Welcome back, fellow ranchers! Let’s jump right to the point today. This is an action-packed episode. Season 7 Episode 9 “Up In Smoke” reminds me why I love The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch; this is the show I fell in love with. This show once felt like an adventure…a relief from the over written, over-dramatized shows of its ilk. Slowly, it started to cannibalize itself and become something unrecognizable. But this episode just warmed my cold heart.
I don’t have anything interesting to talk about regarding Ufology, as I’ve been spending less and less time on social media. Which really has been a breath of fresh air. But I will give a quick shoutout to the book I just finished! Scott Thomas’s Violet was a breathtaking novel that treads lightly before making you realize you’ve been in the deep end the whole time. His other novel, Kill Creek, is one of my top 10 favorites of all time, and Violet just proves that was not a fluke. If you’re into slow-burn horror novels that don’t give you everything on a silver plate, novels that make you work for the goodies, then Violet will hit that spot perfectly for you.
Okay, enough is enough. I hyped up this episode, and I need to stop beating around the bush. Without further ado, let’s head out to our second favorite ranch in Utah to see if we get any closer to uncovering The Secret…of Skinwalker Ranch.
Mesa Drilling Continues on The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch
Mesa Drill Site – 8:36 AM
We join Dr. Travis Taylor, Erik Bard, Kaleb Bench, Thomas Winterton, Archaeologist Chris Roberts, Sam Deriso, and Technologist Pete Kelsey at the top of the Mesa. Jed Murray and Bo Camp, of Triple A Drilling, are setting up their drill for the day’s happenings. Erik points out a spot that he truly believes is where the shallowest part of the anomaly is; around the 30-foot area. This should put them on the right path to drilling to the object buried within the Mesa.
Triple A starts drilling the fourth two-foot-diameter vertical borehole. While the drilling commences, Dr. Travis Taylor and Kaleb Bench join Chris Roberts at the spoils pile from Vertical Borehole Three; the borehole where metal flakes were found around the 60- to 70-foot mark. Not too long after they begin, Travis finds a metal flake with Chris’s magnet. They notice that it has rust on it, and they are very confident that it did not come off of the drill.
The spoils team radios down to the science tent and asks Erik Bard, Sam Deriso, and Pete Kelsey to head over. The three men meet up at the spoils pile. Just from a simple look, Erik is certain the metal flake is artificial material. He also says that it makes him hopeful. But that hope will run dry soon enough.
A Fourth Borehole Fails to Reach the Suspected Mesa Object
Mesa Drill Site – Later That Day – 4:37 PM
Triple A has spent the entire day drilling and has now reached the 40-foot mark. Well beyond where the team thought the buried object was. Thomas Winterton radios the team and asks them to come over to the drill. The team arrives, and Thomas delivers the bad news. Dr. Travis Taylor is perplexed, “This doesn’t make any sense to me.” Multiple data points prove an object is within the Mesa. Erik Bard says they should stop drilling for some time and invite Dr. Jan Francke back to the ranch for more GPR scans.
Dr. Jan Francke Returns With a New Ground-Penetrating Radar System
Top Of The Mesa – Three Days Later – 9:25 AM
Dr. Jan Francke joins Dr. Travis Taylor, Kaleb Bench, and Thomas Winterton at the top of the Mesa. He’s here to scan the interior of Borehole One with a brand new device he designed specifically for Skinwalker Ranch. This device is called a Coded Sequence Reader, which he somewhat discussed in Season 7 Episode 6 “All Mesa’d Up”. Dr. Francke made this device after scans from Season 7 Episode 5, “Home Sweet Homestead,” returned corrupted data. Because of this, Dr. Francke believes that something from within the Mesa is jamming his devices.
This new instrument, which has encrypted signals, should bypass any interference and collect clean images of the things buried within the Mesa. I’ve said it before: there are only a handful of people on this show whose genuine amazement at the ranch’s happenings means anything to me. The team from Sky Elements and LOC Precision are highly regarded in their respective fields, so when something goes awry and they’re amazed, that means something. I can happily add Dr. Jan Francke to that list.
We get a really nice little monologue in a talking head from Dr. Francke where he lays some stuff out on the line. He states that he has done this kind of work in 108 countries around the globe. To date, Skinwalker Ranch is the site that produces the most amount of frustration from an instrumentation and data standpoint. He ends his talking head by saying that too many weird things happen here (that he has seen data-wise) that he cannot easily explain.
Dr. Travis Taylor and Kaleb Bench head to the bottom of the Mesa to help maneuver the rope and pulley system that will bring Dr. Francke’s GPR device down the borehole. The device makes it to the bottom and back to the top with no issue. Dr. Francke is excited, but nervous, to see the data.
