---
aliases:
  - Skinwalker Ranch
  - Skinwalker ranch
  - Sherman ranch
  - Uintah County ranch
  - Adamantium Real Estate property
tags:
  - Place
  - Landmark
  - Utah
  - UAP
  - Paranormal
  - Skinwalker
  - AAWSAP
  - AATIP
  - BAASS
  - NIDS
  - Bigelow
  - CattleMutilations
  - RemoteViewing
category: "Landmark"
summary: "Skinwalker Ranch is a 480-acre Utah property whose owners reported cattle mutilations and unidentified craft before Robert Bigelow bought it in 1996 and placed it under his research institute."
location: "Uintah County, Utah"
updated: 2026-10-15
relations:
  - type: owned
    with: "[[Garth Myers]]"
    reverse: true
    end: 1994
    role: "sold the ranch in 1994 after inheriting it from relatives"
    fn: 5
  - type: owned
    with: "[[Terry Sherman]]"
    reverse: true
    start: 1994
    end: 1996-09
    role: "owners in the Deseret News of June 30, 1996, Terry and Gwen Sherman, who had bought the ranch about two years earlier"
    fn: 1
  - type: owned
    with: "[[Robert Bigelow]]"
    reverse: true
    start: 1996-09
    end: 2016-04
    role: "purchase reported as September 1996 for about 200,000 dollars"
    fn: 3
  - type: owned
    with: "[[National Institute for Discovery Science]]"
    reverse: true
    start: 2006
    role: "described as still owned by NIDS in an April 2006 Deseret News article; the title holder of record is not established"
    fn: 9
  - type: owned
    with: "[[Adamantium Real Estate, LLC]]"
    reverse: true
    start: 2016-04
    role: "acquired April 2016 per UBMedia; the same entity filed the SKINWALKER RANCH trademark application in 2017"
    fn: 6
  - type: owned
    with: "[[Brandon Fugal]]"
    reverse: true
    start: 2016
    role: "identified as owner in March 2020 by KLAS-TV and Vice, through a company that bought the ranch in 2016"
    fn: 12
  - type: investigated
    with: "[[National Institute for Discovery Science]]"
    reverse: true
    start: 1996
    end: 2004
    role: "research team at the ranch, per Knapp and the Micah Hanks Program"
    fn: 18
  - type: investigated
    with: "[[Colm Kelleher]]"
    reverse: true
    start: 1996
    end: 2004
    role: "led the NIDS team at the ranch per the Micah Hanks Program description; joined NIDS in summer 1996 per his book"
    fn: 18
  - type: investigated
    with: "[[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program]]"
    reverse: true
    start: 2008
    end: 2012
    role: "program investigated an alleged UAP hotspot at a Utah property owned by the head of the contractor, per AARO"
    fn: 4
---

[[Skinwalker Ranch]] is a 480-acre property in [[Utah]]'s [[Uintah County, Utah|Uintah County]], near [[Randlett, Utah]], where the owners reported cattle mutilations and unidentified craft ([[Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena|UAP]]) from April 1995. In September 1996 [[Robert Bigelow]] bought the ranch, and research there was conducted under his [[National Institute for Discovery Science]] (NIDS).[^1][^2][^3] The ranch later figured in the work of [[Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies]] (BAASS), the primary contractor of the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] (DIA) program known as [[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program|AAWSAP]], also called AATIP.[^4]

### Ownership

[[Salt Lake Magazine]] reported that the ranch was bought in the 1930s "by some accounts" by [[Kenneth Myers]] and Edith Myers, passed to Kenneth Myers's brother [[Garth Myers]], and was sold by Garth Myers in 1994. The magazine added that Garth Myers has denied any UFO activity on the property while his family owned it, and that "Tom and Ellen Gorman," the names [[Hunt for the Skinwalker]] uses for its ranching family, bought it in 1994.[^5] [[Joseph Hicks]], a retired teacher from [[Roosevelt, Utah]] who investigated Uintah Basin sightings, told [[UBMedia]] in 2016 that the Myers family settled the ranch in 1905 and reported no strange occurrences, while neighbors did.[^6] A June 1996 Deseret News article stated that the ranch "sat idle for seven years after the previous owners passed away."[^1]

