawmen have
been witnesses themselves.) Hicks and members of his family
have witnessed their own UFO events over the years.
"The UFO activity really started getting intense in the
early '50s," Hicks says. "There were cases where the whole
school and all the teachers saw the things hovering over
the town in broad daylight. In the '60s and '70s, we
probably had more UFO sightings than any place in the world."
But run-of-the-mill UFO events don't begin to
describe the rich array of unusual phenomena in this
area. The Ute Indian tribe has been here far longer
than white settlers. Tribal leaders are reluctant to
speak to outsiders, but their oral history is replete
with examples of strange creatures and sightings.
Indian lore refers to some of these beings as
Skinwalkers. Other cultures call them shape-****fters,
werewolves or Bigfoot.
"The Utes take this very seriously," Hicks says. "They
think the Skinwalkers are powerful spirits that are
here because of a curse that was put on them generations
ago by the Navajos. And the center of the whole legend is
this ranch. The Utes say the ranch is `the path of the
Skinwalker.' Tribe members are strictly forbidden from
setting foot on the property. It's been that way for a
long time."
The ranch in question is a 480-acre spread of rich,
well-watered pasture and a few thick patches of tall
cottonwoods. It's divided into three sections, each
section being a former homestead. Thick brush and a
small rivers are on one side. A rocky, picturesque ridge
is on the other side. Skinwalker Ridge is what the Utes
call it, according to Hicks. A long dirt road is the
only way in or out of the ranch.
When rancher Tom Gorman (not his real name) bought the
place in 1994, it had been vacant for seven or eight years.
Gorman, his wife and two kids were curious about the
impressive array of bolts that covered the doors and
windows of the main house. There were deadbolts on both
sides of the doors. Even the kitchen cabinets had bolts
on them. And at both ends of the house, iron stakes and
heavy chains had been installed. Gorman guessed the
previous tenants had positioned large guard dogs in the
front and back of the home, but he had no idea why.
The bulletproof wolf
On the day the Gormans moved their furni****ngs onto
the property, they had their first foreshadowing of
the events that would follow. They spotted an extremely
large wolf out in the pasture. The wolf cautiously made
its way a cross the field, and, to the surprise of
everyone, sidled up to the family, acting like it was a
familiar pet. It had rained that day, and the family
remembers the wolf smelled like a wet dog as they were
petting it.
After a few minutes, the wolf strolled over to the
corral and grabbed a calf by its snout, attempting to
pull it through the corral bars. Gorman and his father
began beating on the wolf's back with sticks but it
wouldn't release the calf. Gorman grabbed a .357 Magnum
from his truck and shot the wolf at point-blank range.
The slug had no noticeable effect.
Gorman pumped another bullet into the wolf, which
then let go of the calf but stood looking at the family
as if nothing had happened. Gorman shot it two more
times with the powerful handgun. The big animal backed
off a bit, but showed no signs of distress, not even
any blood.
The mystified rancher retrieved a hunting rifle and
shot the wolf again, once more at close range. Gorman
is not only an experienced marksman but a big-game
hunter of considerable repute. Five slugs should have
been enough to bring down an elk, let alone a wolf. The
fifth shot caused a chunk of hair and flesh to fly off
the wolf, but it still didn't seem fazed. After a sixth
shot, the wolf casually trotted across the field into
a muddy thicket. Gorman and his father tracked the
beast for about a mile, following its pawprints through
the mud, but the tracks suddenly ended, as if the wolf
had simply vanished into thin air.
Returning to the corral area, Gorman examined the
chunk of wolf flesh and says it looked and smelled like
rotten meat. He made inquiries among his neighbors,
but no one seemed to know anything about any tame,
over-sized wolves in the area. A few weeks later, Mrs.
Gorman encountered a wolf that was so large, its
back was parallel with the top of her window as it
stood beside her car. The wolf was accompanied by a
dog-like animal that she couldn't identify.
Over the next two years, a menagerie of weird
animals was re****ted by family members and neighbors.
While driving into the ranch on a bright afternoon,
Gorman and his wife saw something attacking one of
their horses. They described it as "low to the ground,
heavily muscled, weighing perhaps 200 pounds, with
curly red hair and a bushy tail." It somewhat
resembled a muscular hyena and seemed to be clawing
at their horse, almost playing with it. Gorman got
within 40 feet of the animal but says it literally
vanished before his eyes. Poof. Gone. They checked
the horse and found numerous claw marks on its legs.
