Brandon Fugal talks UFOs, Skinwalker Ranch at North Utah County chamber event

Real estate mogul Brandon Fugal talked about alleged UFO sightings, strange glowing lights and mysterious cattle deaths at Utah’s Skinwalker Ranch during a speech in Lehi on Wednesday.

Fugal, chairman of Colliers International in Utah, purchased the mysterious ranch, which is located in Utah County and has been at the center of folklore tales about so-called paranormal activity for decades, in 2016.

The History Channel show “The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch,” which premiered in March 2020, follows Fugal and a team of scientists and researchers as they investigate the property. The first episode of the show’s second season premiered on May 4.

During a North Utah County Chamber Alliance event at the Show Barn at Thanksgiving Point on Wednesday, Fugal spoke about the history of the property, including the first reported instance of cattle mutilation in the early 1900s.

Brandon Fugal, who previously operated a private laboratory at the Provo Airport where he studied gravitational physics theories, told the audience was a “skeptic” before purchasing the property. He said he informed the former owner, Robert Bigelow, he would bring in his own scientists to “debunk” the paranormal activity on the ranch.

“So I was intrigued, obviously,” Fugal said, “even though I was a skeptic. And I fully expected I wouldn’t see anything.”

Fugal said he “never wanted to reveal my identity” and didn’t want it to draw attention away from his real estate business, adding that he never anticipated his research would turn into a TV show.

Upon purchasing the ranch, Fugal said he installed cameras, weather sensors and other tools “all in service to figuring out what the heck was going on, and documenting the truth of it with scientific rigor, with discipline.”

“We are not here to believe or disbelieve. We are here to observe,” he said. “A lot of this is really observational science.”

He showed the audience an image that his team captured on a drone showing what he called a “bright, glowing object” appearing over a mesa, an object he compared to the Millennial Falcon in Star Wars.

Fugal said his team also observed a 50-foot long silver dish that moved “back and forth as if it were watching us, and then within 20 seconds it was gone.”

“In the bl ink of an eye, it was gone,” he said. “Undeniable. This was not just something blinking up in the sky. It was right in front of us.”

Skinwalker Ranch can be a dangerous place, according to Fugal, who told the audience that multiple crew members have been hospitalized with strange illnesses or conditions.

Fugal said he frequently gets asked what he thinks is causing the strange activity: aliens, multidimensional phenomena or spiritual entities. “And my honest answer is ‘Yes. All of the above,’” he said.

He continued, “We believe that there is ample evidence … that there are potentially portals on the property that exist that allow some type of phenomena to occur, to pass back and forth.”

Fugal said he also gets asked if his belief in paranormal activity at Skinwalker Ranch contradicts his faith as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“The honest truth is, ‘No,’” he said. “I was raised to believe that there are worlds without number, that we’re not alone in the universe. And if there’s anything that really proves that to a degree, and is faith-promoting in a strange fashion, it’s what we’re doing out here.”