The [[Deseret News]] gave the ranch's owners in 1996 as [[Terry Sherman|Terry]] and [[Gwen Sherman]], who had bought it "two years ago," and the book gives the purchase as the fall of 1994.[^1][^7] [[Zack Van Eyck]] wrote that "For more than a year now the Shermans' 480-acre ranch just south of Fort Duchesne in Uintah County has been a hotbed for UFOs and bizarre paranormal activity." Terry Sherman said, "I don't know really what to think about it," and in the same article said, "We've seen (the UFOs) enough and we know pretty much what the craft look like, and I think it's definitely associated with the cattle mutilations."[^1] UBMedia reported in 2016 that [[George Knapp]], writing in 2002, described the family's discovery of deadbolts on both sides of the house doors and iron stakes and chains at both ends of the house.[^6]

Van Eyck reported in April 1997 that Robert Bigelow, "a [[Las Vegas]] real estate magnate who founded the institute, bought the ranch last September, three months after the Shermans first told their bizarre story publicly in the Deseret News." The article reported that Sherman signed a nondisclosure agreement with Bigelow after selling and that the Shermans had given their account to the [[Colorado]] writer [[David Perkins]] for a story in [[Spirit (magazine)|Spirit]] magazine.[^2] The article was reprinted in *The [[Uintah Basin Standard]]* on April 29, 1997.[^8]

The [[Las Vegas Sun]] reported in October 1996 that "Several weeks later, Bigelow met with the Shermans and negotiated to buy the ranch for about $200,000." The same report said that "Officially, the research is being conducted by the National Institute for Discovery Science, which Bigelow formed last October," that the Sherman family had relocated "to a smaller ranch 15 miles away," and that Sherman was "now employed by Bigelow to maintain the ranch." Sherman said he had been offered more money by a Colorado family and a local hunting club but "did not want to put anyone at risk," and was quoted: "It's just been a bad deal all the way around."[^3]

A Deseret News article of April 22, 2006 described the property as "still owned by the National Institute for Discovery Science."[^9]

UBMedia reported on September 24, 2016 that "Adamantium Real Estate acquired the ranch in April 2016." On July 18, 2016, Basin resident [[Thomas Winterton]] had represented Adamantium Real Estate LLC before the [[Uintah County Commission]] in a request to vacate Hicken Ranch Road, a public class-D county road bisecting the ranch that Bigelow had gated; the commission did not approve the request because of objections from other property owners along the road. According to Winterton, the owner of Adamantium Real Estate had to remain anonymous for business purposes. The article reports that the ranch's security had remained high since NIDS ceased operating in 2004, with cameras, motion detectors and 24-hour security personnel living on the property, and quotes Knapp: "I was with Bob Bigelow when he made the decision to have the 24-hour security there because it just got out of hand." The article carries a correction: "This story has been corrected to reflect that no proof has been brought forward to show that Robert Bigelow is an owner of Adamantium Real Estate."[^6]

[[Adamantium Real Estate, LLC]] is a Delaware limited liability company (file number 6000709, registered agent The Corporation Trust Company, Wilmington) registered in Utah as a foreign limited liability company (entity number 14689745-0161, registered agent CT Corporation System, Midvale), with a Salt Lake City business address.[^10] The [[United States Patent and Trademark Office]] record for the mark SKINWALKER RANCH (serial 87336178) lists an application filed February 15, 2017 by Adamantium Real Estate, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company based in Salt Lake City. The registration issued April 14, 2020 as Registration No. 6034085.[^11] The corporate listing also records a registration of the mark SKINWALKER in class 41 on May 19, 2020.[^10]

On March 10, 2020 [[KLAS-TV]] reported that "The company that bought Skinwalker Ranch from Robert Bigelow in 2016 belongs to [[Brandon Fugal]], a commercial real estate mogul who operates out of Salt Lake City."[^12] [[Vice]] published the identification the same day, described the property as a 512-acre ranch, and stated that Bigelow sold it to Fugal in 2016.[^13] Fugal told Utah Business in December 2020, in the magazine's words, that he bought the ranch in 2016 "for an unknown sum," and said: "I think Mr. Bigelow saw me as a worthy successor and steward of the property, and that we're only a few hours away from the property and have the resources to continue his work." He also said he acquired the ranch "as a healthy skeptic, fully expecting that there was a 95 percent chance that all of the reports of high strangeness and supernatural activity had a natural, prosaic explanation." The magazine reported that Fugal installed a research team and launched the History Channel series *The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch*, that Winterton appears in it as ranch superintendent, and that the ranch's chief of security is Bryant Arnold.[^14] The UBMedia correction states that no proof had been brought forward that Bigelow owned the 2016 buyer, and the KLAS and Vice reports name Bigelow as the seller.[^6][^12][^13]

