The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch (2020) s01e03 Episode Script
Looking Down
Looks like a good spot.
We see the mesa, the moon's
gonna be giving us
some backlighting.
THOMAS:
Do you see the glow?
- The flicker?
- Yeah, it looks like the whole
top of the mountain is glowing.
Look, there it is again.
Whoa! That's a definite beam.
- That's spiking.
- That could be dangerous.
My head is hurting bad.
Let's get you
the heck out of here.
- I'm serious.
- This could be life-threatening.
He needs to be in the car,
right now on the way
to the emergency room.
NARRATOR: There is a
ranch in northern Utah.
It is considered the epicenter
of the strangest and most
disturbing phenomena on Earth.
Animal mutilations,
bizarre UFO sightings,
and unusual energies
that have proven harmful
to humans.
For 20 years,
the federal government tried
to find answers and failed.
Now a new team
of dedicated scientists,
researchers and experts
has taken over.
They are determined
to solve the mystery
and reveal
The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch.
(telephone ringing)
Hey, Brandon. So, as you know,
we had the team out last night,
and we started picking up
really heavy RF signals
and things like that,
like we have previously.
And, all of the sudden, Tom
started saying
that he had a headache
and then reached back to the
spot on the back of his head
where he previously
had his serious injury
and said that he was
having pain there again.
So, Kaleb actually
grabbed him and drove him
to the emergency room
to have more testing.
All I know is that people
are getting hurt,
and we've got to figure out
why the hell that is happening.
I think that's a good idea.
I will. See you.
- JIM: Morning, guys.
- BRYANT: How are you?
Well, I'm sure I got a little
more sleep than you guys.
- If you got any, you got more than us.
- BRYANT: Yeah, exactly.
- We haven't slept any.
- Oh, my gosh.
How about Thomas?
Where's our-our good friend
Thomas?
TRAVIS:
After what happened
during last night's stakeout
at the mesa,
all of us are a bit freaked out.
I mean,
what we saw was strange enough,
but then Tom Winterton
started getting
the same symptoms
he'd had before
where his scalp started
separating from his skull.
Right near daylight,
Thomas started having
recurring symptoms
from his previous injury,
and we had him go
to the emergency room.
BRYANT:
We got
some crazy readings
on the RF scale
and things like that.
And immediately, he was like,
"Oh, man, my head hurts."
(exhales, sniffles)
We got him off of the property
as quickly as possible.
- How bad is it?
- TRAVIS: You know, it was
It was just
It happened so suddenly.
But we don't know.
(grunts)
TRAVIS:
Let me tell you.
What we measured tonight
wasn't a spook.
- It was a real thing.
- Yeah.
TRAVIS:
We all saw it. It was real.
I completely agree.
JIM:
For some reason, uh,
this phenomenon
attaches like a hitchhiker
to Tom.
- Yeah, I know. It's
- JIM: And that's one of my biggest fears,
is this happening to,
collectively, any one of you.
BRYANT: This is the
second injury of this type
that Tom has suffered,
and I don't know if he's
gonna be able to come back.
SEGALA: So, let's do this.
Let's go get some rest
and then come back to this
and-and figure out next steps.
- TRAVIS: I think that's a good plan.
- JIM: Yep.
- Yeah, I'm wiped out.
- I don't even know
- what my name is anymore.
- Yes.
- And keep me posted on-on Tom.
- Thanks so much.
- Right? All right.
- BRYANT: Oh, yeah, absolutely.
- Thanks so much.
- TRAVIS: Yeah, man.
- SEGALA: That's good.
- TRAVIS: Yeah.
- All right. All right. Yep.
Yep, good. - (horn honking)
What's Kaleb doing?
(grunts)
(chuckles):
Hey!
- You're up and about.
- BRYANT: Tom!
Hey, guys.
Well, it's good to see you
in an upright position,
my friend.
THOMAS:
I'm fine.
Welcome back, buddy.
- How you feeling, man?
- I'm good.
Good. I'm glad to see that, man.
THOMAS:
It was good to come back
and see the guys.
You know, when-when I drove up
and the guys are standing there,
um, their concern
was definitely humbling
and appreciated.
- Hey. Good to see you, brother.
- JIM: Good to see you.
- Appreciate you.
- It is really good
to see you, uh,
up and about, man.
What'd they say at the hospital?
They took me in for a CT scan,
and it didn't pick up much.
Well, what about
How long did the pain last?
More than the pain
was where it was located.
And the thing
that really caused me alarm
was that that exact spot
where that lump first appeared
on my first injury
- Right.
- THOMAS: That's where the pain started,
and it started throbbing there.
Well, and it swelled up
a little bit.
When we first brought you in,
you could feel that there was
- a little bit of it raised up.
- Yeah.
And the doctor
could even feel
You know, when he was looking
at it and examining me,
he could feel
a difference there.
He said, "Yeah, there is
a little bit of swelling there."
Even when they
took the first scans
in my previous injury,
they didn't notice anything
right off the bat.
It wasn't until
they started looking closer
that they started to see
similar characteristics.
SEGALA:
The injuries
that Tom Winterton
experienced two years ago
were of the nature that he had
a neurological episode,
and he had a big swelling
in the back of his head.
He was admitted to the hospital,
and the attending physicians
really were not able
to determine what was wrong
with him.
I was called in as a consultant
to try to figure out
what happened,
and one of the things that-that
struck me about Thomas's case
His injuries were consistent
with a radiation beam
that entered his body
from a specific angle,
angle of attack,
back behind his head.
We got a lot to do.
Let's get back to it, man.
THOMAS: All right.
Let's get back to work.
TRAVIS: It was certainly a
relief to see Tom up and about
and learn
that he wasn't suffering
any long-term effects,
but we're
still pretty spooked out
by what caused his injury
in the first place.
I've got the team
assembled inside.
- Very good. I have the devices.
- Okay.
Let's head on in.
BRANDON:
Hey, guys.
- How are you? So good to see you.
Tom. - (chuckles)
- THOMAS: Hey, good to see you.
- Oh, my friend.
It's so good to see you.
- Oh, well
- I've been so worried about you.
BRYANT: There's a seat
right here for you, man.
Great.
Well, it's good to be with you.
And as soon as I heard
the report
of Tom being run
to the hospital,
I've been very, very concerned.
Yeah.
It's one thing to see lights
on the mesa.
It's another thing to see
the TriField meters going off.
But it's a whole other situation
when one of our team members
ends up going to the hospital.
- Right.
- BRANDON: Given all the incidents
that have occurred recently
and Tom's injuries
and so many strange anomalies,
should we go ahead
with the investigation further?
Or is this really a point
where we need to take
a deep breath
and maybe a step back?
What-What's your thoughts
on that, Tom?
I appreciate
all of the concern and love
that's been shown towards me.
This is like the ranch family,
as we call it.
If this is about us,
we quit.
But this shouldn't be about us.
I think we're seeing
that the ranch
could potentially be
a very dangerous place.
But to me, the question is
is it the Uinta Basin
that could be
a potentially dangerous place?
What are my neighbors
and my friends being exposed to?
Now, whatever's happening
on this ranch
I highly doubt is confined
to the barbwire fence
of the 512 acres.
Okay? There are good people
that live in this valley.
These people are my people.
- So, you feel a responsibility?
- THOMAS: If we're truly
seeking for answers,
then I think
the answer is we stay
because I want to know
if there's
something here
that's affecting not just us
but the good people
that live around in this valley.
My injury really made this quest
for this science discovery
personal.
There's something dangerous.
We need to identify what it is.
We can't cut and run.
It'd be irresponsible.
Well, Thomas,
if that's how you feel,
Erik and I
have taken immediate steps
regarding how we move forward.
Okay BRANDON: ar.
Lights on the mesa.
Tom's injuries.
- These things are real.
- Right.
BRANDON: Now, it's one thing
to see the TriField meters
going off,
but it's a whole other situation
when one of our team members
ends up going to the hospital.
Well, with that urgency,
I've recently reached out
with Erik to a company
called Biobeat.
They have armed us
with some devices
that I wanted to fly out today.
These are
wearable sensor devices.
Medical-grade. Will give us
the ability to better monitor
the health and safety
of our team.
ERIK:
What we have here are
basic vital sign measurements
like our body temperature,
our heart rate and perspira
our perspiration, respiration.
But we also have
the stress indicators
that tell us if we are
under some kind of stress.
If something's happening with
us, we will immediately be able
to see that right in here.
So, the idea is, yes,
we're keeping people safe.
But yes, we are also serving
as, as bio sensors.
JIM: So now we have these watches
that we're all gonna wear.
We're gonna be monitored 24/7.
If something does happen,
then we're alerted
and brought off
the ranch immediately.
So, actually, if we had that
that night,
and it was set up to alarm,
we might have known this
before even Thomas knew this.
Well, gentlemen,
I need to get back.
Please know
that I am available real time,
and let me know
- how things progress.
- JIM: Thank you.
- Appreciate you.
- Good to see you.
- Thank you so much.
- Yeah.
♪
Hey. There they are.
TRAVIS: After the other
night, we all agreed
that we should continue
our noninvasive search efforts
to see if the strange radiation
spikes we've been getting
are coming from underground.
But what concerns me is that,
even though
he hadn't been digging,
Thomas still got sick
near the mesa.
So far, it just doesn't add up.
Hey, guys.
- Morning, Erik.
- Like to introduce you guys
to Derrick.
