00x06 - Behind the Gates: Ups and Downs

[bunniefuu]

-THOMAS: Right there,
right there!
-TRAVIS: Hey, look!

-UAP right there!
-THOMAS: Yep.

TRAVIS:
With all the shocking things

that our team has
witnessed in the skies

on Skinwalker ranch...

-KALEB: That's not a plane.
-TRAVIS: ...it absolutely

remains one of the most
notorious UAP hot spots

in the world.

There is something
in the mesa right there.

We've made other kinds
of stunning discoveries

that suggest...

-ERIK: Three, two, one.
-BRYANT: Three, two,

one.

TRAVIS:
...the keys to revealing

the truth about
this mysterious place

might also lie
hidden underground.

JEREMIAH:
It definitely
seems like a tunnel.

What have we stumbled on?

TRAVIS:
So, tonight,

we're taking
a closer look at how

the incredible phenomena
that we keep witnessing

high above Skinwalker Ranch...

THOMAS:
Let's get drilling.

TRAVIS:
...may actually
be connected to something

-deep below it.
-ERIK: Whoa.

This material
is elemental selenium.

TRAVIS:
Selenium is used to create

-a cloaking device.
-Oh, wow.

TRAVIS: Oh, wow.

You know, there's no telling

how far that thing
goes down in there.

In 2019, when I joined the team

to help investigate
Skinwalker Ranch,

we quickly discovered
that mysterious phenomena

didn't only come from the sky.

JEFF:
I clearly see
some spikes forming.

I've got some peaks showing.

-You sure do.
-JEFF: Yeah.

You good?

Slightly, I felt like I was

not holding my balance well.

We detected
disorienting energy spikes

from underground that
seemed to come and go

with no explanation.

We should see what happens

when we do something like
digging a hole.

And we create a precisely
controlled experiment

where we're digging to
this depth

and to this size
and this volume.

When I suggested that
we break ground to see

what might be causing it,

I got some pretty staunch
resistance from Dragon,

our head of security.

I mean, I'm not a scientist,

but I've spent
a ton of time here.

I know for a fact

crap goes down when people
start disturbing the earth.

Start digging,

that's the trigger.

You know, if you're
gonna be a part of this,

I have to "unequivocabally" say,

no digging.

TRAVIS:
It turns out there had
long been rumors of

some kind of alien base or
craft buried beneath the ranch.

And as the legend goes,

anyone who dug in order to
look for it would pay dearly.

It sounded pretty crazy
to me at the time,

but then I found out why Dragon

wasn't so eager to test it.

It's impossible
to explain the risk.

There's one person
that knows the risk,

and he's sitting
right there. Right?

Having been a person that's done
a lot of digging on this ranch,

the more serious of
digging I do,

the more serious of
consequences that follow.

I didn't believe in
the paranormal

when I came out on this ranch,

and I paid a pretty hefty price.

When they told me not to dig,

I just thought
it was ridiculous.

And so, one day,
I decided to do some digging.

And then, three days after,
I noticed that

I had a goose egg
on the back of my head.

By the time I let my wife

finally take me
to the emergency room,

the goose egg had actually
spread through my entire head.

My scalp separated
from my skull.

The pain is so excruciating.

I've never felt anything
like it before in my life.

The doctors had no idea
what caused it.

They didn't know how to fix it.

Basically, they're telling
me what happened to me

was medically impossible.

And it caused me
a severe injury that,

to this day, I'm still
having some repercussions with.

ERIK:
So, for Phil's benefit,

-you see that roof over there?
-Yes.

-We call it
Homestead number Two.
-PHIL: Okay, got it.

TRAVIS:
We all agreed to
take a cautious approach

for underground investigations
on the ranch.

So, we asked ground penetrating
radar expert Phil Oviatt

to scan the ranch to see
if he could find evidence

of anything strange.

And, once
he reached Homestead Two--

which had been a hot spot
for all kinds of phenomena

including UAP sightings

since it was first built
back in the early 1900s--

things got really freaky.

Now, look at this, right here.

ERIK:
Okay. Whoa.

I see that.

How do you
interpret that feature?

PHIL:
Well, it looks
like a dome feature.

-Really?
-Yes.

TRAVIS:
When Phil Oviatt
detected evidence of

something dome-shaped
beneath Homestead Two...

BRYANT:
A little more. All right.

About there is good.

...it was enough to
convince even Dragon

that we needed to poke this nest

and see what we might find.

THOMAS:
So, guys, before you drill,

I'm gonna remove myself.

Keep us posted on how you doing.

All right. Okay.

TRAVIS:
Tom Winterton got the heck

out of Dodge, just in case.

And then
we got down to business.

