Dog creatures running on two legs and a research team seeking contact through puzzles: the Skinwalker Ranch files have been released
The Pentagon's latest UFO file release includes materials from a 2010 investigation in Utah. Witnesses spoke of strange creatures and orbs of light, but the hair samples collected came from a dog and a raccoon.
The seventh PURSUE release, published on October 23, includes witness accounts and drawings of "skinwalker" sightings reported on a farm in Utah in 2010. Following the reports, staff from Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) traveled to the site twice, in March and April 2010. BAASS was founded by aerospace entrepreneur Robert Bigelow, and the company conducted UAP research under government contract.
The name of the farm is redacted in the files, but the BAASS staff visited northeastern Utah, near Fort Duchesne. This area is home to Skinwalker Ranch, one of the best-known UFO and paranormal sites in the United States.
The skinwalker is a figure from Navajo tradition: a malevolent being that can transform into an animal.
What did the witnesses say?
During the investigation, 25 people were interviewed who, by their own account, had encountered the lights, the creatures, or both. Among them were:
- longtime local residents;
- police officers;
- the head of the local wildlife agency.
According to the report, the witnesses described the following:
- orbs of light seen up close;
- dog-like creatures running on two legs in broad daylight;
- unnatural, animal howling and screaming;
- little people;
- creatures resembling a prehistoric bird;
- a worm roughly 2.4 meters long.
Several witnesses described a dog-like creature about 2.1 meters tall running on two legs. Others spoke of small, hairy, long-armed, troll-like figures.
One witness said that a few days before BAASS arrived, he had seen one of these creatures, and his dogs chased it through a barbed-wire fence. According to his family, on the same day they also encountered a black, shadow-like figure.
The evidence
Four hair samples were collected during the investigation. According to the DNA analysis, three of them came from a dog and one from a raccoon.
According to the report, the goal was not only to gather photographic evidence but also to deploy sensors and genetically modified plants. The plants were meant to detect radiation and magnetic fields as living sensors. The report also proposed trying to establish contact with the source of the anomalous phenomena experienced on the farm by means of games and puzzles.
Background: the DIA contract
According to astronomer Avi Loeb, the document designated D168 is a December 2008 BAASS project plan belonging to a contract with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). The plan asks the DIA to intercede to obtain access to biological materials of possibly non-human origin. It also includes as an attachment a redacted 2002 sworn affidavit related to the Roswell incident.
According to Loeb, a March 2009 monthly report also reveals that BAASS funded faculty at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. They studied how ten different disclosure scenarios would affect the media, politics, religion, public health and the scientific community.
The sober take
The files document an investigation that was actually carried out and funded with government money. They do not, however, confirm that the phenomena were real.
The only laboratory-verified evidence, the four hair samples, came from ordinary animals: a dog and a raccoon. The accounts rest almost entirely on witnesses' recollections. In an area where "skinwalker" legends have long been alive, familiar animals, nighttime lights and sounds can easily be given extraordinary interpretations.
The Pentagon itself emphasizes that the released files are unresolved cases about which it cannot make a definitive determination.
Sources
- New UFO Files Released Show Bizarre Drawings of Alleged Aliens (Newsweek)
- Strange, flying “black triangle” cited in new UFO documents (Axios)
- Department of War Publishes Seventh Release of UAP Files