He's from Hot Shots
- out of L. A.
- Derrick and Erik.
- Okay, I can remember that.
- How are you? Travis Taylor.
- Derrick Ward. Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you, man.
So, I've brought Derrick out
to do a thermographic imaging
of the entire property.
He's a drone expert,
and I think he can show us
some things
that may be just beneath
the surface of the soil here.
The results of
Robert Bigelow's investigation
have never been fully released.
There are rumors
about some kind of base
or perhaps an alien artifact
beneath the property
using drone thermography.
Perhaps there is, in fact,
something under the ground
that will show up
in our imagery.
Really looking forward to seeing
what comes out
of our work today.
Yeah. Yeah, we got some
of the best technology
out there right now.
Drone itself is about $35,000.
In every image
and every pixel of that image,
you're able
to capture the temperatures.
- Wow.
- It's-it's crazy technology.
ERIK: So, for example,
if-if there were something,
say a stone structure,
beneath the surface of the soil,
uh, let's say
maybe two, three feet down
If it's right below
and it's actually hotter
than everything else,
it's creating a signature,
- then we will find that and see that.
- Right.
That's cool stuff, man.
I'm excited to see what you got.
- So, let's get going.
- Yeah.
TRAVIS:
Because any large metal objects
or structures
located underground
are likely to have
a higher temperature,
it should appear on Derrick's
camera as a darker color.
So if we see anything
out of the ordinary,
we can pinpoint it as a place
where we can come back later
and maybe dig.
DERRICK:
Okay, all clear.
Those things are so cool.
DERRICK: Now watch
carefully what happens.
Give you guys an example
of the capability here.
So we got a thermal camera.
If we see something
and we're not sure what it is
in the thermal image,
we can immediately switch over
to the regular image,
get a closer look.
Watch the zoom here
when I do this.
BRYANT:
That's amazing.
JIM:
You can get on a leaf.
So, if there was
a mountain lion up in there,
- you'd probably see that.
- Oh, yeah.
JIM:
So, right in here,
there's a whole bunch of caves
we get a lot of radiation
out of.
We got some black stuff
right there.
See all inside of there?
TRAVIS: Is that a shadow
or is that a cool spot?
DERRICK:
Well, let's find out.
ERIK: I think you're
looking at shadows.
DERRICK:
Yeah, that's all shadows.
BRYANT:
So, Erik, what are you
mostly curious
about checking out
- with all this thermal I-imagery?
- What I'd like to do
is I'd like to put that drone
as high in the sky as I can
and look straight down
and fly over the field.
We'll go up
and get that for you.
ERIK:
Let's suppose we have
some really big structure
under the property,
like circular things,
something rectangular.
If we see shapes like that
in the thermal profile,
then that may be a hint
as to where something unusual
is located under the ground.
So, what would account
for this
this boundary here,
between this area and this area?
DERRICK: Just the way
things are hitting the sun.
The vegetation of it is longer
in one area than the other,
then it's creating shade
somewhere.
I like the striations there.
That's interesting.
JIM:
That's the bait pen.
- DERRICK: What's that?
- BRYANT: The previous ownership
put cattle or dogs
or whatever in that area
as an early warning
or detection system.
- TRAVIS: It wasn't us.
- Yeah. Not at all.
BRANDON: Immediately upon
Robert Bigelow's occupation
of the property
and bringing the
scientific team
on Skinwalker Ranch,
they installed
observation towers
with razor wire
and enclosures around them.
With the constant
daylight cattle mutilations
that were occurring
on the property,
the idea was to actually place
livestock
- in these enclosures
- (mooing)
to see the phenomena at work.
That study
and a lot of the findings
that came out of those years,
you know,
remain under lock and key.
ERIK:
So far in what you've seen,
have you seen any hard edges,
corners, anything?
No. I haven't seen anything
that-that just seems abnormal.
TRAVIS: Even though
everything from UFO sightings
to cattle mutilations
have happened
on this part of the ranch,
we didn't see anything unusual
underground.
Yeah, well, this is all data
- that we've got.
- ERIK: Yeah.
I think we can bring it in,
and-and let's head on
to the western end
of the property.
- (beep)
- All right. That works.
TRAVIS: We decided to head over
to what's known as Homestead Two.
It's right by the area
of the mesa
where we've been getting
all these radiation spikes.
It's also where there's been
a concentration
of strange phenomena,
like glowing lights
at night and even some reported
paranormal activity.
Homestead Two was built in 1905
by John and Emma Meyers,
who lived there
and raised cattle.
It's been abandoned
since the 1930s,
and a lot of the locals think
it's haunted.
ERIK:
As we go out just around
- the point of the mesa here.
- DERRICK: Okay.
BRYANT: It seems to be
that a lot of the activity
or strangeness that we encounter
is centered
around those homesteads.
THOMAS: You can see the
old homestead right there.
- DERRICK: Yeah.
- BRYANT: We have things
from batteries on equipment
going from 100%
to zero in a matter of seconds,
people feeling vertigo
or not being able
to hear sound.
DERRICK:
All set. Ready to go.
Well, so, our hot spots right
here are on top of the mesa.
And-and right over
in this area is a cave
that we've been observing.
And then these houses here--
we want to make sure
we get good views of them.
- Right?
- DERRICK: Okay. All right.
Let's do this.
I'll fire it up.
(drone beeps on)
(beeps)
No connection.
TRAVIS:
Huh.
That's weird.
That
It makes no sense.
- (beeping)
- DERRICK: We're not connected.
I'm not connecting
to the remote.
I don't know
what's happening with it.
Well, there's a reason why we
wanted him to check this area,
because of stuff like this.
BRYANT: Near the old
Homestead Number Two
is an area
where we're always having issues
with electronic equipment
and malfunctions.
When we went to the sinkhole
that we have up
above Homestead Two,
another similar thing happened.
I will tell you,
my phone battery just went
- (sputters) - Your
battery's dead on your phone?
- Huh.
- TRAVIS: Yeah. Your battery's dead, too,
- ain't it?
- It shut off.
TRAVIS: If there's one
place on the property
where cell phones and
electronic equipment won't work
or meter readings
will go haywire,
it's here.
The real problem is
we can't figure out why.
Do you think it's interference
from something or
Well, it is, but what's cau
I mean, I could walk five feet
and see if it changes.
- So let me do that first
and see what happens. - Okay.
Is it connecting to you
over there, Derrick?
- No.
- Huh.
Yeah, we've seen batteries act
squirrelly around here anyway.
And it zapped the battery of my
phone, like, almost instantly.
It could be something weird
about
this-this little area here.
ERIK:
I do have
some prominent signal here.
- TRAVIS: At what frequency? Do you know?
- Well, 5480.
TRAVIS:
So, at five gigahertz.
5.2.
So, we're getting
a five gigahertz signal.
That's weird.
That's not just weird.
It's concerning.
BRYANT: There have been
times when I've been out
by the old homestead
and got a really creepy feeling.
So, whatever it is, you know,
I'll leave it to the scientists
to try and decipher it.
All I know
is that something strange
happened that caused
so much interference
that a $35,000 drone
couldn't get up in the air.
You know,
we may be done here for the day,
because, uh
because of this.
And we certainly don't want
to put your drone at risk.
- Yeah.
- Let's call this a wrap.
Derrick, man,
appreciate you coming out.
- We really appreciate you coming out.
- More than happy to do it.
- Thank you. Thank you.
- Hey, we'll figure this out.
TRAVIS: There is
electromagnetic radiation.
That spike all around the ranch.
You know what, we should get
those TriField meters
- Yep.
- out here.
So, after the drone
stopped working,
I figured out a way
that we could modify our meters
so that they could help us
pinpoint the source
of this interference.
So, real quick, I'll show y'all
what we're gonna do.
Right now, I'm not sure,
when we're holding these meters
any particular way,
which direction
the signal's coming from.
That's what these are for.
We put this in the can,
turn it on.
- SEGALA: Right.
- That's gonna allow us
to do directional measurements,
and that'll tell us
which direction
the-the signal's coming from.
SEGALA:
Oh, my God, that's huge.
- That's at 900.
- 900.
- There's a blip there. - There is a
huge peak right now, 900 megahertz.
It is totally pegged out
right now.
As I turn it away,
and as I turn it that way,
it picks back up.
This is strange.
Because the coffee cans block
out any extraneous RF signals,
it seems that the radiation
might be coming
from above the ground and not
below, like we all suspected.
Now, to prove it,
we need to get measurements
from three random locations
on the ranch.
By pointing our meters
in the direction
toward where we get
the strongest reading
and see where they intersect,
we can then use triangulation
to pinpoint exactly where
this radiation's coming from.
Okay, so here's
what we need to do, guys.
While we know
there's a signal there,
let's run
some distance from here,
like maybe over to the corner
of the helipad area.
We are pegged out,
pointed in this direction.
Where's my phone?
Let's get a reading
from both phones, right?
- THOMAS: Yep.
- Then we can draw a line
from here
straight that way,
straight in the direction,
and then from over there
draw a line,
and wherever those lines cross,
that should be
where the signal's coming from.
- Here, let me hold that.
- See, when I go like this,
I'm picking up horizontal stuff.
I go like this,
I'm picking up vertical.
So I get my biggest readings
when I'm like this, looking up.
Yeah, it's straight.
It's coming straight up,.
THOMAS:
This is perfectly plum.
It's coming from up there.
Look-it, it's going nuts.
