Skinwalker Ranch of Uintah County, Utah – Legends of America
Located in the Uintah Basin in northeast Utah, the Skinwalker Ranch, also known as Sherman Ranch and the UFO Ranch, is filled with myths and mysteries.
Skinwalker Ranch of Uintah County, Utah Uintah County, Utah. Located in the Uintah Basin in northeast Utah, the Skinwalker Ranch, also known as Sherman Ranch and the UFO Ranch, is filled with myths and mysteries, including UFOs, aliens, cattle mutilations, crop circles, and Navajo witches called Skinwalkers. The 480-acre ranch is about 3.5 miles southwest of Fort Duchesne, Utah, and borders the Ute Indian reservation. The Uintah Valley Reservation was created for the Ute in October 1861 by the executive order of President Abraham Lincoln. The Uncompahgre Reservation (commonly called the Ouray Reservation) was created in January 1882, and in 1886, the two reservations were merged to become the Uintah and Ouray Reservation. For more than 150 years, the Ute have lived here on the reservation that covers over 4.5 million acres. The Indians have long said that the bordering ranch is “on the path of the skinwalker” and, for that reason, have long been forbidden to go near the property. The Skinwalker is a malevolent shapeshifting witch of the Navajo people, whom the Ute people take very seriously. Southern Ute Indians, Frank Gonner, 1904. Before the Ute moved to the reservation, they were fierce and warlike people who lived primarily in Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. At one time, the Ute and Navajo fought together against their common enemies. However, when the Ute first acquired horses from the Spanish, they began to abduct Navajo people and sell them in New Mexico slave markets. Later, during the Civil War, some Ute bands joined Kit Carson in a military campaign against the Navajo. This ended in the Navajo being expelled from their lands and forced to march to a reservation in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, called the Long Walk of the Navajo. Though the tribe was allowed to return to their homelands in the Four Corners area several years later, the Ute believed that the Navajo had cursed the Ute tribe for their previous transgressions. Afterward, the skinwalkers began to plague the Ute people. The Ute believe the skinwalker’s presence in the Uintah Basin extends back at least 15 generations. They don’t believe the skinwalkers live on the ranch; they hide out in nearby Dark Canyon. Skinwalker, a Navajo Witch. According to reports, the Ute has encountered skinwalkers in the area on numerous occasions. The witches have been spotted near the ranch, on the road to Fort Duchesne, and in various areas of the reservation. One account described them as looking like humans with dog heads, smoking cigarettes. Another described them as large, black, hairy humanoid figures that were very fast. They are also described as having enormous “coal red” eyes. Others have said they have seen and photographed very large tracks, which skinwalkers are said to leave. The ranch, which takes its name from these shapeshifting witches, was first homesteaded by the Myers family in 1905 and consisted of a few small buildings on the northwest corner of the ranch at the foot of Skinwalker Ridge. Later, the original homestead was abandoned, and the Myers established a new home on the eastern side of the ranch. By the 1930s, it was occupied by Kenneth John Myers and his wife, Edith Child Myers. They stayed on the property until 1987. During their occupancy, they did not report any strange occurrences, though some of their neighbors did. In the meantime, other unusual events began to occur in the Uintah Basin in the 1950s, including numerous reports of unidentified flying objects (UFOs). This continued throughout the next several decades. Interestingly, these were not the first reports of strange aircraft in the sky. The earliest mention dates from the late 1700s when Spanish explorers searching for the Spanish Trail passed through the Uintah Basin and reported seeing craft in the sky over their campfires at night. UFO The UFO reports, numbered in the hundreds, included strange fireballs and aircraft that ranged in size from 20-30 feet across to as large as a football field. They were described variously as round, oval, cigar-shaped, and triangular. A glowing green light surrounded some; others emitted wavy red beams, and others appeared to shoot colored lights from their underbellies. By the 1970s, the Utah Highway Patrol received so many UFO reports that troopers stopped filling out incident reports. At the same time, local ranchers also reported bizarre cattle mutilations. A retired science teacher, Joseph “Junior” Hicks from Roosevelt, Utah, investigated more than 400 UFO sightings in the Uintah Basin. He found that the UFO appearances often coincided with cattle mutilations. Over the years, many eyewitnesses saw living beings in the windows or portholes of UFOs. After the Myers vacated the ranch in 1987, it stood empty for seven years before Terry and Gwen Sherman purchased it in 1994. The couple moved in with their two children and livestock. They were surprised to find that the previous owners had installed deadbolt locks on all the doors and w...