skinwalker ranch is a region of high strangeness situated in utah's uinta basin which was made famous by the reported experiences of the sherman family during the mid-90s but who owned the ranch before the shermans and did they experience anything out of the ordinary in this episode we revisit this paranormal disneyland and take a look at events which occurred before the sherman's took ownership thanks to shudder for sponsoring this episode as you know it's october and what better time of year to indulge in some good old horror in the run up to the 31st while shutter have just launched their annual 61 days of halloween a two month super sized celebration get started streaming the best horror thriller and supernatural content should his expertly curated collection includes must-see titles like vicious fun the mortuary collection and pg psycho gorman plus all the best horror documentaries in the hit creep show tv series from executive producer greg nicotero of the walking dead i love shudder as a streaming service not only is it packed full of well-known and classic horror films it's a veritable treasure trove of hidden gems from indie horror flicks to shudder originals which you can't find anywhere else recently i took a chance on a film called caveat and i have to say it really creeped me out in ways i haven't felt for a very long time as a new member you would normally get a free 7-day trial but just for our subscribers shudder is increasing this to 30 days simply head over to shutter. com and use the promo code bedtime 30. this should tide you over in the run-up to halloween and if you choose to continue your subscription it costs as little as 475 a month head over to shutter.
com or download the app on your tv or mobile devices and claim your free 30-day trial to begin streaming the best horror content now [Music] outside the window kenneth myers could see that the snow was now falling in a blizzard as gale force winds cast the heavy snowflakes into a sideways maelstrom sticking to everything they touched it was the worst winter the region had seen in over a decade the incoming storm had brought with it a thick blanket of fog reducing visibility to just 15 feet as the dimness of the twilight hours began to close in he tensed under a shudder as a sudden cold draft brushed at the nape of his neck instinctively he leaned forward and threw another log onto the labouring fire before him yet another offering to the gods of light and warmth his wife had been preparing a pot of coffee in the kitchen and was just bringing it through to the parlor when there was a knock at the front door the pair stared at each other in stunned silence the same question resting upon each other's lips the children were all inside and accounted for their closest neighbor was two miles away and they themselves lived right in the middle of a 512 acre ranch over a mile from the nearest county road down a mud track which was now buried under a foot of snow just who the hell would be visiting them at this time and in such ungodly weather myers rose from his seat and made his way over to the front door he glanced back at his wife in confusion before opening it and was greeted with the most unexpected sight standing about 10 feet away from the threshold was a tall man in a long black coat on top of his head he wore a dark hat his feet were sunk into the snow and he held a lantern down at his side as snowflakes swirled around him in a frenzy his features were in shadow and his voice was almost lost to the wind he apologized for disturbing the man and his family saying that he was with the sheriff's department and had just come by to check on their well-being in this harsh weather myers affirmed that they needed no assistance and then questioned the stranger on how he had arrived at his house he couldn't see any vehicles parked nearby oh we have ways and means said the man who exchanged a few more pleasantries before turning and going on his way punching forward against the driving snow myers was just about to close the door when his wife scolded him for not at least offering the man some coffee mumbling profanities to himself as he stooped to put on his boots he then went out into the storm after the stranger the cold bit at his exposed skin as he followed the man's footprints up ahead he caught a glimpse of the stranger's silhouette just disappearing into a bank of fog he quickened his pace hoping to catch up to him but was momentarily startled by a bright flash which came out of nowhere his first instinct was to look up thinking it must have been one of those rare occurrences of snow thunder he had heard about but never before witnessed all he could see were more snowflakes circling above his head in a quasi vortex before recollecting himself and continuing to follow the footprints but as he reached the inner fence line which surrounded the maya's homestead he slowed down his face a picture of confusion the footprint seemed to stop abruptly at the boundary of the ranch house yard with no sign of the stranger or any other tracks leading away it was as if the man had simply vanished into thin air whilst in mid-stride myers glanced about himself in resignation he was shocked but not surprised things like this happened all the time on this ranch looking towards the sky he said god damn this place to hell before trudging back towards his home and warmth in 2005 following the publication of hunt for the skinwalker by colm kelleher and george knapp many skeptics descended upon their work to ridicule and dismiss the stories put forward by both the sherman family and the nids investigation team it didn't matter that the nids team members were highly qualified scientists who initially went into the project as skeptics all that mattered was that they hadn't presented any video evidence that anything out of the ordinary was occurring on the ranch and this was a perfectly valid observation but one which has become misconstrued over the years many people believe that the nids team failed to collect any evidence whatsoever when in actual fact they did most of which is still kept under lock and key by robert bigelow some of the footage they recorded has escaped into the public domain however which can be seen in the tv documentary hunt for the skinwalker even so critics of their work were scathing in their dismissal and one in particular by the name of robert schaefer bent the truth somewhat to discredit the sherman family's accounts as part of his reasoning he made the assertion that the family who lived on the ranch before the shermans had not experienced any strange phenomena in the entire period they had resided there but this is not strictly accurate in fact it's not even close to the truth before the shermans bought the ranch in 1994 it was owned by the myers family kenneth and edith myers acquired the ranch 60 years earlier in 1934 and whilst they themselves remain silent about their own experiences close friends and acquaintances from the surrounding area have since come forward to relate what members of the myers family had told them during their tenure what follows is a select few of these accounts in the second season of the secret of skinwalker ranch a tv documentary series focused on unraveling the mysteries of the property a friend of the meyer's family chris porritt appeared as a guest to relate his experiences on the ranch porritt was a deputy sheriff for uinta county who became close friends with kenneth myers through their