Look at that jumping like crazy.
All right, right now
we need to get in a vehicle
and drive
to the far corners of the ranch
and make this measurement
and mark where we were
when we made it.
So then we can map it on a map.
♪
So we just need to find
a spot that we can use
as a marker.
What about right there?
This flower will be our spot.
All right.
It's pegging out, right now.
- Is it pegging out on yours?
- Pegged.
TRAVIS: What's the pitch
angle of these right now?
- THOMAS: We're right around 38.
- SEGALA: Close to 40.
TRAVIS: Well, I think
we got what we need from here.
So we need to go either
as far east or as far west
and get one more point.
Here you go.
We've got to find a point
down here
and make the same measurements
that we made up there.
♪
TRAVIS:
All right, so,
what we got to do is get
some reference points
where we took the measurements.
Now that Jim and Tom and I
have recorded three different
points across the ranch
where these radiation spikes
keep occurring,
we're gonna go plot them out
on a map
and see exactly
where they intercept.
Right here is the spot. Right?
THOMAS: We had right next
to the helipad right there.
TRAVIS:
Right there. Okay.
And then we were out here
by a power pole somewhere.
Right there is the shadow
of the power pole.
- TRAVIS: Yeah. - THOMAS: Good, good.
- SEGALA: Perfect.
TRAVIS:
So right there.
So there's one, two
three
let's see, and we'll need
the angles that we measured
from each of the points.
We figured out the angles
that we were detecting energy
from the sky
at three different points.
And these angles are gonna cross
at some point above the ranch.
Using some basic
high school trigonometry,
we can calculate that height.
This one was like that.
Look, they're gonna cross
up here somewhere.
SEGALA:
Yeah.
TRAVIS:
And this one was like that.
- So how-how high is that?
- SEGALA: Who's got that calculator?
Yeah, it's just, it's
it's 5,700 feet.
One mile high.
Do we ever see airplanes flying
at a mile high over there?
What does that mean, even?
TRAVIS:
So, one mile high
is only about a sixth
as high as jets fly.
That means that
whatever is doing this
should be seen by the naked eye.
So why can't we?
This just doesn't add up.
We took scientifically
accurate measurements,
and they lead us to a spot
somewhere up here
over the ranch.
That is our next measurement.
And the way we could do that
is we tether a weather balloon
and raise it up
through that region,
that has equipment on it.
We get it up there and see
if we see something there.
If we see something there,
that's even more exciting.
That sounds like fun.
Hey, th yeah, that's awesome.
Yeah. And every time we think
we have an idea of a solution,
the answer ends up
being something weirder.
THOMAS: This TRAVIS: of the most
impor Hey, Matt. ments
- Hey, Travis.
- How you doing, man?
- I'm great. How are you?
- Good to see you.
- Good to see you, too.
- This is Thomas.
TRAVIS:
Once we figured out
that the strange energy source
was coming from
about a mile above the ranch,
I called up a friend of mine,
Dr. Matt Turner--
he's from the University
of Alabama in Huntsville.
He's got a PhD in mechanical
and aerospace engineering,
and he's an expert
in the use of weather balloons.
We've measured
some really strong RF fields
- Mm-hmm.
- coming from the sky.
And so we think
there's a focus somewhere,
and we're guessing
that the focus may be as much
- as a mile high, so what I'd like to do
- Yeah.
is set up an experiment,
and let's start measuring that.
That sounds great.
I got balloons.
We've got helium.
We've got
some payload platforms.
And we just need your meters,
- and we're good to go.
- All right.
- Let's get everything loaded up,
and let's do that. - Excellent.
THOMAS:
You just go down the road,
and you hit it right over there.
TRAVIS: I think this is a good
spot, guys.
Based on the triangulation
of where these strange
microwave and radio signals
are coming from,
what we're going to do is
use a weather balloon
with instruments on it
to fly it through
the point on the ranch
where we believe
this stuff is coming from.
All right,
so, with this balloon,
with the tether, especially,
we should be able
to pick an altitude
and go to that altitude
and measure,
with the TriField meters,
- and dial in the altitude that we want.
- TRAVIS: Nice.
SEGALA: So, at the end
of the day, if we could have
a chart that says altitude,
RF energy, and show the plot,
that would be amazing.
TRAVIS: After attaching
one of our RF meters
to measure possible radio
or microwave energy,
we've also attached a camera,
so that we can photograph
what happens when the balloon's
up in the sky.
MATT:
All right, Kaleb.
Fire in the hole.
(gas hissing)
MATT: What Travis is trying
to measure-- I've never heard
of that occurring on Earth.
But the physics behind it
is sound.
So it could exist--
we just don't know it yet.
- MATT: Okay.
- (turns off gas)
TRAVIS: So, we're connected
to the top of the chute.
Okay, you guys ready?
- Yep.
- Good to go.
TRAVIS:
All right, here we go.
Jim, watch your head.
All right.
All right, slowly let it up.
All right, keep going.
You're good.
THOMAS:
Hey, we're clear.
TRAVIS:
All right.
THOMAS:
Man, that's a big balloon.
KALEB: I'm surprised
there's not any wind blowing
- that sucker around right now.
- MATT: I know,
I'm extremely surprised.
Yeah, ain't that cool?
THOMAS: I can only
imagine what the neighbors
- are saying right now.
- TRAVIS: Oh, yeah, right?
THOMAS:
The balloon experiment, for me,
is one of the most important
experiments that we've got.
Because of my injury
and what's taken place,
I'm very interested
in these unseen frequencies
and signals that
are going through the air.
This is proving to be one of
the more significant anomalies
on Skinwalker Ranch.
- MATT: 320 feet.
- (low, rapid clicking)
- (whirring) - That's not bad.
- TRAVIS: Yeah.
Uh, I want to see
how high we can get it,
- so feed me the spool right through here.
- MATT: Through here?
Yeah.
(wind whistling)
The wind's picking up, so
what I'd like to do
is pull this thing down,
and don't let it hit the grass,
'cause it goes pop.
♪
TRAVIS:
Yo! Whoa, don't go too fast,
'cause the wind's blowing.
The wind's
really picking up now.
We got to let it out now,
or it's gonna crash.
Let it go, let it go,
let it go, let it go.
Hurry, we're gonna lose it.
- THOMAS: Cut it?
- No, no, no.
No, no, no, no.
Let it spool it,
let it spool out.
Go up, go up, go up, go up,
go up, go up.
It's going down
Come on. Up!
We lost her.
We lost it.
- I think it broke the line.
- KALEB: It's all over there.
There's that 50-pound test line.
That's a lot of pressure.
- There was a lot of wind.
- Crap.
Dadgum it.
So here's what we're gonna do.
We're gonna go and try
and recover the payload,
and if the wind
dies down enough,
I say we're gonna forget
with the tether at this point,
and let's just do a free-fly,
- let one go with the payload on it.
- Okay.
Once we find the balloon
and get our gear off of it,
we're just gonna let the next
one get as high as it can.
Hopefully,
it'll help us figure out
what could be above the ranch
causing these radiation spikes.
(over radio):
All right, then we'll meet you
- back at the Jeep.
- THOMAS: Okay.
We're gonna head back and start
preparing for the next launch.
This next balloon
will not only have the TriField
meter and a camera on it,
but also an audio beacon
and a GPS device.
That way we can track its
location as it gathers data.
- Shut it off.
- Okay.
Got a lot of lift on it?
- Yeah.
- Mm-hmm.
TRAVIS:
All right, we're good.
- (steady beeping)
- MATT: Yep, yep, yep, we know.
- Audio beacon is on.
- TRAVIS: We need to let it go.
The wind's kind of
dying down-- it'd be
a good time to let it
let it rip.
I mean, it's gonna go
like a rocket, right?
- Yeah, it's gonna take off pretty quick.
- Well, so we hopefully
get it to go through the
you know, mile-high mark
that we were calculating.
I'm just hoping
that it hits that
before it gets
too far to the west.
- You know what I mean?
- I hope so, too.
- You got it, Matt?
- Yeah, I got it.
- Here we go.
- We're clear.
- Start easing it up.
- (exclaims)
Start letting it go,
start letting it go.
(steady beeping continues)
Three, two, one.
Let it launch.
♪
Look how fast it's going.
Hey, I love how it's
It's going
right through the spot, too.
That is awesome.
THOMAS:
Oh, that is perfect!
Right where it needs to be.
TRAVIS: That couldn't
have worked out better,
- I don't think.
- MATT: That's a good launch.
I say we pack up and go back
and try and track it
- on the Internet.
- MATT: Sounds good. THOMAS: Yep.
♪
TRAVIS: Now that we have
T a successful launch, d
we're going to go track
the balloon
from the command center.
If this experiment
is successful,
it'll tell us exactly where
these energy spikes
are occurring,
and hopefully,
what's causing them.
Are you tracking it already?
Yeah. Yeah, come sit down
and take a look.
- Can you see okay?
- Yeah, I can see good.
MATT:
What does it look like so far?
Yeah, so, um, we've got
a few good hits already.
It looks like it's tracking off
towards the east.
How high is it right now?
Um, it's giving us an altitude,
well, above sea level,
of 10,453.
TRAVIS: Now, Skinwalker Ranch
is already
at 5,000 feet above sea level.
And the balloon
we're tracking right now
is approximately
5,500 above the ranch.
That means its total elevation
is about 10,500 feet.
Now, that's pretty much exactly
where we believe
the RF energy above
the property is coming from.
