Ranches, like deserts, seem to be the perfect setting for high strangeness encounters. The isolated, wide open areas of both ranches and deserts are ideal for all kinds of paranormal, UFO and Fortean phenomena to occur virtually undetected.

The Skinwalker ranch in Utah is a classic in the paranormal realm. The unexplained events at the Utah ranch were documented in the book The Hunt for the Skinwalker, by George Knapp and Colm Kelleher. Shapeshifting creatures, UFOs, Bigfoot like beings, shimmering vortexes or portals appearing and disappearing, and lots of other weirdness occurred over many years, with no explanation. Some suggest that the owner of the ranch made it up to get publicity and money. There's a lot wrong with that assertion, that I won't dignify with a response, except to say, that in the Utah case, that area has been known for all kinds of high strangeness occurrences going back hundreds of years. The UFO sightings alone are enough to keep a researcher busy for a long time. (In fact, In 1975 Frank B. Salisbury wrote a book about UFOs in the area: The Utah UFO display: A biologist's report.)

Another ranch, this one in Colorado, was also the site for weird events. Alien Intrusions At Colorado Ranch, by Don Worley in 1992 for UFO Magazine, discusses some of the strange things that went on at the Evans family ranch. This case was investigated by solid researchers in the field like Dr. Leo Sprinkle and Dr. John Derr. (This was the same area where cattle mutilations began around 1975.)

UFOs were seen frequently at the Evans ranch. Their cattle were victims of cattle mutilations. They heard voices, but no source for the voices were seen. Bigfoot or Bigfoot like beings seemed to be on the ranch. One night, non stop pounding on the house by something frightened the children. Later,

. . .a big, hairy being also joined the parade of oddities on the ranch. It became apparent that Big Foot was just one more facet of the cunning intelligence harassing the Evans. No less than 20 person would see Big Foot. ~ Worley, UFO Magazine, 1992

Remember, as with the Utah ranch and similar cases, (including the Contactees out in the deserts) there were many witnesses to these events. Multiple witnesses to events like this make it harder to dismiss them as delusions or lies.

In all these cases, a possible clue about the source of these strange events can be found in the fact that the ranches (and deserts, as with Contactees) are close to military bases. And in the Evans case, one part of the ranch was on top of old coal mines. Sali Sheppard-Wolford in her book Valley of the Skookum, mentions that orange orbs and strange sounds and cries, linked to Bigfoot sightings, took place at the site of abandoned mines.

Some researchers believe Bigfoot (and other beings) travel by way of underground tunnels and byways, possibly living underground. That's why these beings are elusive; they go underground. The proximity of military bases supports the idea that testing of not only UFOs, but paranormal phenomena were going on, as well as mind control.

These cases include hearing beeping or other kinds of electronic sounds. Remember the voices, often mechanical sounding? Residents and witnesses sometimes felt paralyzed, and smelled strong, unpleasant odors, as if they were being drugged in some way.

Both the Skinwalker ranch and the Evans ranch in Colorado had experiences with strange black boxes found on their property. These boxes emitted strange sounds that often increased in intensity as the witnesses came closer.

And on both ranches, the residents came across humanoids or possibly humans that told them they could stay; as if the owners of the ranch didn't own their own property! With assurances the owners could stay on their own property, came warnings not to interfere with the strange occurrences going on night after night.

In reading about these events, I suspect that there was active military involvement surrounding the activity. Military installations close by is not a coincidence. I don't think the Bigfoot creatures, the UFOs, and other anomalous occurrences were made up or created by the military; but I think they knew about it, and had something to do with manipulating events for their own purposes. One of the purposes being mind control experimentation. (The same scenario can be said of the Mothman phenomena.)

There are a lot of similarites between the Evans ranch in Colorado and the Skinwalker ranch in Utah. Were both some kind of dark op project of the government?

We may not like to go there -- that dark place in esoteric history where covert government programs were responsible for a lot of unpleasant things. But it is a fact the government has had its share of illegal, immoral and covert doings, then and now. It's not so crazy to think that these very strange occurrences had some help by a human agency.