(A few months later, the wife of a deputy sheriff
re****ted seeing a similar muscular, reddish beast
running across the property.)
Another visitor to the ranch had a more
ominous encounter in the middle homestead, the same
place where I was set out as bait. The visitor,
along with Gorman and his son, say they saw a large
blurry "something" moving through the trees. The
visitor has been meditating when this thing showed up.
It swiftly moved from the trees, across the pasture,
covering 100 yards in seconds, and when it reached the
man, it let out a ferocious roar, something akin to a
large bear, a roar loud enough to be heard hundreds
of yards away.
Part 1.
John Winston. johnfw@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
What Is A Skywalker? Part 2. Jan. 31, 2008.
Last night on the Coast to Coast radio show they
played an old program that covered this same subject
that is in these series of postings.
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But this was no bear. It was, according to the
Gormans, nearly invisible, resembling the camouflaged
being in the movie Predator. The visitor was so scared,
he grabbed on to Gorman and wouldn't let go. He left the
ranch and has never returned.
Other creatures and beings were also seen, including
exotic, multicolored birds that were certainly not
native to the region and could not be identified. There
were numerous close encounters with dark, nine-foot-tall
beasts that resembled a Bigfoot or Sasquatch. (More on
those incidents will follow.)
As if those visual experiences weren't enough, the
family claims its other senses were also challenged by
assorted weird events. They often were overwhelmed by
strong musk odors. The pastures would unexplainably
light up at night like a football stadium. They claim
to have seen shafts of light that seemingly emanated
from the ground, They (and others) say they heard what
sounded like heavy machinery operating under the earth.
And they heard voices. Tom, his son and his nephew
remember hearing a loud, disembodied conversation in
some unintelligible language. The disembodied male
voices spoke in what the witnesses say was a mocking
tone and sounded like they were emanating from 20 or
more feet above their heads, but they saw nothing. The
dogs accompanying the three witnesses growled and
barked at the voices, then took off in a panic.
There were physical manifestations that aren't easily
explained. While checking on his herd in the third
homestead, Gorman noticed that someone had dug up his
pasture. Hundreds of pounds of soil had been scooped
out of the ground. The edges of the hole resembled
perfect, concentric circles, as if someone had dropped
a gigantic cookie cutter on the pasture. Several
smaller scoop marks were also found.
The Gormans also re****t phenomena similar to crop
circles. One formation found in their pasture consisted
of three circles of flattened grass. Each circle was
approximately eight feet in diameter, and they were
arranged in a triangular pattern, with each circle
about 30 feet from the others. Keep in mind, there is
only one road leading into the ranch. Anyone coming
in or going out would almost certainly be noticed
by the Gormans or their neighbors.
UFOs and other aerial oddities
In the spring of 1995, the Gormans started seeing
strange things in the sky. While out checking on their
cattle, Gorman and his nephew spotted what they
thought was a recreational vehicle parked on the
property. They approached it, figuring the driver
might be having mechanical trouble. As they got
closer, the RV moved silently away from them. They
moved closer, it moved further away. They climbed a
fence to get a better look at it, and that's when
they knew this was no Winnebago. The craft rose
above the treetops and slowly flew away, making no
sound as it departed. It certainly wasn't a
helicopter. The witnesses had a clear view and say
the object was shaped like a refrigerator, with a
single light on its front and a red light on the back.
Before long, everyone in the family was seeing
weird aerial objects. Mrs. Gorman says something
that resembled a stealth fighter, but ringed with
blinking disco lights, silently hovered about 20 feet
above her vehicle before zipping off. Each family
member had repeated sightings of a cloud that usually
hovered just outside the property. The cloud was
characterized as having "blinking Christmas tree
lights" or "silent, mini-explosions" inside. Among
the other aerial craft seen by the Gormans, their
neighbors and other witnesses were classic
flying-saucer objects, flying sombreros, shafts of
light similar to fluorescent light bulbs and a
cigar-shaped craft several football fields long.
By far the most common objects they witnessed were
floating spheres of different sizes and colors. In
1995 and 1996, the Gormans and others re****ted 12
separate incidents of seeing large orange circles
flying over the trees of the center homestead. Tom
Gorman claims that holes occasionally opened up in
the orange spheres and other smaller spheres would
fly out. (A neighboring rancher told this re****ter of
his own encounters with what he called a flying
orange basketball.)