Well, that is odd, though,
because you'd think
it gone more than that
in the time it took us
to get out there and into here.
- Yeah.
- Well, it's-it's not
This is not updating.
MATT:
That's strange to me.
That's supposed
to update every minute.
It seems to have stopped after
the 10,000 foot above sea level.
So, when was the last time
that-that blip sent data?
I mean, how long ago was that,
Erik?
- A few minutes ago? A minute ago?
- Yeah.
- It's been a lot more than a minute.
- Okay.
And that's-that's
baffling to me.
The sensor is rock-solid.
Dude, I have flown this thing
30 times, more than 30 times.
It's never failed on me.
So, I don't understand
why it went out.
I'm kind of worried
about this balloon.
I don't think
we've ever had anything
that we could not explain
in the atmosphere.
We can usually figure
most things out
if we have enough data.
Roughly a mile,
or you know,
a little above a mile high,
and it's lost,
which I never thought
would happen.
So, what altitude
did you say that was?
Well, this is telling us
10,453 above sea level, so
- What's the altitude of our
- We're about 5,000 here.
Okay.
So it's about 5,500 feet.
- Right?
- Yeah.
- THOMAS: Well, that's interesting.
- TRAVIS: Yeah, it is.
MATT: So, somewhere,
the sensor stopped working.
That's right
right where we figure
those, uh,
field lines are crossing.
That's right where
the triangulation put it.
Oh, wow.
THOMAS:
We did get it to ping
as the balloon was going up.
So, we know it was transponding
and-and sending information.
The last ping that we got
showed the battery was good,
the temperature was good,
everything was functioning
properly, and then, magically,
it hits this 5,000-foot mark,
and it's gone.
I've flown 30 of these balloons.
I've dropped 'em, I've stepped
on 'em, I've gotten 'em wet.
They've flown through,
you know, thunderstorms.
- They go up to 100,000 feet.
- Yeah, they're rock solid.
There must have been something
at 5,000 feet
- that shut it off.
- Something happened.
TRAVIS:
It's crazy that the point
where we lost contact
with the balloon
is at the exact same altitude
we calculated
the RF energy to be coming from.
But where the heck
did the balloon go?
It's like it just disappeared.
Why don't we look at the footage
from the tethered test,
and, uh, what I'd like
to see is the meter.
- Oh.
- So we can kind of see what it's doing.
Easy enough.
- (beep)
- THOMAS: Whoa!
- Look at that. Look at that.
- Oh, wow!
- Wow.
- TRAVIS: Wow. So we're getting
about .3 milliwatts
per meter squared.
Thought I saw it spike at five.
I thought I
I thought I did, too.
That's like standing by
a microwave that's on.
So, this isn't someone
just sending a Wi-Fi signal
back and forth
or anything like that?
It can't be at that altitude
with these types of spikes,
right?
- Okay.
- SEGALA: So one of the things
that really jumps out at me
is that you can tell if
a frequency or RF energy
comes from the ground,
as most do,
because it will actually
fall off as you go up.
So, in order
to create something up there,
you have to have an antenna
up there to create the energy.
So, what's disturbing is that
it has to come
from something off-planet.
It's not something
that humans have created
on the face of the earth.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
So the interpretation
of this is there's something
above us sending signals down.
I mean, yeah,
it's coming from above.
- It's coming from off-planet, right.
- Yeah.
That is what
the data is suggesting.
A lot of this is not adding up.
- ERIK: Right.
- THOMAS: So I am sitting in a room
full of baffled scientists then?
Uh, that sounds about right.
- Yeah.
- TRAVIS: There's no
known asset that's just sitting
right over the ranch.
- Yeah.
- TRAVIS: So, uh, I'm thinking about
us building a rocket,
'cause we can put sensors
on the rocket, measure things
as it passes through that spot.
- Maybe this will help us figure that out.
- Right.
TRAVIS: Man,
I appreciate you coming out, man.
MATT:
I'm glad that I could help.
TRAVIS: While the team
and I are waiting
for our rocket equipment
to arrive,
Thomas Winterton invited me
to come with him
over to Homestead One.
THOMAS:
We'll see what we can see, yeah?
All right,
let's grab the stuff out.
Now, Homestead One
is the homestead
nearest the command center,
and it's where
the two caretakers, Kandus
and her boyfriend Tom, live.
They've only been staying here
on the ranch
for a few weeks,
and according to Thomas,
they've already been hearing
strange sounds
coming from the basement.
So I'm really curious to see
if what's happening in the house
could have any connection
to what we've been
experiencing recently
in other places on the ranch.
- Well, hello.
- Hey, there.
Come on in. What's going on?
- Hey, hey.
- We're gonna see if we can have a
We want to look down
in that thing in your basement.
- Oh, ho.
- There's a special camera.
- TOM: Oh, you got a camera?
- Okay.
- TRAVIS: Yeah.
- TOM: Nice.
THOMAS: The ranch house has had
three generations of ownership
before Brandon
took possession of it.
Starting with the Meyers,
who reported
strange sounds, rumblings.
And when the Shermans
took possession of it
from the Meyers,
there were locks on everything
from the cabinet doors
to the closets.
They started reporting
groceries coming out
of the cabinets,
farm equipment ending up
in the trees,
all types
of weird anomalies that
were pretty scary.
All right,
if we just head down, then?
KANDUS:
Yeah, you go-go ahead.
- TOM: Yeah, watch your head there.
- KANDUS: Yup.
THOMAS:
Two weeks ago,
Tom and Kandus reported
strange noises
coming from the basement.
I was able to punch
a small hole through the wall,
and we discovered that there was
possibly a room there.
So there's a room in there?
TOM:
There's a room in there.
But it goes back quite a ways.
Now the interesting thing
about it is,
as far we can tell, we can't see
any pipes coming in or out,
and there's no access to it.
That's the
That's the weird thing is
I don't know why
you'd have a concrete box
- Completely walled off.
- with no access.
Uh, it's-it's weird, man.
I don't know what
- It's just out of place.
- Yeah.
- You know?
- Well, let's get in there.
TRAVIS:
Let's get this thing hooked up
and take a look.
A room
that's completely closed off
in the basement with no doors,
and no doors
being prepared to be built
on it or maybe,
there was never any intent
to put a door on it--
it's horror movie stuff.
Is this gonna
fit through that hole?
THOMAS:
I'm pretty sure it will.
- If not, we'll make it bigger.
- All right.
Yeah, I mean,
everything's connected
the way it's supposed to be.
- All right, there we go.
- THOMAS: Got it?
Does that seem like
it's gonna stay?
Yeah, I think
I think it will.
- Okay.
- All right.
- THOMAS: We're in.
- KANDUS: Oh, wow. - TOM: Cool.
- It's bone-dry in there.
- Mm.
TRAVIS:
So, it means it's not leaking,
or there's no
external entrances to it.
TOM:
So it looks square, doesn't it?
THOMAS:
Yeah, definitely square.
Well, look how thick
that concrete is.
I mean, that tells you
just how strong it is.
TRAVIS:
That's heavy duty, something.
You know, that's-that's
a foot thick on top.
I'm gonna try
to angle this down a little bit
and just check along this wall.
- TRAVIS: That's a good idea.
That's a real good idea. - KANDUS: Mm.
TRAVIS:
Oh, what is that?
Is that a drain?
What is that?
TRAVIS: Go all the way
down to it if you can.
- What is that? - KANDUS: What is that?
- It looks like rubble
- to me. - It does.
- Yeah, it's rubble,
but where rubble from what?
THOMAS:
I wonder, when I drilled this,
if it didn't beat it in,
and it popped in there.
KANDUS: That looks like
way more material
- that would have come out of that hole.
- That's way more material
than that hole.
See, go a little bit lower
if you can.
Oh, slow down, slow down,
slow down.
That looks like kindling
or something.
THOMAS:
I don't know what
the black stuff is.
That is really weird.
KANDUS:
It looks like charcoal.
It it might be ash.
It looks ashy and black flecks
and charcoal.
It sure does. It looks like
there's been a fire in there.
TOM:
It does.
That's-that's a little creepy
right there.
TRAVIS:
Right in the bottom,
there's a pile about the size,
of, say, a volleyball,
and it looked like ash,
but how did it get in there,
and what's the purpose
of it being there?
It makes no sense what this is.
How could you build a fire
in there without suffocating?
THOMAS:
Why would you?
- TRAVIS: I mean, is it an oven?
- KANDUS: Well, yeah, almost
- looks like a cremation.
- THOMAS: So it looks like ash, huh?
TRAVIS:
Hey, hold on a minute.
What are those white pieces
right there?
THOMAS:
I'm wondering if that's
- It looks a lot like bones.
- KANDUS: Is that even bone?
TRAVIS:
Bones?
What in the world?
TRAVIS: We need to see
what's really in there.
- What is that?
- ERIK: It could be human remains.
THOMAS: We have a couple
trucks bringing cattle.
Each cow we bring on
is another biosensor.
TRAVIS: There's some
signal coming from space.
- Inserting safety key.
- Ignition.
So we're gonna use rockets and
see what's going on up there.
- What the heck's up with the cows?
- (loud lowing)
- THOMAS: Look, look, look!
- BRYANT: What is that?
- What is that?
- KAITLIN: What is that?
THOMAS:
It's gone. Did you see it?
TRAVIS: It's gone.
Yes, I saw it! It's gone.
BRANDON:
I think that's historic.
CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY
A+E NETWORKS
We see the mesa, the moon's
gonna be giving us
some backlighting.
THOMAS:
Do you see the glow?
- The flicker?
- Yeah, it looks like the whole
top of the mountain is glowing.
Look, there it is again.
Whoa! That's a definite beam.
- That's spiking.
- That could be dangerous.
My head is hurting bad.
Let's get you
the heck out of here.
- I'm serious.
- This could be life-threatening.
He needs to be in the car,
right now on the way
to the emergency room.
NARRATOR: There is a
ranch in northern Utah.
It is considered the epicenter
of the strangest and most
disturbing phenomena on Earth.
Animal mutilations,
bizarre UFO sightings,
and unusual energies
that have proven harmful
to humans.
For 20 years,
the federal government tried
to find answers and failed.
Now a new team
of dedicated scientists,
researchers and experts
has taken over.
They are determined
to solve the mystery
and reveal
The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch.
(telephone ringing)
Hey, Brandon. So, as you know,
we had the team out last night,
and we started picking up
really heavy RF signals
and things like that,
like we have previously.
And, all of the sudden, Tom
started saying
that he had a headache
and then reached back to the
spot on the back of his head
where he previously
had his serious injury
and said that he was
having pain there again.
So, Kaleb actually
grabbed him and drove him
to the emergency room
to have more testing.
All I know is that people
are getting hurt,
and we've got to figure out
why the hell that is happening.
I think that's a good idea.
I will. See you.
- JIM: Morning, guys.
- BRYANT: How are you?
Well, I'm sure I got a little
more sleep than you guys.
- If you got any, you got more than us.
- BRYANT: Yeah, exactly.
- We haven't slept any.
- Oh, my gosh.
How about Thomas?
Where's our-our good friend
Thomas?
TRAVIS:
After what happened
during last night's stakeout
at the mesa,
all of us are a bit freaked out.
I mean,
what we saw was strange enough,
but then Tom Winterton
started getting
the same symptoms
he'd had before
where his scalp started
separating from his skull.
Right near daylight,
Thomas started having
recurring symptoms
from his previous injury,
and we had him go
to the emergency room.
BRYANT:
We got
some crazy readings
on the RF scale
and things like that.
And immediately, he was like,
"Oh, man, my head hurts."
(exhales, sniffles)
We got him off of the property
as quickly as possible.
- How bad is it?
- TRAVIS: You know, it was
It was just
It happened so suddenly.
But we don't know.
(grunts)
TRAVIS:
Let me tell you.
What we measured tonight
wasn't a spook.
- It was a real thing.
- Yeah.
TRAVIS:
We all saw it. It was real.
I completely agree.
JIM:
For some reason, uh,
this phenomenon
attaches like a hitchhiker
to Tom.
- Yeah, I know. It's
- JIM: And that's one of my biggest fears,
is this happening to,
collectively, any one of you.
BRYANT: This is the
second injury of this type
that Tom has suffered,
and I don't know if he's
gonna be able to come back.
SEGALA: So, let's do this.
Let's go get some rest
and then come back to this
and-and figure out next steps.
- TRAVIS: I think that's a good plan.
- JIM: Yep.
- Yeah, I'm wiped out.
- I don't even know
- what my name is anymore.
- Yes.
- And keep me posted on-on Tom.
- Thanks so much.
- Right? All right.
- BRYANT: Oh, yeah, absolutely.
- Thanks so much.
- TRAVIS: Yeah, man.
- SEGALA: That's good.
- TRAVIS: Yeah.
- All right. All right. Yep.
Yep, good. - (horn honking)
What's Kaleb doing?
(grunts)
(chuckles):
Hey!
- You're up and about.
- BRYANT: Tom!
Hey, guys.
Well, it's good to see you
in an upright position,
my friend.
THOMAS:
I'm fine.
Welcome back, buddy.
- How you feeling, man?
- I'm good.
Good. I'm glad to see that, man.
THOMAS:
It was good to come back
and see the guys.
You know, when-when I drove up
and the guys are standing there,
um, their concern
was definitely humbling
and appreciated.
- Hey. Good to see you, brother.
- JIM: Good to see you.
- Appreciate you.
- It is really good
to see you, uh,
up and about, man.
What'd they say at the hospital?
They took me in for a CT scan,
and it didn't pick up much.
Well, what about
How long did the pain last?
More than the pain
was where it was located.
And the thing
that really caused me alarm
was that that exact spot
where that lump first appeared
on my first injury
- Right.
- THOMAS: That's where the pain started,
and it started throbbing there.
Well, and it swelled up
a little bit.
When we first brought you in,
you could feel that there was
- a little bit of it raised up.
- Yeah.
And the doctor
could even feel
You know, when he was looking
at it and examining me,
he could feel
a difference there.
He said, "Yeah, there is
a little bit of swelling there."
Even when they
took the first scans
in my previous injury,
they didn't notice anything
right off the bat.
It wasn't until
they started looking closer
that they started to see
similar characteristics.
SEGALA:
The injuries
that Tom Winterton
experienced two years ago
were of the nature that he had
a neurological episode,
and he had a big swelling
in the back of his head.
He was admitted to the hospital,
and the attending physicians
really were not able
to determine what was wrong
with him.
I was called in as a consultant
to try to figure out
what happened,
and one of the things that-that
struck me about Thomas's case
His injuries were consistent
with a radiation beam
that entered his body
from a specific angle,
angle of attack,
back behind his head.
We got a lot to do.
Let's get back to it, man.
THOMAS: All right.
Let's get back to work.
TRAVIS: It was certainly a
relief to see Tom up and about
and learn
that he wasn't suffering
any long-term effects,
but we're
still pretty spooked out
by what caused his injury
in the first place.
I've got the team
assembled inside.
- Very good. I have the devices.
- Okay.
Let's head on in.
BRANDON:
Hey, guys.
- How are you? So good to see you.
Tom. - (chuckles)
- THOMAS: Hey, good to see you.
- Oh, my friend.
It's so good to see you.
- Oh, well
- I've been so worried about you.
BRYANT: There's a seat
right here for you, man.
Great.
Well, it's good to be with you.
And as soon as I heard
the report
of Tom being run
to the hospital,
I've been very, very concerned.
Yeah.
It's one thing to see lights
on the mesa.
It's another thing to see
the TriField meters going off.
But it's a whole other situation
when one of our team members
ends up going to the hospital.
- Right.
- BRANDON: Given all the incidents
that have occurred recently
and Tom's injuries
and so many strange anomalies,
should we go ahead
with the investigation further?
Or is this really a point
where we need to take
a deep breath
and maybe a step back?
What-What's your thoughts
on that, Tom?
I appreciate
all of the concern and love
that's been shown towards me.
This is like the ranch family,
as we call it.
If this is about us,
we quit.
But this shouldn't be about us.
I think we're seeing
that the ranch
could potentially be
a very dangerous place.
But to me, the question is
is it the Uinta Basin
that could be
a potentially dangerous place?
What are my neighbors
and my friends being exposed to?
Now, whatever's happening
on this ranch
I highly doubt is confined
to the barbwire fence
of the 512 acres.
Okay? There are good people
that live in this valley.
These people are my people.
- So, you feel a responsibility?
- THOMAS: If we're truly
seeking for answers,
then I think
the answer is we stay
because I want to know
if there's
something here
that's affecting not just us
but the good people
that live around in this valley.
My injury really made this quest
for this science discovery
personal.
There's something dangerous.
We need to identify what it is.
We can't cut and run.
It'd be irresponsible.
Well, Thomas,
if that's how you feel,
Erik and I
have taken immediate steps
regarding how we move forward.
Okay BRANDON: ar.
Lights on the mesa.
Tom's injuries.
- These things are real.
- Right.
BRANDON: Now, it's one thing
to see the TriField meters
going off,
but it's a whole other situation
when one of our team members
ends up going to the hospital.
Well, with that urgency,
I've recently reached out
with Erik to a company
called Biobeat.
They have armed us
with some devices
that I wanted to fly out today.
These are
wearable sensor devices.
Medical-grade. Will give us
the ability to better monitor
the health and safety
of our team.
ERIK:
What we have here are
basic vital sign measurements
like our body temperature,
our heart rate and perspira
our perspiration, respiration.
But we also have
the stress indicators
that tell us if we are
under some kind of stress.
If something's happening with
us, we will immediately be able
to see that right in here.
So, the idea is, yes,
we're keeping people safe.
But yes, we are also serving
as, as bio sensors.
JIM: So now we have these watches
that we're all gonna wear.
We're gonna be monitored 24/7.
If something does happen,
then we're alerted
and brought off
the ranch immediately.
So, actually, if we had that
that night,
and it was set up to alarm,
we might have known this
before even Thomas knew this.
Well, gentlemen,
I need to get back.
Please know
that I am available real time,
and let me know
- how things progress.
- JIM: Thank you.
- Appreciate you.
- Good to see you.
- Thank you so much.
- Yeah.
♪
Hey. There they are.
TRAVIS: After the other
night, we all agreed
that we should continue
our noninvasive search efforts
to see if the strange radiation
spikes we've been getting
are coming from underground.
But what concerns me is that,
even though
he hadn't been digging,
Thomas still got sick
near the mesa.
So far, it just doesn't add up.
Hey, guys.
- Morning, Erik.
- Like to introduce you guys
to Derrick.
He's from Hot Shots
- out of L. A.