### Tribal Land History

The [[Bureau of Indian Affairs]] describes the [[Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation]] as "located in the Uinta Basin, in northeast Utah."[^15] "By 1905, Congress authorized the Secretary of the Interior to break up the Ute reservation," the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit]] wrote in 2016, and the Secretary in 1945 issued an order returning unallotted lands, about 217,000 acres, to tribal jurisdiction. The court added that "it is undisputed that Myton lies on land that was part of the Tribe's original reservation."[^16] The [[Ute Partition Act]] of August 27, 1954 was enacted "to provide for the partition and distribution of the assets of the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in Utah."[^17]

Hicks told UBMedia that the Utes fought the Navajo for the basin before the arrival of settlers and that the Navajo, losing, "cursed the Utes with the skinwalker," and that the creature was seen on the ridge north of the ranch pastures known informally as Skinwalker Ridge.[^6] [[Colm Kelleher]] and Knapp wrote that skinwalker traditions exist among "the Navajo, Hopi, Utes, and other tribes," and Knapp's foreword states that the ranch "is contiguous with a Ute Native American reservation."[^7]

### The Shermans' Account

The June 1996 Deseret News article reported that the Shermans had seen three types of craft repeatedly over 15 months: a small boxlike craft with a white light, a 40-foot-long object and a huge ship "the size of several football fields," along with a craft emitting "a wavy red ray" and lights emerging from "orange, circular doorways that seem to appear in midair." They videotaped two of the sightings. Terry Sherman placed the first sighting in April 1995, when he went to check on a calving cow and saw lights in the field. The article reported that the Shermans found one cow dead with "a peculiar hole in the center of its left eyeball," another with a six-inch hole cut near the rectum, and a third in January with an 18-inch-deep cored hole, and that four other cows had "disappeared without a trace." In the article Terry Sherman said, "when we see the crafts and then the cattle, we have problems."[^1]

The article also reported that Sherman had confided in Hicks, a retired junior high school teacher who had investigated more than 400 UFO sightings in the Uintah Basin since the early 1950s, and that the records clerk of the [[Uintah County Sheriff's Office]] and Duchesne County sheriff [[Ralph Stansfield]] said they had no recent reports of UFOs or mutilations. The Shermans had not reported the activity to officials. Barry Karr of the [[Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal]] said in the article: "There is no good, physical evidence that we are being visited by beings from other planets."[^1]

Kelleher and Knapp's account of the family, whom they call "Gorman," describes a wolf "almost three times" normal size that was untouched by gunfire, the father's night-vision-scope observations of an orange structure over the cottonwoods through which he once saw "another sky," his conclusion that the ranch was "the site of some kind of dimensional doorway," the loss of two more animals to mutilation in early 1996, the killing of the family's three dogs in April 1996, and the family's agreement in July 1996 to sell.[^7]

### Early Press Account

[[John B. Alexander]], then the institute's director for scientific liaison, told the Deseret News in 1997: "There have been some minor observations, but nothing you would stand behind." He added: "Definitely no craft. No, we haven't had any dog-zappers. . . . Nobody has landed."[^2] The article reported that the institute's researchers had not seen the flying craft, cattle mutilations or the "balls of light" the Shermans described, and that the Shermans had counted three cattle dead and partially mutilated, at least seven others "disappeared," and three dogs gone one night in the summer of 1996 after chasing a ball of light. It also reported that [[Steve Hatzidakis]], a sergeant with the Uintah County Sheriff's Office, said no reports had reached his office since Bigelow bought the ranch, and that two cattle mutilations had been reported the previous summer on a neighboring ranch. Utah researcher [[Ryan Layton]], who had met the Shermans several times, said he "seriously doubts" the phenomena had ceased, and Layton and other researchers were frustrated that NIDS had not released details of its work.[^2]