By early 1996, the sightings of blue spheres at
the ranch became almost commonplace. These orbs were
said to be about the size of a softball, made of
glass and filled with bubbling blue liquids that
seemed to rotate inside. Mr. and Mrs. Gorman say
that in April 1996, they watched one of the blue
orbs repeatedly circle the head of one of their
horses, The horse was illuminated by an intense
blue light, and there was a sound like static
electricity in the air, but this wasn't ball
lightning. The orb seemed to be intelligently
controlled. When Gorman approached the horse with
a flashlight, the orb darted off, maneuvering
through tree branches with speed and dexterity.
The Gormans say the blue spheres seemed to
generate severe psychological effects on the
family. Family members felt waves of fear roll
over them, far in excess of what might be normal,
whenever the blue orbs appeared. It was the
appearance of one blue orb in particular that
finally convinced the Gormans to sell the ranch.
One evening in May 1996, Gorman was outside with
three of his dogs when he noticed a blue orb
darting around in the field near the ranch house.
Gorman urged his dogs to go after the ball. The
dogs chased and snapped at the orb, but it
dodged and maneuvered enough to stay just beyond
the reach of their snapping jaws. The ball led
the dogs out across the pasture and into the
thick brush that borders the field. Gorman says
he heard the dogs make three terrible yelps, then
they were silent. He called for them, but they
didn't respond.
The next morning, Gorman went to look for the
dogs. What he found were three round spots of dried
and brittle vegetation. In the middle of each circle
was a black, greasy lump. Gorman surmised that his
dogs had been incinerated by something. One thing
for sure, the dogs were never seen again. The
disappearance of their dogs prompted the Gormans
to think about getting out. Mutilations and other
animal mysteries Tom Gorman wasn't some
country-bumpkin farmer trying to get by. He had
college degrees and advanced training in animal
husbandry, was considered an expert in artificial
insemination and had plans for raising hybrid,
high-end stock at the picturesque ranch. His herd,
which ranged from 60-80 head, consisted of
expensive, top-of-the-line heifers and four
2,000-pound show-class bulls.
From the day he moved his herd onto the ranch,
though, his hopes--and his animals--seemed to be
under assault. The balls of light that were seen
so of ten on the property seemed to take special
interest in the cattle and were often seen buzzing
around the heads of the animals. Sometimes, the
cattle would react violently, the herd splitting
suddenly as if some invisible force was plowing
through their middle. It soon got worse.
Although the Gormans kept close watch on their
stock, something began exacting a terrible toll.
One cow was found d-ad in a field. A strange, crisp
hole had been cut in one of its eyes. There were
no tracks or b-ood, and Gorman wondered what could
do such a thing. He noticed a strong musk odor
around the carcass, a smell he would come to know
all too well. Other cattle were carved up, as if
with pinking shears.
Cattle mutilations have been re****ted throughout
North America for several decades. In typical cases,
the ears, eyes, udders and s-x organs are removed
with surgical precision. Gorman's animals were
subjected to all of the above.
As an experienced hunter and rancher, Gorman was
more than familiar with the capabilities of natural
predators. This wasn't being done by coyotes or
mountain lions. The butchery was simply too clean.
And no b-ood was ever left at the scene of the
attacks. His other animals also suffered. His favorite
horse had its legs slashed, as if by sharp
instruments or claws. (The musk odor was still in
the air when he discovered the damaged horse.) His dogs
seemed to develop paranoia. They stayed inside
their doghouses for days at a time, too fearful
to emerge for food. Six of the family's cats
vanished in one night.
Soon, cattle started disappearing altogether.
One of the animals vanished from a snow-covered
field. Gorman saw the hoofprints lead into the
field, but the tracks simply stopped, as if the
animal had been plucked from the sky. A
1,200-pound cow leaves tracks in snow, Gorman
told himself, so what happened to this one?
In all, 14 of Gorman's prized animals were
either sliced up or vanished. In one instance, a
cow was found mutilated just five minutes after
Gorman's son had checked on it. Something cut a
hole, six inches wide and 18 inches deep, in
the animal's rectum. The cored-out section
extended into the cow's body cavity, yet there
was no b-ood on the cow or on the snow-covered
ground.