mutual fascination with horses often times he would be called out to the ranch because of missing or mutilated cattle during his appearance on the show he was questioned about the locks and chains which the shermans reported finding on all the doors windows and cupboards inside the ranch house when they first moved in pirate related how kenneth myers had confided to him that everything was locked down because he would get visitors who carried out what he described as alien activity that things would go missing or turn up dead including his cattle on one occasion the deputy sheriff was called to an incident which had occurred just 200 feet from the main homestead two black angus cows lay almost symmetrically on the ground with their heads pointing towards an irrigation ditch all the reproductive organs had been removed and were lying in a heap behind each animal their heads were still attached to their bodies but the skull and neck bones had been removed from inside the flesh there was no blood whatsoever porritt had no doubt that the cows had died where they lay behind them was a cigar-shaped depression in the long grass which was measured and found to be approximately 23 feet long end to end the lawmen personally believed that this might have been caused by something landing in the field behind the cows another incident which almost mirrored an event the shermans would experience many years later also occurred under maya's ownership the deputy sheriff was once again called out to the property because the rancher believed that three of his heifers had either escaped or been stolen porritt arrived just after sunrise and both he and myers set out on horseback with the intention of searching the entire acreage by 5 pm that day they had covered the whole ranch and hadn't found a single track the heifers were gone or so it seemed upon a rival back at the ranch house myers had already resigned himself to an expensive loss unsettled his horse and headed over to a small shed in the yard moments later he shouted over to the deputy saying that he couldn't get the shed doors open with the combined strength of both men they were able to push the wooden panels in just enough so that porridge could get his head through and see what was blocking access to his utter bewilderment he saw that it was the three missing heifers they were all lying on their side one stacked on top of the other myers didn't believe his friend until he looked inside for himself and as soon as he saw the cows he thought they were dead however porritt was sure they were still alive as he had seen mucus draining from their noses meaning they were still breathing he told the rancher to fetch a glass of water and to reach in and pour it over the head of the nearest cow myers did as he was instructed and all of a sudden all three cows sprung into life panicking and almost kicking the small shed to pieces once the two men had managed to get the doors open the cows ran out into the yard and was soon back with the main herd porritt later stated that it was one of the strangest things he had ever seen and that the cows had seemed like they were drugged much like the four angus bulls which the shermans found in one of their trailers he questioned just who on earth could have drugged three cows and stacked them one on top of the other inside a small tool shed [Music] perhaps one of the more disturbing things to have occurred on the property involved a young ranch hand by the name of jimmy spears jimmy was a drifter who had come to the ranch in 1975 looking for work and myers had taken him on [Music] by all accounts he was a hard worker who showed up on time each morning and never put a foot wrong on a bright summer morning maya sent the youngster to mend the fence lines in the southwest corner of the acreage as the herd had broken through them the night before the rancher had told his young charge to go along and do what he could saying that he would join him later in the day as he had other more pressing things to attend to jimmy went on his way and simply vanished when myers went to check on him at around one o'clock in the afternoon he saw that some of the fence posts had been reset and that jimmy's tools were lying nearby but the young man was nowhere to be seen he assumed that he'd gone off to answer a call of nature or take a refreshment break but the minutes ticked by and jimmy did not return it was assumed at least for a time that the youngster had been spooked by something and had simply walked off the job but three days later he was found shambling along the mud road in the northwest of the property dazed confused and clearly dehydrated when he was informed that he had been missing for three days he became visibly distraught saying he had no recollection of where he had been he said that one minute he was working on the fence lines and the next he was waking up in a stupor behind the old abandoned homestead eventually jimmy had to move on from this employment and was glad to do so because of a recurring nightmare he said that every night he would dream that he was buried alive beneath homestead 2. instances of missing time are not uncommon on the ranch and one story which was related during an interview with george knapp is particularly unnerving we are not certain if the young woman involved in this account was maya's daughter or an extended family member as we can no longer find the specific episode of coast to coast which featured this discussion in any case the account came from a neighbour of the myers family who was good friends with the female relative in question the two young women had been out in roosevelt and were returning to the ranch at around 11 pm they were just approaching the main gate when they were startled by red and blue flashing lights behind them thinking it was a police cruiser stopping them for a dui check the neighbor pulled over and waited for the officer to approach her window however in the next instant it was morning the sun was just breaking over the eastern horizon and the two women found themselves sitting in the car on top of the mesa overlooking the ranch from the north the fact that the car was situated in such a fashion was nion impossible there are no vehicle tracks leading up there from the ranch itself and the rugged undulating surface of the mesa makes it wholly unsuitable for smaller cars with standard suspension there was no way they could have made it across such terrain without damaging the undercarriage or axles suffice it to say that the vehicle had to be retrieved on a flatbed trailer towed by a tractor to this day the two women have no idea what happened to them during the intervening six hours the mesa is one of the few areas of the ranch which was historically always left unsecured up until recently there were no fence lines or gates to be found in that area on a winter's day in 1981 a young man by the name of roland mccook was hunting rabbits and raccoons on top of the mesa with one of his friends by the afternoon a heavy snowstorm had rolled in and as the boys were two or three miles from home they decided to run down a small trail leading into skinwalker ranch and seek shelter in one of the buildings of the abandoned homestead homestead 2 as it is otherwise known is one of the most foreboding places on the entire property it was originally used by the myers family and this is where they had their encounter with the man in black who knocked on their door in the harsh winter of 1948.