The Las Vegas Sun reported that Bigelow "has erected an observation building and moved in a pair of scientists and a veterinarian," with someone on the property 24 hours a day, and that Roosevelt veterinarian Dan Dennis said Bigelow met him on October 15, 1996 to ask for help with necropsies on animals whose deaths might be tied to UFO or paranormal phenomena.[^3]

### NIDS Research

Kelleher, according to the Micah Hanks Program description, led the NIDS team on Skinwalker Ranch from 1996 to 2004.[^18] In his book he wrote that NIDS "was started by Las Vegas real estate tycoon Bob Bigelow" and that he answered a NIDS recruitment advertisement in *Science* and joined in summer 1996.[^7]

Kelleher described the night of March 12, 1997, when he was working with NIDS at the property. He reported seeing a large humanoid creature watching the research team from a tree perch about 20 feet off the ground and about 50 yards away. In Hunt for the Skinwalker he wrote of "the large creature that lay motionless, almost casually, in the tree." After he fired a rifle at it the creature disappeared, and he found "a single, obvious oval track about six inches in diameter embedded deeply in the patch of snow."[^19]

The book reports that five remote viewers were given the coordinate SR110202 and asked about events at the location in July 1996; NIDS received their report in January 2003, and the group's impression was of a military operation "most likely" involving the U.S. Navy, with one viewer describing the Pentagon.[^7]

In a 2023 statement to Congress, Knapp wrote that Bigelow created NIDS in 1996 with a science advisory board of PhD-level academics, two former astronauts who had walked on the moon, and scientists who had worked for or consulted with military and intelligence agencies, and that after NIDS began its investigations he informed Senator [[Harry Reid]] about the organization; Reid attended one of the first board meetings.[^20]

### Hunt for the Skinwalker

The book was published in 2005 by [[Paraview Pocket Books]] and is catalogued under Kelleher's name alone. The [[United States Copyright Office]] catalog lists it (TX0006340176, registered April 27, 2006, first published November 15, 2005) with Kelleher and Knapp as claimants.[^21]

The 2018 documentary [[Hunt for the Skinwalker (film)]], written and directed by [[Jeremy Corbell]], is listed on [[IMDb]] with a publication date of September 11, 2018. Its promotional description says that "An exhaustive, multidisciplinary scientific study began in 1996, spearheaded by an enigmatic Las Vegas billionaire," and the cast list includes Knapp, Kelleher and Bigelow.[^22]

### Reid, Bigelow and the DIA

The [[New York Times]] reported on December 16, 2017 that most of the money for the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program went to Bigelow's aerospace company, and that Reid said his interest in UFOs came from Bigelow. According to the Times, Reid said that in 2007 Bigelow told him that an official with the Defense Intelligence Agency had approached Bigelow wanting to visit Bigelow's ranch in Utah, where he conducted research; Reid said he met agency officials shortly afterward, learned that they wanted to start a research program on UFOs, and summoned [[Ted Stevens]] and [[Daniel Inouye]] to a secure room in the Capitol. Reid said Stevens replied, "I've been waiting to do this since I was in the Air Force." Reid said of the funding, "This was so-called black money," and "Stevens knows about it, Inouye knows about it. But that was it, and that's how we wanted it." The Times named Stevens and Inouye, both top members of a defense spending subcommittee, as supporters of the program.[^23]

[[Steven Aftergood]] of the [[Federation of American Scientists]] wrote in 2019 that "From 2007 to 2012, the DIA spent $22 million on the activity, formally known as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program," and that it was apparently initiated "at the behest of then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, with most of the funding directed to a Nevada constituent of his."[^24] Knapp wrote in his 2025 statement to Congress that "Senator Harry Reid and two other senior senators secured the funding for the program."[^25]