The loss of 14 expensive animals from an 80-head
herd is extreme by any standards. (There were
other losses as well, but from explainable causes.)
It meant that Gorman was close to financial
collapse. One April afternoon, Gorman and his wife
took a quick drive to town for supplies. As they
passed the corral that contained their four bulls,
they commented to each other that they would
really be in trouble if something should happen to
one of the bulls.
Part 2.
John Winston. johnfw@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
What Is A Skywalker? Part 3. Jan. 31, 2008.
This talks about another person buying the ranch.
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When they returned to the ranch less than an hour
later, all four of the bulls were gone. The Gormans
began a frantic search for the missing behemoths but
couldn't find a trace. As a last resort, Gorman
decided to peek into a metal trailer that is situated
inside the corral. He thought it highly unlikely that
the bulls would be inside because, from the corral,
there is only one door into the trailer and it was
secured with thick metal wire, wire that clearly was
still in place.
Gorman was shocked to see that all four of his
bulls were inside the trailer, squeezed like so many
oversized sardines into the tiny enclosure, crammed
in against the sides of the trailer and against each
other. When he yelled to his wife that he had found
them, the bulls seemingly woke up, as if from a dream
state, and started kicking the h-ll out of the
trailer and each other.
"There is simply no way that anyone could coax those
four bulls into that trailer," says Colm Kelleher, a
microbiologist who would come to know the Gormans
well. "It would be tough enough to get one of them
into the trailer, but all four? Virtually impossible.
The only door leading from the corral into the trailer
was still securely fastened with wire. And there were
cobwebs on the inside of the door, proving that it
had not been opened. It's almost as if someone
overheard the ranchers' worries about their bulls, then
decided to mess with them."
NIDS to the rescue
Kelleher didn't realize it back in 1996, but the
Gorman ranch was to soon become his home away from
home. Kelleher is the deputy administrator of NIDS,
the National Institute for Discovery Science, a
Las Vegas-based research organization founded by
local businessman Robert Bigelow. Bigelow's
long-standing interest in paranormal topics, including
UFOs, animal mutilations and human consciousness,
prompted him to assemble an impressive team of
physicists, engineers, psychologists and other
doctorate-level professionals for the purpose of
investigating subjects that are largely shunned by
mainstream science.
By the middle of 1996, the Gormans were ready to
cash in their chips. Those who know Tom Gorman say
he blamed himself for the weird string of events
that had ruined his ranching operation. He didn't
want to give up but felt cursed, and was ready to
bail for the sake of his family. In an
uncharacteristic moment, he told parts of his story
to a news re****ter. A respected journalist from Salt
Lake City heard about it, came to the ranch and
talked to the family. Pictures were taken, and a
wire service picked up the story. That's how Bob
Bigelow first learned about the ranch.
Bigelow and his team flew to Utah and introduced
themselves to the Gormans. NIDS staffers checked out
the story, interviewed neighbors and evaluated the
Gorman's seemingly incredible tales. Bigelow offered
to buy the ranch outright with the idea of
transforming it into an interactive paranormal
laboratory, an ongoing experiment that might shed
some light on questions that have been viewed with
scientific skepticism. Amazingly, he talked the
Gormans into staying at the ranch as caretakers.
By that point, the family was a wreck. The UFOs,
balls of light, cattle mutilations, animal
disappearances, Bigfoot sightings and Skinwalker
legends were bad enough, but there had also been an
ongoing series of more personal events. Things had
occurred within their home that had made a normal
life impossible. They saw apparitions in the house,
blinding lights, dark creatures peering in the
windows. Furni****ngs, tools and everyday items moved
around, disappeared or turned up in unusual places.
No one could sleep. When they did manage to grab
a few hours, they were plagued by violent nightmares,
often discovering later that different family members
had experienced identical dreams. The two kids, honor
students before arriving at the ranch, saw their
grades plummet. Mrs. Gorman lost her job at a local
bank because of her repeated absences and disturbing
water-cooler tales. Hoping for safety in numbers, the
Gormans slept each night on the floor of their front
room.
The folks from NIDS offered moral, emotional and
financial sup****t to the Gormans. What's more, they
had a plan. The ranch presented what appeared to be a
once-in-a-lifetime op****tunity to legitimately study
a full menu of paranormal activities. They endeavored
to seal off the ranch, pack it with high-tech
monitoring equipment, staff it round-the-clock with
trained observers, and see what happens.