Well, maybe this
will be X marks the spot.

It's where I put
the X on the GPR

and said that's where
we should dig.

BRYANT:
Look at that.

The whole power line's wobbling.

SEGALA:
Why is that rocking like that?

TRAVIS:
The wire's going nuts.

-It was violent.
-Hey, look. Look at...

BRYANT: Yeah, all the way
down there.

TRAVIS:
Oh!

Suddenly, something
made the ground

and the nearby utility pole

shake like an earthquake
was happening.

SEGALA:
Is somebody messing
with that wire?

-TRAVIS: Well,
who would be there?
-SEGALA: I don't know.

SEGALA:
Hey, they stopped shaking.

That is really weird.

That's crazy.

We have no idea
what caused those tremors

underneath the drill rig.

But after all that,
we didn't find any

conclusive evidence
of the dome-shaped feature

or any kind of artificial
structure below Homestead Two.

But the following year,

we would have much more
compelling results

When we investigated beneath

another one
of Skinwalker Ranch's

most notorious hot spots
for high strangeness.

THOMAS: You think this'll work?

Yeah, I think this'll be
a good place to get started.

Hey, let us
get out of your way, right?

You guys get it going.
I want to see it fly.

Okay, I'm gonna
power up the drone.

TRAVIS:
After our inconclusive

drilling operation
at Homestead Two,

the following year,
Erik Bard arranged for a company

named Juniper Unmanned...

CHRIS:
Taking off.

...to conduct
a more comprehensive

subsurface scan for possible
structures on the ranch.

CHRIS:
Starting the route.

TRAVIS:
To conduct the survey,
the Juniper team

used a drone equipped with
a magnetometer device to scan

the entire ranch, sensing for
any magnetic anomalies

a hundred or more
feet underground.

So, if there were tunnels,
objects or structures,

like we'd heard about
in the past,

the hope was that Juniper
could pinpoint them.

CHRIS:
Magnetometer is nice and stable.

ERIK:
I think the magnetic survey
really holds

the greatest promise
for providing

insights into some of
the strange things

that have happened
down at the homesteads

and at the point of the mesa.

NATHAN:
Here is the magnetic data

of the whole property.

The cooler colors
represent lower

magnetic intensity readings,

and the warmer colors
are higher.

-Here's the triangle.
-TRAVIS: Mm-hm.

NATHAN:
There's something
going on right here.

TRAVIS:
The Juniper survey detected

some interesting things
all across the ranch.

But the most
intriguing anomaly was

an elongated feature of
some sort beneath the triangle,

where we've seen more phenomena

in recent years than
anywhere else on the property.

Several days later,

after getting permission from
ranch owner Brandon Fugal,

Erik Bard arranged for a team

from Pete Martin Drilling to
bring out a rig

with a 24-inch diameter bit
that was capable of

reaching as much as


to look for underground
structures at the triangle.

And meanwhile,
Erik and Casey Smith set up

a number of scanning devices

to look out for
harmful radiation

or any other strange signals

which we had detected
during other experiments.

BRYANT:
Erik, what exactly have we got?

On the laptop is where

we're looking at
our spectrum analyzer.

It allows us to see

any unusual radio
frequency signals

that show up while we're
conducting our experiment.

Okay. Let's go, guys.

ERIK:
Look, the history is what it is.

Our attention is naturally
drawn to this spot.

But, then again,
we've never tried

drilling at the triangle.

We may provoke some
response from the ranch.

Who knows what will happen?

How far down are we?

-FERNANDO: 25 feet.
-All right.

Wow.

Look at that.
You see what's going on here?

-BRYANT: Yeah.
-ERIK: This line
you see right here?

-BRYANT: Mm-hmm.
-I've been watching
this thing dance around

and I've never seen that before.

A spectrum analyzer is
a device that's sensitive

to electromagnetic waves,

like radio waves.

We seem to be receiving
some kind of

energy.

I think that there may be

an energy source nearby

that could be
interpreted as artificial.

I wonder if this is somehow
connected to the drill.

Sure enough, Erik continued

to detect the mysterious signal

as they drilled deeper.

ERIK:
This line you see right here

is... it's moving around

as if under some kind of, uh,
deliberate control here.

What would the purpose
of something like that be--

a communication device?

ERIK:
I don't know. Look at this.

-That's bizarre.
-Yeah.

ERIK:
I sure don't know
how to explain this.

TRAVIS:
After reaching a depth
of nearly 95 feet,

no obvious evidence of
a tunnel or structure was found.

But then Dragon suddenly
made an odd discovery

in the drilling spoils.

Oh, look at that.

CASEY:
What's that?
It's like pitch black.