- Derrick and Erik.
- Okay, I can remember that.
- How are you? Travis Taylor.
- Derrick Ward. Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you, man.
So, I've brought Derrick out
to do a thermographic imaging
of the entire property.
He's a drone expert,
and I think he can show us
some things
that may be just beneath
the surface of the soil here.
The results of
Robert Bigelow's investigation
have never been fully released.
There are rumors
about some kind of base
or perhaps an alien artifact
beneath the property
using drone thermography.
Perhaps there is, in fact,
something under the ground
that will show up
in our imagery.
Really looking forward to seeing
what comes out
of our work today.
Yeah. Yeah, we got some
of the best technology
out there right now.
Drone itself is about $35,000.
In every image
and every pixel of that image,
you're able
to capture the temperatures.
- Wow.
- It's-it's crazy technology.
ERIK: So, for example,
if-if there were something,
say a stone structure,
beneath the surface of the soil,
uh, let's say
maybe two, three feet down
If it's right below
and it's actually hotter
than everything else,
it's creating a signature,
- then we will find that and see that.
- Right.
That's cool stuff, man.
I'm excited to see what you got.
- So, let's get going.
- Yeah.
TRAVIS:
Because any large metal objects
or structures
located underground
are likely to have
a higher temperature,
it should appear on Derrick's
camera as a darker color.
So if we see anything
out of the ordinary,
we can pinpoint it as a place
where we can come back later
and maybe dig.
DERRICK:
Okay, all clear.
Those things are so cool.
DERRICK: Now watch
carefully what happens.
Give you guys an example
of the capability here.
So we got a thermal camera.
If we see something
and we're not sure what it is
in the thermal image,
we can immediately switch over
to the regular image,
get a closer look.
Watch the zoom here
when I do this.
BRYANT:
That's amazing.
JIM:
You can get on a leaf.
So, if there was
a mountain lion up in there,
- you'd probably see that.
- Oh, yeah.
JIM:
So, right in here,
there's a whole bunch of caves
we get a lot of radiation
out of.
We got some black stuff
right there.
See all inside of there?
TRAVIS: Is that a shadow
or is that a cool spot?
DERRICK:
Well, let's find out.
ERIK: I think you're
looking at shadows.
DERRICK:
Yeah, that's all shadows.
BRYANT:
So, Erik, what are you
mostly curious
about checking out
- with all this thermal I-imagery?
- What I'd like to do
is I'd like to put that drone
as high in the sky as I can
and look straight down
and fly over the field.
We'll go up
and get that for you.
ERIK:
Let's suppose we have
some really big structure
under the property,
like circular things,
something rectangular.
If we see shapes like that
in the thermal profile,
then that may be a hint
as to where something unusual
is located under the ground.
So, what would account
for this
this boundary here,
between this area and this area?
DERRICK: Just the way
things are hitting the sun.
The vegetation of it is longer
in one area than the other,
then it's creating shade
somewhere.
I like the striations there.
That's interesting.
JIM:
That's the bait pen.
- DERRICK: What's that?
- BRYANT: The previous ownership
put cattle or dogs
or whatever in that area
as an early warning
or detection system.
- TRAVIS: It wasn't us.
- Yeah. Not at all.
BRANDON: Immediately upon
Robert Bigelow's occupation
of the property
and bringing the
scientific team
on Skinwalker Ranch,
they installed
observation towers
with razor wire
and enclosures around them.
With the constant
daylight cattle mutilations
that were occurring
on the property,
the idea was to actually place
livestock
- in these enclosures
- (mooing)
to see the phenomena at work.
That study
and a lot of the findings
that came out of those years,
you know,
remain under lock and key.
ERIK:
So far in what you've seen,
have you seen any hard edges,
corners, anything?
No. I haven't seen anything
that-that just seems abnormal.
TRAVIS: Even though
everything from UFO sightings
to cattle mutilations
have happened
on this part of the ranch,
we didn't see anything unusual
underground.
Yeah, well, this is all data
- that we've got.
- ERIK: Yeah.
I think we can bring it in,
and-and let's head on
to the western end
of the property.
- (beep)
- All right. That works.
TRAVIS: We decided to head over
to what's known as Homestead Two.
It's right by the area
of the mesa
where we've been getting
all these radiation spikes.
It's also where there's been
a concentration
of strange phenomena,
like glowing lights
at night and even some reported
paranormal activity.
Homestead Two was built in 1905
by John and Emma Meyers,
who lived there
and raised cattle.
It's been abandoned
since the 1930s,
and a lot of the locals think
it's haunted.
ERIK:
As we go out just around
- the point of the mesa here.
- DERRICK: Okay.
BRYANT: It seems to be
that a lot of the activity
or strangeness that we encounter
is centered
around those homesteads.
THOMAS: You can see the
old homestead right there.
- DERRICK: Yeah.
- BRYANT: We have things
from batteries on equipment
going from 100%
to zero in a matter of seconds,
people feeling vertigo
or not being able
to hear sound.
DERRICK:
All set. Ready to go.
Well, so, our hot spots right
here are on top of the mesa.
And-and right over
in this area is a cave
that we've been observing.
And then these houses here--
we want to make sure
we get good views of them.
- Right?
- DERRICK: Okay. All right.
Let's do this.
I'll fire it up.
(drone beeps on)
(beeps)
No connection.
TRAVIS:
Huh.
That's weird.
That
It makes no sense.
- (beeping)
- DERRICK: We're not connected.
I'm not connecting
to the remote.
I don't know
what's happening with it.
Well, there's a reason why we
wanted him to check this area,
because of stuff like this.
BRYANT: Near the old
Homestead Number Two
is an area
where we're always having issues
with electronic equipment
and malfunctions.
When we went to the sinkhole
that we have up
above Homestead Two,
another similar thing happened.
I will tell you,
my phone battery just went
- (sputters) - Your
battery's dead on your phone?
- Huh.
- TRAVIS: Yeah. Your battery's dead, too,
- ain't it?
- It shut off.
TRAVIS: If there's one
place on the property
where cell phones and
electronic equipment won't work
or meter readings
will go haywire,
it's here.
The real problem is
we can't figure out why.
Do you think it's interference
from something or
Well, it is, but what's cau
I mean, I could walk five feet
and see if it changes.
- So let me do that first
and see what happens. - Okay.
Is it connecting to you
over there, Derrick?
- No.
- Huh.
Yeah, we've seen batteries act
squirrelly around here anyway.
And it zapped the battery of my
phone, like, almost instantly.
It could be something weird
about
this-this little area here.
ERIK:
I do have
some prominent signal here.
- TRAVIS: At what frequency? Do you know?
- Well, 5480.
TRAVIS:
So, at five gigahertz.
5.2.
So, we're getting
a five gigahertz signal.
That's weird.
That's not just weird.
It's concerning.
BRYANT: There have been
times when I've been out
by the old homestead
and got a really creepy feeling.
So, whatever it is, you know,
I'll leave it to the scientists
to try and decipher it.
All I know
is that something strange
happened that caused
so much interference
that a $35,000 drone
couldn't get up in the air.
You know,
we may be done here for the day,
because, uh
because of this.
And we certainly don't want
to put your drone at risk.
- Yeah.
- Let's call this a wrap.
Derrick, man,
appreciate you coming out.
- We really appreciate you coming out.
- More than happy to do it.
- Thank you. Thank you.
- Hey, we'll figure this out.
TRAVIS: There is
electromagnetic radiation.
That spike all around the ranch.
You know what, we should get
those TriField meters
- Yep.
- out here.
So, after the drone
stopped working,
I figured out a way
that we could modify our meters
so that they could help us
pinpoint the source
of this interference.
So, real quick, I'll show y'all
what we're gonna do.
Right now, I'm not sure,
when we're holding these meters
any particular way,
which direction
the signal's coming from.
That's what these are for.
We put this in the can,
turn it on.
- SEGALA: Right.
- That's gonna allow us
to do directional measurements,
and that'll tell us
which direction
the-the signal's coming from.
SEGALA:
Oh, my God, that's huge.
- That's at 900.
- 900.
- There's a blip there. - There is a
huge peak right now, 900 megahertz.
It is totally pegged out
right now.
As I turn it away,
and as I turn it that way,
it picks back up.
This is strange.
Because the coffee cans block
out any extraneous RF signals,
it seems that the radiation
might be coming
from above the ground and not
below, like we all suspected.
Now, to prove it,
we need to get measurements
from three random locations
on the ranch.
By pointing our meters
in the direction
toward where we get
the strongest reading
and see where they intersect,
we can then use triangulation
to pinpoint exactly where
this radiation's coming from.
Okay, so here's
what we need to do, guys.
While we know
there's a signal there,
let's run
some distance from here,
like maybe over to the corner
of the helipad area.
We are pegged out,
pointed in this direction.
Where's my phone?
Let's get a reading
from both phones, right?
- THOMAS: Yep.
- Then we can draw a line
from here
straight that way,
straight in the direction,
and then from over there
draw a line,
and wherever those lines cross,
that should be
where the signal's coming from.
- Here, let me hold that.
- See, when I go like this,
I'm picking up horizontal stuff.
I go like this,
I'm picking up vertical.
So I get my biggest readings
when I'm like this, looking up.
Yeah, it's straight.
It's coming straight up,.
THOMAS:
This is perfectly plum.
It's coming from up there.
Look-it, it's going nuts.
Look at that jumping like crazy.