### AAWSAP and BAASS

[[All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office]] (AARO) stated that "At the direction of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), the Defense Appropriations Acts of Fiscal Years 2008 and 2010 appropriated $22 million for the DIA to assess long-term and over-the-horizon foreign advanced aerospace threats to the United States," and that the contract for the program was awarded to a private sector organization. AARO added that "The names AAWSAP and AATIP have been used interchangeably for the name of this program, including on official documentation," and that AAWSAP/AATIP "investigated an alleged hotspot of UAP and paranormal activity at a property in Utah" which "at that time was owned by the head of the private sector organization," including "reports of 'shadow figures' and 'creatures,' and exploring 'remote viewing' and 'human consciousness anomalies.'" According to AARO the organization "also planned to hire psychics to study 'inter-dimensional phenomena' believed to frequently appear at that location," and "DIA did not seek, nor specifically authorize, this work though a DIA employee set up and managed the contract with the private sector organization."[^4]

The DIA order to BAASS, HHM402-08-C-0072, was awarded on September 22, 2008. The order form gives a total award amount of $21,948,810 and refers to the solicitation HHM402-08-R-0211, issued September 1, 2008 with an offer due date of September 10, 2008.[^26] A later copy of a DIA contract modification carries a $10,000,000 amount on its attached order form.[^27]

A DIA talking paper dated May 4, 2009 states: "In response to this tasking, the DIA published a request for proposals (RFP) on 18 August 2008." It continues: "DIA received only one bid, from Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS), in response to the RFP. DIA determined that the proposal was responsive and the contract signed on 22 September 2008."[^28]

On June 24, 2009 Senator Reid wrote on Majority Leader letterhead to Deputy Secretary of Defense [[William Lynn]] that "much progress has been made with the identification of several highly sensitive, unconventional aerospace-related findings," and: "I require your assistance in establishing a Restricted Special-Access-Program (SAP)" for portions of the program. The attachment gave the program length as fiscal years 2009 to 2013 (preliminary).[^29] AARO wrote that "Deputy Secretary Lynn declined to do so based on the recommendation of then-Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, [[James Clapper|James R. Clapper, Jr.]], that such a designation was not justified."[^4]

An undated memo signed by Clapper states: "The sole bid for the contract was from Bigelow Aerospace Advance Space Studies located in Las Vegas, NV." It continues: "A $12M earmark has been allocated to support the program in FY2010. Based on the recommendation from DIA and my staffs review of the technical reports, I recommend against establishing a Special Access Program at this time."[^30]

A DIA information memo of about December 2010 states that the program "was first sponsored in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 Defense Supplemental Appropriation Act by Senators Reid and Inouye with a $10 [million] add." The memo adds: "At that time, we determined the reports were of limited value to DIA. However, I did suggest they could be of merit to other organizations."[^31]

DIA released a list of 38 research titles to Aftergood on January 16, 2019, and the list credits [[Hal Puthoff]] with "Advanced Space Propulsion Based on Vacuum (Spacetime Metric) Engineering" and [[Eric Davis]] with "Traversable Wormholes, Stargates, and Negative Energy" and "Antigravity for Aerospace Applications."[^32] The Black Vault reports that DIA released 37 of the 38 reports under a March 25, 2022 response, with the one withheld report being a SECRET version of a laser weapons title.[^33]

Kelleher is listed in the September 29, 2017 offering circular of [[To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science]] as having worked for eight years as Deputy Director of NIDS and, from 2008 to 2011, as "Deputy Administrator of a United States Government funded threat assessment program focused on advanced aerospace technology."[^34] The Micah Hanks Program description of May 2023 states that Kelleher became deputy administrator of BAASS in 2008 and "led the day-to-day operations in executing the AAWSAP contract with Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)."[^18] In written testimony to the House Oversight Committee's Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets on September 9, 2025, Knapp described Kelleher as "the principal manager of AAWSAP in Las Vegas."[^25]

Knapp wrote in February 2023 that [[James Lacatski]], a DIA rocket scientist, "was reading about a UFO hotspot named 'Skinwalker Ranch,'" that after a visit to the property Lacatski pitched a formal investigation of it, and that "Reid agreed to fund it, and Bigelow landed the contract."[^35]

Elizondo gives a different account of the program's internal disputes. He wrote that in the fall of 2009 he and Stratton urged Lacatski to drop investigations "that many considered to be dealing with the paranormal," including the work at Skinwalker Ranch, in favor of UAP threats, and that Lacatski declined. He also wrote that a senior official he calls "Devon Woods" told him in 2010 that the work was demonic. In Elizondo's account, Lacatski believed the events at the ranch were inextricably linked to the UAP question, and the focus on such phenomena drew criticism from within the [[Pentagon]] that contributed to the loss of the program's official support.[^36]