New GPR Data Reveals Metallic Anomalies at Skinwalker Ranch
Skinwalker Ranch Command Center – The Next Day – 10:06 AM
Dr. Travis Taylor, Erik Bard, Dr. Jan Francke, Sam Deriso, Kaleb Bench, and Thomas Winterton sit around the Command Center table. Somehow, Dr. Francke scrubbed through all the data and has some great news: usable data!
Dr. Francke’s GPR data shows some sort of anomaly at the 80-foot mark. Erik Bard says this is puzzling, but ultimately validating. What’s even more perplexing, per Dr. Travis Taylor, is that this means they should have hit whatever is down there. Thankfully, that’s not all. Dr. Francke’s scans revealed something else.
At around the 290-foot mark, inside Borehole One, are two large anomalies. Moreover, these anomalies, per Dr. Jan Francke, are very clearly metallic. Shocked and stumped, the team doesn’t know what this means. This data review ends with Travis asking Dr, Jan Francke if they can run GPR down the vertical boreholes, which he says they can start working on.
Boxes With Freaking “Lasers”
Skinwalker Ranch Command Center – Later That Day – 7:04 PM
An Austin Powers reference in 2026?! Who do I think I am?
Dr. Travis Taylor, Erik Bard, Thomas Winteron, and Jim Royston meet up outside the Skinwalker Ranch Command Center. Jim Royston has brought a box with him (that will oddly be referred to later as Pete Kelsey’s laser box??) that they will take over to Homestead Two. If you remember, in Season 7 Episode 5 “Home Sweet Homestead”, the team brought Navajo shaman Art Hardy to perform a prayer ceremony at Homestead Two.
Homestead Two has long been my favorite part of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch. It’s been home to strange phenomena like orbs, portals, and errant radiation poisoning. Thankfully, the rest of this episode is all about Homestead Two; it feels like a genuine episode of Ghost Hunters. That being said, there is one thing that happens that I feel a bit iffy about. But we’ll cover that when it comes up.
The Team Heads Back to Homestead Two for Another Paranormal Experiment
Erik Bard says they will set up the laser box inside the main house at Homestead Two. They will then use the smoke gun from Season 7 Episode 4 “Smoking Guns” to blast smoke into the dilapidated house. The hope is that the smoke will allow them to see the lasers clearly. Dr. Travis Taylor says this specialized laser box will project a grid of laser beams inside the main building where they’ve previously detected random 1.6 GHz signals. And then Travis says something odd.
Travis reveals that they plan to use an audio file of the whistle Art Hardy used during his ceremony. Remember, Art had specifically requested parts of the ceremony not be filmed. This implies that there’s a level of secrecy and privacy that he wanted to maintain during this ceremony. It’s clear that there are still heavy feelings from the Native Americans in this area about Skinwalker Ranch (and even Blind Frog Ranch). So the fact that Travis wants to use Art Hardy’s whistle WHILE HE’S NOT THERE feels a little bit…wrong.
Or, maybe I’m too woke.
Smoke, Lasers, and LiDAR Set the Stage at Skinwalker Ranch
Homestead Two – 8:04 PM
Dr. Travis Taylor, Kaleb Bench, Thomas Winterton, Jim Royston, Erik Bard, and Pete Kelsey are setting up for the night’s experiments at Homestead Two.
Thomas Winterton sets up some high-speed cameras pointing into the main building. Pete Kelsey prepares to run stationary and moving LiDAR devices throughout the evening. A GPS sensor is placed atop Homestead Two. Multiple spectrum analyzers will be monitored throughout the night. Jim Royston will be flying his thermal drone across the area.
Since Homestead Two is on the very outside edge of The Bubble boundary, the team hopes they can see if there is any connection between Homestead Two and The Bubble. As the night begins to get started, Erik Bard heads back to the Skinwalker Ranch Command Center.
8: 45 PM
As usual, to test the equipment, Dr. Travis Taylor runs a 1.6 GHz signal on his signal generator. Erik Bard confirms he sees the signal from the Command Center. Travis turns the signal off as it’s been confirmed on both ends. Erik also confirms that he lost the signal. Just moments later, both Travis and Erik confirm that the signal…has come back! Travis’s directional antenna confirms the signal is coming directly from Homestead Two.
Erik also makes sure to note that the signal is above the noise floor. That just means the measure of the signal created from the sum of all the noise sources (per Wiki).
A Strange Light Appears at Homestead Three During the Experiment
Homestead Two – 9:01 PM
Thomas Winterton starts pumping smoke into Homestead Two. Once the building is full of smoke, Pete Kelsey turns his (?) laser grid on. It honestly looks sick as hell. And that’s when Erik Bard notices something odd from the Skinwalker Ranch Command Center: a light.