All right, right now
we need to get in a vehicle
and drive
to the far corners of the ranch
and make this measurement
and mark where we were
when we made it.
So then we can map it on a map.
♪
So we just need to find
a spot that we can use
as a marker.
What about right there?
This flower will be our spot.
All right.
It's pegging out, right now.
- Is it pegging out on yours?
- Pegged.
TRAVIS: What's the pitch
angle of these right now?
- THOMAS: We're right around 38.
- SEGALA: Close to 40.
TRAVIS: Well, I think
we got what we need from here.
So we need to go either
as far east or as far west
and get one more point.
Here you go.
We've got to find a point
down here
and make the same measurements
that we made up there.
♪
TRAVIS:
All right, so,
what we got to do is get
some reference points
where we took the measurements.
Now that Jim and Tom and I
have recorded three different
points across the ranch
where these radiation spikes
keep occurring,
we're gonna go plot them out
on a map
and see exactly
where they intercept.
Right here is the spot. Right?
THOMAS: We had right next
to the helipad right there.
TRAVIS:
Right there. Okay.
And then we were out here
by a power pole somewhere.
Right there is the shadow
of the power pole.
- TRAVIS: Yeah. - THOMAS: Good, good.
- SEGALA: Perfect.
TRAVIS:
So right there.
So there's one, two
three
let's see, and we'll need
the angles that we measured
from each of the points.
We figured out the angles
that we were detecting energy
from the sky
at three different points.
And these angles are gonna cross
at some point above the ranch.
Using some basic
high school trigonometry,
we can calculate that height.
This one was like that.
Look, they're gonna cross
up here somewhere.
SEGALA:
Yeah.
TRAVIS:
And this one was like that.
- So how-how high is that?
- SEGALA: Who's got that calculator?
Yeah, it's just, it's
it's 5,700 feet.
One mile high.
Do we ever see airplanes flying
at a mile high over there?
What does that mean, even?
TRAVIS:
So, one mile high
is only about a sixth
as high as jets fly.
That means that
whatever is doing this
should be seen by the naked eye.
So why can't we?
This just doesn't add up.
We took scientifically
accurate measurements,
and they lead us to a spot
somewhere up here
over the ranch.
That is our next measurement.
And the way we could do that
is we tether a weather balloon
and raise it up
through that region,
that has equipment on it.
We get it up there and see
if we see something there.
If we see something there,
that's even more exciting.
That sounds like fun.
Hey, th yeah, that's awesome.
Yeah. And every time we think
we have an idea of a solution,
the answer ends up
being something weirder.
THOMAS: This TRAVIS: of the most
impor Hey, Matt. ments
- Hey, Travis.
- How you doing, man?
- I'm great. How are you?
- Good to see you.
- Good to see you, too.
- This is Thomas.
TRAVIS:
Once we figured out
that the strange energy source
was coming from
about a mile above the ranch,
I called up a friend of mine,
Dr. Matt Turner--
he's from the University
of Alabama in Huntsville.
He's got a PhD in mechanical
and aerospace engineering,
and he's an expert
in the use of weather balloons.
We've measured
some really strong RF fields
- Mm-hmm.
- coming from the sky.
And so we think
there's a focus somewhere,
and we're guessing
that the focus may be as much
- as a mile high, so what I'd like to do
- Yeah.
is set up an experiment,
and let's start measuring that.
That sounds great.
I got balloons.
We've got helium.
We've got
some payload platforms.
And we just need your meters,
- and we're good to go.
- All right.
- Let's get everything loaded up,
and let's do that. - Excellent.
THOMAS:
You just go down the road,
and you hit it right over there.
TRAVIS: I think this is a good
spot, guys.
Based on the triangulation
of where these strange
microwave and radio signals
are coming from,
what we're going to do is
use a weather balloon
with instruments on it
to fly it through
the point on the ranch
where we believe
this stuff is coming from.
All right,
so, with this balloon,
with the tether, especially,
we should be able
to pick an altitude
and go to that altitude
and measure,
with the TriField meters,
- and dial in the altitude that we want.
- TRAVIS: Nice.
SEGALA: So, at the end
of the day, if we could have
a chart that says altitude,
RF energy, and show the plot,
that would be amazing.
TRAVIS: After attaching
one of our RF meters
to measure possible radio
or microwave energy,
we've also attached a camera,
so that we can photograph
what happens when the balloon's
up in the sky.
MATT:
All right, Kaleb.
Fire in the hole.
(gas hissing)
MATT: What Travis is trying
to measure-- I've never heard
of that occurring on Earth.
But the physics behind it
is sound.
So it could exist--
we just don't know it yet.
- MATT: Okay.
- (turns off gas)
TRAVIS: So, we're connected
to the top of the chute.
Okay, you guys ready?
- Yep.
- Good to go.
TRAVIS:
All right, here we go.
Jim, watch your head.
All right.
All right, slowly let it up.
All right, keep going.
You're good.
THOMAS:
Hey, we're clear.
TRAVIS:
All right.
THOMAS:
Man, that's a big balloon.
KALEB: I'm surprised
there's not any wind blowing
- that sucker around right now.
- MATT: I know,
I'm extremely surprised.
Yeah, ain't that cool?
THOMAS: I can only
imagine what the neighbors
- are saying right now.
- TRAVIS: Oh, yeah, right?
THOMAS:
The balloon experiment, for me,
is one of the most important
experiments that we've got.
Because of my injury
and what's taken place,
I'm very interested
in these unseen frequencies
and signals that
are going through the air.
This is proving to be one of
the more significant anomalies
on Skinwalker Ranch.
- MATT: 320 feet.
- (low, rapid clicking)
- (whirring) - That's not bad.
- TRAVIS: Yeah.
Uh, I want to see
how high we can get it,
- so feed me the spool right through here.
- MATT: Through here?
Yeah.
(wind whistling)
The wind's picking up, so
what I'd like to do
is pull this thing down,
and don't let it hit the grass,
'cause it goes pop.
♪
TRAVIS:
Yo! Whoa, don't go too fast,
'cause the wind's blowing.
The wind's
really picking up now.
We got to let it out now,
or it's gonna crash.
Let it go, let it go,
let it go, let it go.
Hurry, we're gonna lose it.
- THOMAS: Cut it?
- No, no, no.
No, no, no, no.
Let it spool it,
let it spool out.
Go up, go up, go up, go up,
go up, go up.
It's going down
Come on. Up!
We lost her.
We lost it.
- I think it broke the line.
- KALEB: It's all over there.
There's that 50-pound test line.
That's a lot of pressure.
- There was a lot of wind.
- Crap.
Dadgum it.
So here's what we're gonna do.
We're gonna go and try
and recover the payload,
and if the wind
dies down enough,
I say we're gonna forget
with the tether at this point,
and let's just do a free-fly,
- let one go with the payload on it.
- Okay.
Once we find the balloon
and get our gear off of it,
we're just gonna let the next
one get as high as it can.
Hopefully,
it'll help us figure out
what could be above the ranch
causing these radiation spikes.
(over radio):
All right, then we'll meet you
- back at the Jeep.
- THOMAS: Okay.
We're gonna head back and start
preparing for the next launch.
This next balloon
will not only have the TriField
meter and a camera on it,
but also an audio beacon
and a GPS device.
That way we can track its
location as it gathers data.
- Shut it off.
- Okay.
Got a lot of lift on it?
- Yeah.
- Mm-hmm.
TRAVIS:
All right, we're good.
- (steady beeping)
- MATT: Yep, yep, yep, we know.
- Audio beacon is on.
- TRAVIS: We need to let it go.
The wind's kind of
dying down-- it'd be
a good time to let it
let it rip.
I mean, it's gonna go
like a rocket, right?
- Yeah, it's gonna take off pretty quick.
- Well, so we hopefully
get it to go through the
you know, mile-high mark
that we were calculating.
I'm just hoping
that it hits that
before it gets
too far to the west.
- You know what I mean?
- I hope so, too.
- You got it, Matt?
- Yeah, I got it.
- Here we go.
- We're clear.
- Start easing it up.
- (exclaims)
Start letting it go,
start letting it go.
(steady beeping continues)
Three, two, one.
Let it launch.
♪
Look how fast it's going.
Hey, I love how it's
It's going
right through the spot, too.
That is awesome.
THOMAS:
Oh, that is perfect!
Right where it needs to be.
TRAVIS: That couldn't
have worked out better,
- I don't think.
- MATT: That's a good launch.
I say we pack up and go back
and try and track it
- on the Internet.
- MATT: Sounds good. THOMAS: Yep.
♪
TRAVIS: Now that we have
T a successful launch, d
we're going to go track
the balloon
from the command center.
If this experiment
is successful,
it'll tell us exactly where
these energy spikes
are occurring,
and hopefully,
what's causing them.
Are you tracking it already?
Yeah. Yeah, come sit down
and take a look.
- Can you see okay?
- Yeah, I can see good.
MATT:
What does it look like so far?
Yeah, so, um, we've got
a few good hits already.
It looks like it's tracking off
towards the east.
How high is it right now?
Um, it's giving us an altitude,
well, above sea level,
of 10,453.
TRAVIS: Now, Skinwalker Ranch
is already
at 5,000 feet above sea level.
And the balloon
we're tracking right now
is approximately
5,500 above the ranch.
That means its total elevation
is about 10,500 feet.
Now, that's pretty much exactly
where we believe
the RF energy above
the property is coming from.