A one-page enclosure released by the [[Department of Homeland Security]] in June 2023 after a request by [[Marc Cecotti]] is headed "BAASS Goals 2011/2012." Its listed goals include "Consciousness interactions with, and control of, advanced AAV technology," "Extend Remote Communication Programs to communicate and retrieve data across dimensional/space-time barrier. Target multiple locations," and "Identify anomalous activity in select areas of United States and establish field research laboratories and remote communication programs on site."[^37]

[[Keith Basterfield]] reported in June 2025 on documents that surfaced online, among them a 530-page document with a coversheet title of "BAASS Ten Month Report," dated July 30, 2009, and a 101-page BAASS coversheet report titled "Utah Ranch Database Analysis," dated June 21, 2010, which he described as exploring the incidents recorded in a CAPELLA database of events at the ranch up to June 2010. Basterfield wrote that Appendix 1 of the 2021 book *Skinwalkers at the Pentagon* lists both among the BAASS documents lodged with DIA. The documents do not appear in the DIA releases indexed by The Black Vault.[^33][^38]

AARO wrote that "AAWSAP/AATIP was terminated in 2012 upon the completion of its deliverables due to DIA and DoD concerns about the project."[^4] AARO further wrote that the program's supporters then proposed to DHS a new version under a special access program, codenamed KONA BLUE, which would "restart UAP investigations, paranormal research (including alleged 'human consciousness anomalies') and reverse-engineer any recovered off-world spacecraft," and that "Senators Lieberman and Reid asked that the PSAP be established with the promise of additional funding."[^4]

### Phenomena Reported by Elizondo and Stratton

[[Luis Elizondo]], in his 2024 book [[Imminent (book)|Imminent]], describes the ranch as the site of a wide range of anomalous activity, including UAP sightings, apparitions, and equipment malfunctions reported by visitors.[^36]

Elizondo wrote that one of the most dangerous phenomena reported at the ranch was a set of blue orbs. In one incident, two dogs owned by a rancher chased a blue orb into a field and were vaporized, leaving only grease spots on the sagebrush. Elizondo wrote that the orbs emit a form of directed energy that can be harmful or lethal to living tissue.[^36]

Elizondo credited [[Jay Stratton]] with coining the term "hitchhiker effect" for phenomena that follow investigators home and disturb them and their families long after they leave the property. He wrote that his own experiences with orbs in his home began after he started working with the program and that other members of the team had similar experiences.[^36] In a 2026 KLAS report on Stratton's memoir, Knapp wrote that Stratton "spent a lot of time at Skinwalker Ranch in Utah and said he took home devious 'hitchhikers.'" The report states that, according to Stratton, "these hitchhikers never left him and continue to bother him in his own home almost two decades later."[^39]

### Official and Skeptical Positions

[[Sean Kirkpatrick]], then the director of AARO, wrote in a January 19, 2024 column in [[Scientific American]] that the DIA had concluded "that not only did no such material exist, but taxpayer money was being inappropriately spent on paranormal research at Skinwalker Ranch in Utah." He wrote that the narrative of a hidden program was "largely an outgrowth" of AATIP, "which was heavily influenced by a group of individuals associated with businessman and longtime ufologist Robert Bigelow," and, of the account of a transfer of such a program to private contractors, that "All of this is without substantiating evidence."[^40]

