Kriti Mehrotra
Since the 1950s, a 512-acre property called Skinwalker Ranch in Uintah County, Utah, has been the hub for many alleged paranormal and unidentified aerial phenomena-related activities. Therefore, of course, the site has also been investigated by many. History’s ‘The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch’ follows a team of believers, experts, and skeptics alike as they try to find some answers. Season 6 of this incredible production is no different, with its premiere episode ‘Bubble Trouble’ commencing with the relaunching of all efforts thanks to the support of Ranch owner Brandon Fugal.
The Mesa Continues to Offer More Questions Than Answers
It is shortly after 10 pm on September 25, 2024, when Archaeologist Chris Roberts calls for all team members available on site to assemble because his men have found something really strange. From inside the mesa – an elevation primarily comprised of rocks – pieces of cross-hatch patterned ceramic are recovered, which Ranch Superintendent Thomas Winterton points out as man-made. Even Security Personnel Kaleb Bench and Principal Investigator Erik Bard are shocked by this, especially as they learn it was located around 470 feet in as well as more than 100 feet deep.
That’s when Astrophysicist Travis Taylor exclaims it is weird that something manufactured has been found – they have been working to see what is in the mesa for 5 years, but they never expected this. It all started when they heard old legends about a secret military base or an extraterrestrial spacecraft possibly being buried under there, so they used a ground-penetrating radar to get an insight. This is how they came to the hypothesis that there is likely a 400-foot-long object inside, just for it to be enclosed by other anomalies, which was backed up as they began recovering metal in 2021.
As per Travis, this dug-up metal has always been the kind both NASA and SpaceX use to protect the surface of all their spacecraft, but this discovery of artificial, radioactive ceramic is still stranger. Thus, a few days later, Brandon arranged for himself and Erik to meet with Physicist Brian Patchett at Utah Valley University to have these pieces examined with a Scanning Electron Microscope. None of them could have ever imagined that the ceramic would turn out to be self-healing. Its microscopic holes were expanding, yet it healed by itself in moments once the machine was shut off.
The Ranch Owner and the Team Discussed Their Planned Experiments Before Beginning
While the advancements in the mesa investigations leave the team baffled, the episode subsequently goes back three months to shine a light on the way they kicked off this year with a meeting. Although it is led by Brandon, it includes Erik, Travis, Thomas, Kaleb, as well as Aerodynamic CEO Cameron Fugal and OmniTeq CEO Jim Royston as they discuss their plans to expand their efforts. The Principal Investigator is the first one to state that he doesn’t believe they or anyone else has ever been as ready as this team is now to conduct such extensive investigations into the paranormal or UAPs.
OmniTeq’s Jim then explains the Arc Center they have established, which is a military-grade forward operating base that will help them store, process, and structure all the data being collected. The company’s Chief Engineer, Sam Deriso, also plays a significant role in this because he was the one who helped set up several sensor boxes across the ranch to catch any energy spikes that may occur. The hope is that these boxes will feed the data to the Arc, which will then pinpoint the most significant hotspots to enable the investigative team to focus their efforts on the areas that actually matter.
Then, Erik asserts that while they have been planning their next set of research experiments for months, Ranch Superintendent Thomas has been responsible for the one involving the mesa. They have drilled the first of two boreholes on one side of the radar-pinpointed anomaly, so once they get the second done, the plan is to insert scanning devices to see what they are actually dealing with. Last but not least, they discuss their intention for the day, looking into the cone-shaped barrier they had discovered over a piece of land known as The Triangle through a terrestrial lidar scanner.
The Team Gradually Ascertains There Really is a Barrier Over The Triangle
The Triangle is a piece of land surrounded by dirt roads close to the mesa, which is a hub for the largest number of reported UAP sightings as well as energy disturbances on the entire ranch. In fact, over the past few years, the team itself has allegedly seen two UAPs, noticed unwarranted energy spikes even when no one was around, realized that their laser cut off at a couple thousand feet, and much more. Therefore, they investigated it with a terrestrial lidar scanner, which displayed that a cone-shaped barrier covered the entire space, going from the East Field Canyon to Homestead Two.
However, once Technologist Pete Kelsey became involved, he found out that the energy barrier had more of a dome shape over the Triangle, so the team decided to really test things out. For this, they even invited 3D visualization expert Irene Radcliffe, with the idea being that she would help assess the situation from the ground alongside Travis while Pete took to the sky with a lidar scanning device. It is Aerodynamic CEO Cameron who flies the Technologist in a helicopter at various altitudes between 120 and 3000 feet, while Travis, his team, and Irene investigate from the ground, and Erik, Brandon, and Sam oversee the operation from the Arc.
Cameron flies from east to west and then from west to east multiple times to cover the entire area of the dome, only for technical glitches to arise whenever he is flying over The Triangle. Not only do all the communication transceivers begin glitching, but the Arc is also unable to obtain any data regarding tracking or altitude, and it persists no matter what height he takes the helicopter. In other words, there is data corruption over the triangle, indicating there is some sort of energy barrier there because it paints a picture as if the data is disappearing straight into a void despite all efforts by those on the field, in the air, or at the operational base.
The Team Begins to Suspect the Possibility of Communication From Inside the Dome
While Cameron flies inside the dome, apart from the data glitches, a signal of 1.4 gigahertz also comes through, which Taylor and his team decide to raise the volume of to see if they could hear something. To their surprise, a sound actually comes through, which seems to the Astrophysicists a lot like the mysterious signal they detected in the area of the East Field last year, which he believed to be communication even back then. Therefore, they then begin looking into this particular matter since it seems related to the dome too, just for them to quickly discover that there is much more to the situation than just the energy frequencies with sound.
In fact, as they have Cameron keep flying, they discover that as soon as he enters the perceived invisible boundaries of the dome, all kinds of messages come through to Jim on his controller screen. However, as soon as the Aerodynamic expert is out of the dome, they suddenly disappear without a trace, and then everything goes back to normal when he flies at 3000 feet because that is way above the perceived height of the dome. This makes it clear to the team that there is indeed much more to the situation than they ever expected, so they part ways to investigate all the data they have collected before deciding to reconvene at a later time.
As the Team Comes Forward With Their Findings, They Face the Unexpected
It takes two days for the data collected to be processed and reviewed, after which Erik and Pete call everyone to the Command Center to reveal their findings, with Cameron and Brandon joining in via a video call. Pete recalls that he had seen something zipping right past him while he was on the helicopter – something small, orb-like, white, and fast – and it turns out that they had managed to catch it on video. It did not resemble a bird in any way, shape, or form, but it did resemble the alleged UAPs the team had sighted over The Triangle on multiple occasions over the years, including twice at very different points in 2023, making them wonder if the dome had something to do with it. However, once again, they were left with more questions than answers.
That’s when Erik comes forward with the accumulated GPS data, which essentially verifies their belief about the dome and the Triangle being right in the middle of it because of all the data corruption over it. After all, right here, they had previously seen a laser beam being cut off at 2,000 feet, a blob-like object exploding a rocket at 31 feet, and lidar data indicating a wormhole-like structure, but still, they don’t have any concrete answers. In the end, with the help of lidar scans from the past two years, they came to believe that the energy barrier they were perceiving as a dome could also be a bubble, meaning it could span both above and below the ground. But alas, the whole situation remains a total mystery to them and to us until they can do further experiments.
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