Well, that is odd, though,
because you'd think
it gone more than that
in the time it took us
to get out there and into here.
- Yeah.
- Well, it's-it's not
This is not updating.
MATT:
That's strange to me.
That's supposed
to update every minute.
It seems to have stopped after
the 10,000 foot above sea level.
So, when was the last time
that-that blip sent data?
I mean, how long ago was that,
Erik?
- A few minutes ago? A minute ago?
- Yeah.
- It's been a lot more than a minute.
- Okay.
And that's-that's
baffling to me.
The sensor is rock-solid.
Dude, I have flown this thing
30 times, more than 30 times.
It's never failed on me.
So, I don't understand
why it went out.
I'm kind of worried
about this balloon.
I don't think
we've ever had anything
that we could not explain
in the atmosphere.
We can usually figure
most things out
if we have enough data.
Roughly a mile,
or you know,
a little above a mile high,
and it's lost,
which I never thought
would happen.
So, what altitude
did you say that was?
Well, this is telling us
10,453 above sea level, so
- What's the altitude of our
- We're about 5,000 here.
Okay.
So it's about 5,500 feet.
- Right?
- Yeah.
- THOMAS: Well, that's interesting.
- TRAVIS: Yeah, it is.
MATT: So, somewhere,
the sensor stopped working.
That's right
right where we figure
those, uh,
field lines are crossing.
That's right where
the triangulation put it.
Oh, wow.
THOMAS:
We did get it to ping
as the balloon was going up.
So, we know it was transponding
and-and sending information.
The last ping that we got
showed the battery was good,
the temperature was good,
everything was functioning
properly, and then, magically,
it hits this 5,000-foot mark,
and it's gone.
I've flown 30 of these balloons.
I've dropped 'em, I've stepped
on 'em, I've gotten 'em wet.
They've flown through,
you know, thunderstorms.
- They go up to 100,000 feet.
- Yeah, they're rock solid.
There must have been something
at 5,000 feet
- that shut it off.
- Something happened.
TRAVIS:
It's crazy that the point
where we lost contact
with the balloon
is at the exact same altitude
we calculated
the RF energy to be coming from.
But where the heck
did the balloon go?
It's like it just disappeared.
Why don't we look at the footage
from the tethered test,
and, uh, what I'd like
to see is the meter.
- Oh.
- So we can kind of see what it's doing.
Easy enough.
- (beep)
- THOMAS: Whoa!
- Look at that. Look at that.
- Oh, wow!
- Wow.
- TRAVIS: Wow. So we're getting
about .3 milliwatts
per meter squared.
Thought I saw it spike at five.
I thought I
I thought I did, too.
That's like standing by
a microwave that's on.
So, this isn't someone
just sending a Wi-Fi signal
back and forth
or anything like that?
It can't be at that altitude
with these types of spikes,
right?
- Okay.
- SEGALA: So one of the things
that really jumps out at me
is that you can tell if
a frequency or RF energy
comes from the ground,
as most do,
because it will actually
fall off as you go up.
So, in order
to create something up there,
you have to have an antenna
up there to create the energy.
So, what's disturbing is that
it has to come
from something off-planet.
It's not something
that humans have created
on the face of the earth.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
So the interpretation
of this is there's something
above us sending signals down.
I mean, yeah,
it's coming from above.
- It's coming from off-planet, right.
- Yeah.
That is what
the data is suggesting.
A lot of this is not adding up.
- ERIK: Right.
- THOMAS: So I am sitting in a room
full of baffled scientists then?
Uh, that sounds about right.
- Yeah.
- TRAVIS: There's no
known asset that's just sitting
right over the ranch.
- Yeah.
- TRAVIS: So, uh, I'm thinking about
us building a rocket,
'cause we can put sensors
on the rocket, measure things
as it passes through that spot.
- Maybe this will help us figure that out.
- Right.
TRAVIS: Man,
I appreciate you coming out, man.
MATT:
I'm glad that I could help.
TRAVIS: While the team
and I are waiting
for our rocket equipment
to arrive,
Thomas Winterton invited me
to come with him
over to Homestead One.
THOMAS:
We'll see what we can see, yeah?
All right,
let's grab the stuff out.
Now, Homestead One
is the homestead
nearest the command center,
and it's where
the two caretakers, Kandus
and her boyfriend Tom, live.
They've only been staying here
on the ranch
for a few weeks,
and according to Thomas,
they've already been hearing
strange sounds
coming from the basement.
So I'm really curious to see
if what's happening in the house
could have any connection
to what we've been
experiencing recently
in other places on the ranch.
- Well, hello.
- Hey, there.
Come on in. What's going on?
- Hey, hey.
- We're gonna see if we can have a
We want to look down
in that thing in your basement.
- Oh, ho.
- There's a special camera.
- TOM: Oh, you got a camera?
- Okay.
- TRAVIS: Yeah.
- TOM: Nice.
THOMAS: The ranch house has had
three generations of ownership
before Brandon
took possession of it.
Starting with the Meyers,
who reported
strange sounds, rumblings.
And when the Shermans
took possession of it
from the Meyers,
there were locks on everything
from the cabinet doors
to the closets.
They started reporting
groceries coming out
of the cabinets,
farm equipment ending up
in the trees,
all types
of weird anomalies that
were pretty scary.
All right,
if we just head down, then?
KANDUS:
Yeah, you go-go ahead.
- TOM: Yeah, watch your head there.
- KANDUS: Yup.
THOMAS:
Two weeks ago,
Tom and Kandus reported
strange noises
coming from the basement.
I was able to punch
a small hole through the wall,
and we discovered that there was
possibly a room there.
So there's a room in there?
TOM:
There's a room in there.
But it goes back quite a ways.
Now the interesting thing
about it is,
as far we can tell, we can't see
any pipes coming in or out,
and there's no access to it.
That's the
That's the weird thing is
I don't know why
you'd have a concrete box
- Completely walled off.
- with no access.
Uh, it's-it's weird, man.
I don't know what
- It's just out of place.
- Yeah.
- You know?
- Well, let's get in there.
TRAVIS:
Let's get this thing hooked up
and take a look.
A room
that's completely closed off
in the basement with no doors,
and no doors
being prepared to be built
on it or maybe,
there was never any intent
to put a door on it--
it's horror movie stuff.
Is this gonna
fit through that hole?
THOMAS:
I'm pretty sure it will.
- If not, we'll make it bigger.
- All right.
Yeah, I mean,
everything's connected
the way it's supposed to be.
- All right, there we go.
- THOMAS: Got it?
Does that seem like
it's gonna stay?
Yeah, I think
I think it will.
- Okay.
- All right.
- THOMAS: We're in.
- KANDUS: Oh, wow. - TOM: Cool.
- It's bone-dry in there.
- Mm.
TRAVIS:
So, it means it's not leaking,
or there's no
external entrances to it.
TOM:
So it looks square, doesn't it?
THOMAS:
Yeah, definitely square.
Well, look how thick
that concrete is.
I mean, that tells you
just how strong it is.
TRAVIS:
That's heavy duty, something.
You know, that's-that's
a foot thick on top.
I'm gonna try
to angle this down a little bit
and just check along this wall.
- TRAVIS: That's a good idea.
That's a real good idea. - KANDUS: Mm.
TRAVIS:
Oh, what is that?
Is that a drain?
What is that?
TRAVIS: Go all the way
down to it if you can.
- What is that? - KANDUS: What is that?
- It looks like rubble
- to me. - It does.
- Yeah, it's rubble,
but where rubble from what?
THOMAS:
I wonder, when I drilled this,
if it didn't beat it in,
and it popped in there.
KANDUS: That looks like
way more material
- that would have come out of that hole.
- That's way more material
than that hole.
See, go a little bit lower
if you can.
Oh, slow down, slow down,
slow down.
That looks like kindling
or something.
THOMAS:
I don't know what
the black stuff is.
That is really weird.
KANDUS:
It looks like charcoal.
It it might be ash.
It looks ashy and black flecks
and charcoal.
It sure does. It looks like
there's been a fire in there.
TOM:
It does.
That's-that's a little creepy
right there.
TRAVIS:
Right in the bottom,
there's a pile about the size,
of, say, a volleyball,
and it looked like ash,
but how did it get in there,
and what's the purpose
of it being there?
It makes no sense what this is.
How could you build a fire
in there without suffocating?
THOMAS:
Why would you?
- TRAVIS: I mean, is it an oven?
- KANDUS: Well, yeah, almost
- looks like a cremation.
- THOMAS: So it looks like ash, huh?
TRAVIS:
Hey, hold on a minute.
What are those white pieces
right there?
THOMAS:
I'm wondering if that's
- It looks a lot like bones.
- KANDUS: Is that even bone?
TRAVIS:
Bones?
What in the world?
TRAVIS: We need to see
what's really in there.
- What is that?
- ERIK: It could be human remains.
THOMAS: We have a couple
trucks bringing cattle.
Each cow we bring on
is another biosensor.
TRAVIS: There's some
signal coming from space.
- Inserting safety key.
- Ignition.
So we're gonna use rockets and
see what's going on up there.
- What the heck's up with the cows?
- (loud lowing)
- THOMAS: Look, look, look!
- BRYANT: What is that?
- What is that?
- KAITLIN: What is that?
THOMAS:
It's gone. Did you see it?
TRAVIS: It's gone.
Yes, I saw it! It's gone.
BRANDON:
I think that's historic.
CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY
A+E NETWORKS