That is some dark, dark stuff.

-ERIK: Yeah, it looks like coal.
-CASEY: It does.

-You see this?
-Yeah.

ERIK:
The only other black stuff

around here that I know of...

-Gilsonite.
-Gilsonite.

BRYANT:
We're here at the triangle
where we were able to

reach a depth of a hundred feet,

and so the drillers pulled out
this strange black substance,

and we've heard stories
of this Gilsonite that is

a byproduct of a meteor impact
from years ago.

ERIK: I got the data back
from the analysis.

You might find this interesting.

Take a look.

TRAVIS: After sending
the black substance off

for lab analysis,
Erik and I were stunned

by the report
of what this black material

actually was composed of.

ERIK:
It doesn't look like Gilsonite.

-Well, there's strontium.
-Yep.

-Barium... both of which
-Strontium and barium.

have radioa...
uh, radioactive isotopes.

I found that interesting.

But the interesting thing here
though, you've got manganese,

iron, uh...

aluminum, sulfur and silicon.

I mean, that's all the stuff
you would need to put together

modern-day electronics.

ERIK:
That's pretty interesting.

TRAVIS: If you go
and take any modern-day...

fighter plane or spacecraft,

and you crush it up
and then you take a sample

of it, you're probably
gonna get these materials.

Oh, these kinds of elements
would most likely

never be found
in nature deep underground.

This is very interesting.

So, how in the world
did materials

that we use
to make military aircraft

get almost a hundred feet
beneath Skinwalker Ranch?

And what could that mean about
what was really below the train?

Two years later,

we discovered
a shocking possible answer.

So tell me
how this is gonna work.

It's a very
versatile technology,

but, essentially,
it's a low frequency radar.

Today we'll be flying
on a weather balloon

that's actually gonna take it up
to about 70,000 feet

-above the ranch.
-Wow.

TRAVIS:
In 2022, Erik Bard invited

Jeremiah Pate and his team
from a company named Lunasonde

to conduct the most cutting-edge
scientific examination

of what might be
below Skinwalker Ranch.

And actually let us see,
potentially,

kilometers beneath the surface.

All of our sensors are attached

to a large
meteorological balloon.

This takes it up
to its final altitude

of around 70,000 feet.

Our technology works
by using low-frequency

radio waves
to actually see deeper

into the planet
than anyone ever has before.

Ultimately,
what we'll see is actually

what's known
as a tomographic image.

This is a true 3D map
of the subsurface.

Hey, I think we're good.

Go for launch.

Off it goes.

That is a heck of a payload.

Wow.

CLAYTON: Now those payloads
are recording and...

we'll start the tracking effort.

ERIK: I have Jeremiah Pate
queued up on video call.

BRANDON:
Greetings, Jeremiah.
Thank you for joining.

Yeah, thank you, Brandon.
And hello, everyone.

ERIK:
Hey, Jeremiah.

TRAVIS:
Several weeks later,

we were all meeting
with Brandon Fugal

and former Utah governor
Gary Herbert in Salt Lake City.

And Jeremiah also joined us
via video conference

to share his incredible report.

JEREMIAH:
There were a number
of anomalies.

They seem quite out of place,

geologically, would be
the-the best way to put it.

So many anomalies
you saw underground

appear to be voids
beneath the surface.

How big would you suspect, uh,
some of these voids are?

So, these voids

tend to be in
the, uh, tens of feet,

um, from what we've seen.

Whoa.

JEREMIAH:
This is a 2D rendering

seen from above
what we saw underground,

with the same
sort of color coding.

Jeremiah, what do you
conclude from this?

If you were to speculate,
based on your expertise,

what are we looking at here?

The conclusion
this has all led me to

is some sort of tunnel

with a high metallic content.

TRAVIS:
Just like Juniper Unmanned
had done the previous year,

Jeremiah and his team
detected a possible tunnel,

and their data suggested
it was not only metallic,

but also ran underground between
the triangle area and the mesa.

Hey, guys, just letting you know
the drill is going.

We are in the ground.

TRAVIS:
So, after collecting additional
GPS data in 2023

that also suggested something
might be buried in that area,

we invited driller
Jeremy LeBeau and his team back

to see if they could find out
just what it was.

And at a depth of about 30 feet,

they made
a compelling discovery.

Here we go. So, if you can see--

solid, solid, solid,
and then nothing.

Like, they just hit the-the
ceiling of whatever

it was punched through,
and-and that was it.

So that would imply a void.

Yes.

ERIK:
Interesting.

TRAVIS:
But if it was a void,

was it natural?

Or could it be a tunnel

or some other kind of structure

like all the legends
we had heard about on the ranch?