From his desk chair, Erik notices a blinking light coming from Homestead Three, a location we have rarely even heard mentioned. Erik radios Dr. Travis Taylor and asks if they have anyone from the team or production over at Homestead Three. Travis confirms that no one is over there. Thomas and Kaleb Bench sprint over to Homestead Three, but they don’t find anything. Yet.
Travis asks Jim Royston if he could put his thermal drone in the air to see if he can find anything. Jim obliges and gets his drone in the air. But as the drone approaches Homestead Three, Thomas and Kaleb see something odd. They both notice a mysterious green light. No matter how hard they look, neither Kaleb, Thomas, nor Jim are able to confirm further information on the mysterious light.
Jim’s drone finally makes it overtop Homestead Three. And that’s when Pete Kelsey notices something weird. “Why is Homestead Three so warm?” Pete asks. It looks like a furnace is on inside the building. But it’s falling apart; nothing is inside of it. Since no one is able to find an answer to the mystery light, Thomas, Kaleb, and Jim’s drone head back to Homestead Two.
Laser Anomalies and Radio Failures Add to the Mystery
Now that the whole team is back at Homestead Two, they get back to the experiment. Thomas Winterton fills the house with smoke and turns the lasers back on. While this is going on, Dr. Travis Taylor plays the audio file of Art’s whistle. That’s when two things happen at the same time. Erik Bard notices the data from the GPS tracker placed atop Homestead Two has started moving vertically. Simultaneously, Travis starts receiving a 1.6 GHz signal from Homestead Two!
Travis redirects his attention to the live video of the smoke and lasers inside the house. That’s when he notices something passing through the beams. He can’t make up his mind as he states that something is either moving or walking through the beams. Thinking there may be another new anomaly found, Travis asks Pete Kelsey to run his SLAM scanner inside the house.
Pete heads over to run his SLAM scanner. Once inside the homestead, Pete radios to Travis and Jim Royston. The two men can see Pete trying to talk to them through the live video feed, but his radio severely malfunctions. Travis notes the same thing happened during Art’s ceremony with the whistle and how the EEG headset stopped working even though it was only 20 or so feet away from “EEG expert” Maddy Farrer’s computer.
Drone Signal Loss at Skinwalker Ranch Raises More Questions
They decide to do one last experiment for the evening. Homestead Two is filled with smoke once more, and the laser box is turned on. While this happens, Jim flies his thermal drone inside and outside of The Bubble. Right as Jim’s drone gets to The Bubble boundary, it loses signal. Like literally it crosses the boundary, and the signal goes out. Thankfully, for Jim, the drone starts flying itself, and once it makes it out of The Bubble, he’s able to safely land it.
Data Review Highlights the Homestead Three Heat Signature
Skinwalker Ranch Command Center – Next Day – 11:58 AM
Dr. Travis Taylor, Erik Bard, Jim Royston, Kaleb Bench, and Thomas Winterton sit around the table at the Skinwalker Ranch Command Center.
To kick off the review, Erik Bard asks the team to describe exactly what they think they saw moving/walking through the lasers. Dr. Travis Taylor says it looks like a void-thing is moving through the lasers. Unfortunately, Pete Kelsey’s SLAM scanner doesn’t reveal anything useful. Maybe I’m reading into this too much, but Erik doesn’t seem convinced one bit.
Erik then pulls up the video that his Meta-Frame captured from the blinking light at Homestead Three. We can see it blinking for some time before eventually becoming a solid light. That’s when it abruptly and quickly starts hauling ass to the west. This is when Erik asks if the light is someone or something.
We end the data review with video from Jim’s first thermal drone flight over to Homestead Three. The top right of the video has the heat index key, and we can glean two important things from that. Firstly, the outside ground is around 30 degrees, which makes sense. Secondly, the roof is also cold, but 60-ish degree heat is emanating from the slots of the broken Homestead Three roof. This would make sense if the floor was concrete and was taking on extreme heat all day. But the floor is made of wood…
Final Thoughts on The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch Season 7 Episode 9
I don’t care about nonexistent voids (that are just leftover plumes of smoke) going through lasers. I’m on Erik’s side with this (even though he doesn’t state that he doesn’t believe it). It’s nothing. What I do care about is the mysterious light and heat anomaly from Homestead Three. This show used to care about true drama, true supernatural phenomena. And this episode delivered the goods.
How exactly could this wooden structure retain so much heat, especially after the sun has been down for hours? Does this imply that there is something directly beneath Homestead Three? Or could there potentially be a portal at this homestead? I want more episodes that feel ghost hunter-y. That’s when the cast and the viewers are obviously having the most fun.
Anyways, that’s all for this week! Join us again next week to see if we get any closer to uncovering The Secret…of Skinwalker Ranch.