Some residents sarcastically wondered what the
hucksters from Las Vegas really had in mind. A scam of
some sort was one oft-mentioned possibility. UFO buffs
whined that Bob Bigelow was a "shadowy" guy who may
or may not have CIA connections and that he was out
to somehow corner the market on E.T. They demanded
that whatever happened at the ranch should be made
immediately available for their evaluation. And
paranormal debunkers predicted the NIDS team would
come up empty-handed because unexplained events
inevitably wither under careful scrutiny.
As it turned out, all three groups were wrong.
NIDS did seal off the ranch from outside observers
but not for any monetary gain. Neither the C-A nor
any other g-vernment agency had any input or access
to the things that have occurred under the NIDS
watch. And the phenomena itself did not wither or
eva****ate.
For the past six years, events at the ranch have
been under constant scrutiny. Witnesses, including
highly accomplished scientists and law enforcement
personnel, have do***ented a mind-boggling array of
unusual activity. But there has been a near-total
blackout on the release of any information about the
site.
By agreement with Bigelow, this re****ter was granted
the first outside access to the ranch and to the
scientists and ex-lawmen who've been studying it.
Interviews were conducted with ranch personnel, as
well as with community members who had re****ted unusual
events. And several nights were spent out on the ranch
itself, watching for odd lights or other manifestations.
No one who has studied this can say with any certainty
what's going on here. The NIDS researchers are not making
any claims about E.T.s or ghosts or Skinwalkers. They
are merely collecting data and trying to make some sense
of it. That is small comfort to me as I sit in the
darkness on my little plastic chair, waiting for something
to happen. The mind certainly can play tricks in such an
environment, but could so many witnesses be completely
wrong?
Next week: We'll examine a long litany of bizarre
activity that occurred while the NIDS team was
stationed at the ranch, including the shooting and
tracking of an unknown creature, the destruction of
electronic equipment by something unseen, the
unexplained creation of "ice circles" and the opening
of what some say is a ****tal to another dimension.
Warning to paranormal enthusiasts
Do not travel to the ranch. You are not welcome there.
It is private property and the people who live on
or near it don't want to be hassled by curiosity
seekers or the media. What's more, the level of
unexplained phenomena has taken a steady nosedive over
the past several months, so chances are you wouldn't
see anything even if you could get on the property.
Path of the Skinwalker
THE STRANGEST PLACE ON EARTH? - PART 2
Thursday, November 28, 2002
This is the second of two re****ts about persistent
stories of anomalous phenomena in a section of
northeastern Utah. The activity, as re****ted by hundreds
of witnesses over several decades, includes UFOs,
unusual balls of light, animal mutilations and
disappearances, poltergeist events, sightings of
Bigfoot-like creatures and other unidentified animals,
physical effects on plants, soil, animals and humans,
and a vast array of other unexplained incidents.
The activities seem most concentrated on a 480-acre
cattle ranch owned by the family of Tom Gorman.
(Gorman isn't his real name.) In 1996, the ranch was
purchased by Las Vegas businessman Robert Bigelow,
who arranged for an intense, ongoing scientific study
of events at the ranch. By agreement with Bigelow,
and at the request of many of the witnesses, a few
names have been changed or omitted to protect those
who don't want to be hassled by media outlets or UFO
enthusiasts.
It began as a dull white light, appearing out of
nowhere in the darkness of the middle homestead of
the Gorman ranch. Tom Gorman saw it. So did a
researcher named Chad Deetken. It was nearly 2 a.m.
on Aug. 28, 1997. Gorman and Deetken were out in the
pasture as part of an ongoing effort to do***ent
unusual activity on the property.
Both men watched intently as the light grew
brighter. It was as if someone had opened a window
or doorway. Gorman grabbed his night vision
binoculars to get a better look but could hardly
believe what he was seeing. The dull light began
to resemble a bright ****tal, and at one end of the
****tal, a large, black humanoid figure seemed to
be struggling to crawl through the tunnel of light.
After a few minutes, the humanoid figure wriggled
out of the light and took off into the darkness. As
it did, the window of light snapped shut, as if
someone had flicked the "off" switch. Deetken had
the presence of mind to snap a few photos of the
event, but would later learn that his film had
recorded little of what the two men had witnessed.
Part 3.
John Winston. johnfw@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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