Something happened
as they kept drilling

that really made us wonder.

Getting, like,
a really bad metallic...

-Taste?
-Taste. Are you?

Or is it just me?

No.

Shut it down. Shut it down.

TRAVIS:
For Brady to taste metal
while operating the drill,

it could've been an indication

that he was suddenly exposed
to a strange radiation spike.

I think we should get him
off the ranch.

I agree, I agree, I agree.

ERIK:
Hey, guys, you want to help me

take some instruments over

and take some local readings?

-Let's go.
-All right.

TRAVIS:
As a precaution,

we had Brady
leave the ranch immediately

while Erik and I
scanned the borehole

for harmful radiation.

Curiously,

we didn't detect anything

at a dangerous level,

but that didn't
end the strangeness.

I'm starting to taste metal.
I'm not kidding.

-I'm not kidding you.
-You're tasting metal now, too?

Yeah. I'm not kidding you.
I'm-I'm...

-I'm tasting....
-All right, then you need

to get...
you now have to leave.

-Come on.
-All right.

TRAVIS:
We weren't able to figure out

what affected Erik and Brady

as we drilled

into the possible void.

Do bad things really happen

on Skinwalker Ranch
when you disturb the Earth?

It's anyone's guess
at this point.

But that was only the beginning

of mysterious things
that happened

during that drilling operation

in the triangle area.

JONATHAN: Start spinning her.

MASON:
Spinning.

TRAVIS:
The week after we drilled
into a possible void

near the triangle where evidence

of a metallic tunnel
had been detected,

Erik Bard directed us to drill

right at the triangle
to see if we could prove it.

KALEB:
Five, four,

three, two, one.

TRAVIS [on comms]: Holy crap,
look at that thing go.

[voice-over]: As night fell
during the operation,

we also launched some rockets
to see if that might stimulate

any more strange phenomena.

Right there.

KALEB:
Right there, right there,
right there, right there.

TRAVIS:
That is flashing,
whatever that is.

Sure enough,
we suddenly witnessed

a strange flash in the sky.

BRYANT:
Is it an airplane?

KALEB:
That's not a plane.

TRAVIS:
And then, just moments later,

as the drillers hit
what they described

as a really hard layer,

about 35 feet deep
below the triangle,

I saw something else
high above the ranch.

Hey, did you see that?

-KALEB: Yeah.
-TRAVIS: Did you see the UFO?

Holy crap.

Look at that thing.

KALEB:
Erik, something just

went behind the mesa
to the north.

I don't know if you can see it.

ERIK [on comms]:
Yeah, I do not have any aircraft

in the airspace, uh,

to the north of mesa
moving west to east.

What is going on?

TRAVIS: Yeah, what the heck
was going on?

We hit a hard layer
below the triangle,

and then, suddenly,
flashes and a UAP in the sky,

which Erik confirmed
was not a conventional aircraft.

Hey, Travis,
we do have the core sample

from-from down there
where it's hard.

THOMAS [on comms]:
What'd it look like?

Well, we-we actually just

got it out, we were just gonna
break it open right now.

Let's go look and see what, uh,
they pulled out of the drill

on this last, uh, core sample.

As we opened the core barrel,

all we could hope

was that the drillers
collected evidence

of something, anything

that might help us figure out
just what is down there.

-It's empty.
-THOMAS: Uh, what?

TRAVIS:
Why is it empty?

THOMAS:
What was so hard

that it was taking so many hits

to get it to go down?

To my shock,

the whole bottom
part of it is... is empty.

This is not what
any of us expected.

TRAVIS:
This is interesting.

I don't know what to think
about all of this.

Right.

TRAVIS: We expected a full core,
since the drillers

believed that they broke through

whatever the hard layer
down there was.

After drilling two more holes
where a possible tunnel

was detected in the area
of the triangle,

the only thing we came up with
was more questions.

-Thank y'all.
-[chuckles] Yeah, our pleasure.

All right.

TRAVIS:
It's been a little frustrating
to investigate

what really could be below
Skinwalker Ranch,

but at the same time,

what we've encountered makes us
more determined than ever

to keep looking for the answers.

ERIK:
If it turns out
that we are dealing

with continuous structures--

anything at all like tunnels--

then that does lend credence

to the reports that we've heard
of artificial structures,

even things referred to
as bases beneath the ranch.

And we're going
to have to investigate

deeper what's underground
there at the triangle.

BRANDON:
Our investigation
at Skinwalker Ranch

attests to the reality
of not only the phenomena

but the fact that
we are onto something.

We are dealing
with powerful forces,

unknown forces,

and we are finally
on the precipice

of getting the very answers that
we've been seeking for years.