The Skinwalker Ranch, which is located on 512 acres in Utah's Uinta Basin, has been creeping out the locals for a whopping 200 years. The property, which is still a working ranch, and the surrounding towns have been home to a whole host of weird activity that would pique the interest of any sci-fi fan worth their old VHS recordings of The X-Files. It can be hard to believe such things if you don't witness them yourself, though, and one scientist who recently studied the area for The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch, admits to being skeptical about some reports.
Dr. Travis Taylor, an astrophysicist who lived on the ranch while studying it for The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch, recently spoke with myself and other journalists about his time there and said he certainly had his doubts about just why people in the area seem to see the things they do.
Well, when the invitation came to me to become a part of the investigation team and to lead the experiment portion of the research, at first I was very skeptical of the phenomena on the ranch being real, [as opposed to] being some natural phenomena that maybe causes hallucinations, or unnatural phenomena that causes actual phenomena like lights in the sky, or maybe there was a classified defense project. And, at no time did I think that I was going to find strange unexplainable physical phenomena, at least from the start. That was my philosophy or my thought going into it. But I did have an open mind that, hey what if I find something that is unexplainable?
This makes total sense, right? As Dr. Taylor said, he wasn't completely sure that all of the strange happenings at Skinwalker Ranch were real, as opposed to them being caused by something that would simply lead to hallucinations. It's understandable that a scientist would need to see proof that there weren't high levels of weird chemicals known to cause wacky visions, or even an experiment of some kind which causes the, sometimes dangerous, actual events noticed there.
Dr. Taylor did note, however, that he went in with an open mind, which is probably for the best in a situation where you might see anything from bizarre animal mutilations, UFOs or strange creatures. Part of his job, and the job of the other researchers who took part in the investigation, was to see if there were solid, scientific answers that explain what's been said to happen at Skinwalker Ranch, so no one could take it on faith that what they had heard was the whole story.
There was also a particular thing which people who've been in the area talk about, that Dr. Taylor was really skeptical of before heading to Skinwalker Ranch. As he said:
Yes, the most skeptical thing I had was the poltergeist type stuff and the portals opening up and monsters crawling out of them. That kind of stuff there was no precedent for in anything other than supernatural folklore and mythology. So, I was extremely skeptical. I mean, it sounds like, you know, the story that the guy who can’t ever tell the truth always tells around the campfire after a few beers. I wasn’t sure what to think about it going in. I went in with an open mind, assuming that these people believe they saw what they saw, so something caused them to think they saw what they saw. Whether it was real or not was the thing I was hoping to find out.
You know what? If somebody said to me, "Hey, wanna come study this land? People say portals open up and monsters come out." I would gently tell them to shove all of those things where the sun don't shine. Thank goodness we have researchers like Dr. Travis Taylor to take that potential hit for us, right? Otherwise, we may never know what's going on anywhere.
You can see what you think of all the monsters and such yourself when The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch airs, Tuesdays at 10 p.m. EST on History Channel. For less creepy viewing, check out our 2020 Netflix release schedule and see what will be coming to the small screen this summer!