### Footnotes

[^1]: Zack Van Eyck, "FREQUENT FLIERS?", *Deseret News* (Salt Lake City), June 30, 1996. https://www.deseret.com/1996/6/30/19251541/frequent-fliers
[^2]: Zack Van Eyck, "No UFOs or ETs have dropped in at spooky ranch," *Deseret News*, April 27, 1997. https://www.deseret.com/1997/4/27/19308958/no-ufos-or-ets-have-dropped-in-at-spooky-ranch
[^3]: "Nevada millionaire buys UFO ranch in Utah," *Las Vegas Sun*, October 23, 1996. https://lasvegassun.com/news/1996/oct/23/nevada-millionaire-buys-ufo-ranch-in-utah/
[^4]: All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, *Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP)*, Volume I, cleared for open publication March 2024, p. 22 (appropriation and program names), p. 23 (Utah property, Lynn decision, termination), pp. 34 to 35 (KONA BLUE). https://media.defense.gov/2024/Mar/08/2003409233/-1/-1/0/DOPSR-2024-0263-AARO-HISTORICAL-RECORD-REPORT-VOLUME-1-2024.PDF
[^5]: Salt Lake Magazine, "High strangeness at Skinwalker Ranch," June 7, 2022. https://saltlakemagazine.com/high-strangeness-at-skinwalker-ranch/
[^6]: Joshua Murdock, UBMedia, September 24, 2016, with editor's correction. Internet Archive capture of June 16, 2019: https://web.archive.org/web/20190616173436/https://ubmedia.biz/ (article 016cb90c)
[^7]: Colm A. Kelleher and George Knapp, *Hunt for the Skinwalker: Science Confronts the Unexplained at a Remote Ranch in Utah* (Paraview Pocket Books, 2005): purchase in fall 1994, p. 11; wolf account, pp. 3 to 4; observations of the orange structure, pp. 62 to 64; early 1996 mutilations, p. 70; April 1996 and July 1996, pp. 84 to 86; NIDS recruitment, pp. 89 to 90; skinwalker traditions, pp. 35 to 36; Knapp foreword, pp. n10 to n11; remote viewing, p. 223. https://archive.org/details/huntforskinwalke0000kell
[^8]: Zack Van Eyck, "No UFOs or ETs have dropped in at spooky ranch," *The Uintah Basin Standard* (Roosevelt, Utah; reprinted from the *Deseret News*), April 29, 1997, p. 2, https://www.newspapers.com/image/725294178/.
[^9]: "Mysteries of UFO ranch in spotlight," *Deseret News*, April 22, 2006. https://www.deseret.com/2006/4/22/19949762/mysteries-of-ufo-ranch-in-spotlight
[^10]: OpenCorporates listings for Adamantium Real Estate, LLC: Delaware company 6000709 (https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_de/6000709) and Utah foreign LLC 14689745-0161 (https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_ut/14689745-0161), including trademark registrations SKINWALKER RANCH (April 14, 2020) and SKINWALKER (May 19, 2020), class 41.
[^11]: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Trademark Status and Document Retrieval, serial 87336178, SKINWALKER RANCH, filed February 15, 2017, registered April 14, 2020 as Reg. No. 6034085. https://tsdr.uspto.gov/statusview/sn87336178
[^12]: KLAS-TV (8 News Now), Mystery Wire, March 10, 2020. https://digital-release.8newsnow.com/?p=2488085
[^13]: Vice, "Brandon Fugal owner of Skinwalker Ranch," March 10, 2020. https://www.vice.com/en/article/brandon-fugal-owner-of-skinwalker-ranch
[^14]: "Why Brandon Fugal bought Skinwalker Ranch," *Utah Business*, December 15, 2020. https://www.utahbusiness.com/building-development/2020/12/15/why-a-millionaire-real-estate-mogul-bought-skinwalker-ranch/
[^15]: Bureau of Indian Affairs, Uintah and Ouray Reservation document idc1-022549, Internet Archive capture of May 16, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170516195623/https://www.bia.gov/
[^16]: *Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation v. Myton*, No. 15-4080 (10th Cir., August 29, 2016). https://www.ca10.uscourts.gov/opinions/15/15-4080.pdf
[^17]: Ute Partition Act, Act of August 27, 1954, 68 Stat. 868. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-68/pdf/STATUTE-68-Pg868.pdf
[^18]: Micah Hanks, "Colm Kelleher: AAWSAP and the Skinwalker Enigma," *The Debrief*, May 25, 2023. https://thedebrief.org/colm-kelleher-aawsap-and-the-skinwalker-enigma/
[^19]: Adam Janos, "Skinwalker Ranch," History.com, quoting Kelleher's account of March 12, 1997 from *Hunt for the Skinwalker*. https://www.history.com/articles/skinwalker-ranch-paranormal-ufos-mutilation
[^20]: George Knapp, statement to the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, July 26, 2023, pp. 1 to 2. https://docs.house.gov/meetings/GO/GO06/20230726/116282/HHRG-118-GO06-20230726-SD004.pdf
[^21]: U.S. Copyright Office Public Records System, registration TX0006340176. https://publicrecords.copyright.gov/
[^22]: IMDb title page for *Hunt for the Skinwalker* (tt8399718), Internet Archive snapshot of 2019 (director and writer credits, publication date September 11, 2018, promotional description, cast list). https://web.archive.org/web/2019/https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8399718/
[^23]: Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal and Leslie Kean, "Glowing Auras and 'Black Money': The Pentagon's Mysterious U.F.O. Program," *The New York Times*, December 16, 2017 (New York Times News Service text, "Are UFOs real? A Pentagon program tried to find out," *Boston Globe*). https://www.boston.com/news/national-news/2017/12/16/are-ufos-real-a-pentagon-program-tried-to-find-out
[^24]: Steven Aftergood, "DIA releases list of AATIP research titles," *Secrecy News*, Federation of American Scientists, January 17, 2019. https://fas.org/publication/aatip-list/
[^25]: George Knapp, written statement to the House Oversight Committee Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, September 9, 2025. https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/George-Knapp-Written-Testimony.pdf
[^26]: Defense Intelligence Agency, FOIA letter FOIA-00269-2018 (June 26, 2023) enclosing Standard Form 1449 for order HHM402-08-C-0072 (award September 22, 2008). https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/dia/AAWSAP/FOIA-00269-2018-.pdf
[^27]: Defense Intelligence Agency, FOIA letter FOIA-00349-2018 (October 13, 2022) with Standard Form 1449 copy showing $10,000,000.00. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/dia/AAWSAP/FOIA-00349-2018.pdf
[^28]: Defense Intelligence Agency, talking paper "Senator Reid Visit to Director, DIA," May 4, 2009, p. 1. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/dia/AAWSAP/DR_Reid_Mtg_May09.pdf
[^29]: Harry Reid to William Lynn, June 24, 2009, with Attachment 1. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/dia/AAWSAP/20090624_Reid_to_DEPSECDEF_ref_AAITP_in_SAP.pdf
[^30]: James R. Clapper Jr., undated memorandum with DIA review packet, p. 1. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/dia/AAWSAP/09117-Final_Packet_Presented_to_DepSecDef.pdf
[^31]: Defense Intelligence Agency, information memorandum U-10-2552, to the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, c. December 2010, pp. 1 to 2. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/dia/AAWSAP/U-10-2552CE-IM-ATL.pdf
[^32]: Defense Intelligence Agency letter U-18-2148/FAC-2A1, January 16, 2019, enclosing the 38-title list of Defense Intelligence Reference Documents. https://archive.org/download/aatip-list/aatip-list.pdf
[^33]: The Black Vault, AAWSAP documentation index, updated October 13, 2022, including DIA FOIA-0159-2018 response of March 25, 2022. https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/the-advanced-aerospace-weapon-system-applications-program-aawsap-documentation/
[^34]: To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science, Form 253G2 offering circular, September 29, 2017, SEC accession 0001144204-17-050693. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1710274/000114420417050693/v476177_253g2.htm
[^35]: George Knapp, "Former intelligence official breaks silence on gov't UFO investigations," KLAS-TV (8 News Now), February 2023. https://www.8newsnow.com/mystery-wire/former-intelligence-official-breaks-silence-on-govt-ufo-investigations/
[^36]: Luis Elizondo, *Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs* (William Morrow, 2024). Account attributed to Elizondo.
[^37]: Department of Homeland Security, FOIA case 2022-HQFO-00386, enclosure "BAASS Goals 2011/2012," released June 20, 2023 to Marc Cecotti. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzFa76yXwAE4d8N.png
[^38]: Keith Basterfield, "More BAASS AAWSAP documents emerge," June 5, 2025. https://ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com/2025/06/more-baass-aawsap-documents-emerge.html
[^39]: George Knapp and John Forest, "Jay Stratton to release new book on non-human intelligent life Oct. 13," KLAS-TV (8 News Now), 2026. https://www.8newsnow.com/mystery-wire/jay-stratton-uap-book-release/amp/
[^40]: Sean Kirkpatrick, "Here's What I Learned as the U.S. Government's UFO Hunter," *Scientific American*, January 19, 2024. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/heres-what-i-learned-as-the-u-s-governments-ufo-hunter/