Sherman Ranch¶
Sherman Ranch is the Wilmarth family's ranch outside Ballard, Utah, rented to the billionaire Robert Bigelow and sitting over a vast cavern; it is the site of a night hum, a levitation ring and a heat-and-magnet beam in The Walkers in Skin, until its farmhouse is launched toward Roosevelt.
| Type | Location (ranch) |
| Aliases | Wilmarth ranch; Skinwalker Ranch; the ranch; Alberta's ranch; Bigelow's ranch |
| Region | Near Ballard, Utah and Roosevelt, Utah |
| Owner | Alberta Wilmarth (family property) |
| Tenant | Robert Bigelow |
| Status | Farmhouse launched; only a small wooden barn left standing (as of Walkers 09) |
| First appearance | Walkers 01 |
Description¶
The ranch is an open pastiche of the real Skinwalker Ranch, and the players say so. On the way to Utah, Zack asks "Remind me, we're going to the literal Skinwalker Ranch, right?" and Andre answers "Oh, you guys are going to Sherman Ranch" (Walkers 02). In Walkers 06 Andre says it is "before they renamed it the Skinwalker Ranch". In Walkers 01 Rita and Dante place the real ranch in northern Utah, southeast of Ballard, 512 acres, not near Hill Air Force Base but close enough.
Alberta describes it as cursed: boiled cattle, missing pets, UFO lights, and Navy people investigating radiation (Walkers 01). In person it has a gate guarded by a man with a rifle, sheep, chickens and cattle, a pig pen, an outhouse, a weather station, and a hum at night (Walkers 02). The community center and its substation are visible on the horizon.
Notable places within¶
- The big house, Bigelow's base and barn.
- The guest double-wide, where the task force lives.
- The pig pen, where a burned crow lands (Walkers 04).
- The cavern under the whole property.
- The yard fence where the beam appears (Walkers 06).
History of events there¶
Alberta's request. Shelly Wilmarth, Alberta's mother, died of a heart attack while out with the cattle; Alberta says it was two years earlier, and the obituary she carries reads winter 1990. Alberta travels to Washington and asks Andrew to force an exhumation. The ranch tenant, "the space guy", has told her he has seen Shelly walking the edges of the property at night (Walkers 01). See Alberta's box.
Arrival. The task force reaches the ranch in Walkers 02. Walt Murphy at the gate tells of a figure he shot at near the barn that came at him at pretty high speed, of sheep that "kinda exploded" like a microwaved egg, and of the goose Nancy. Bigelow reports that the unexplained heat signatures and electromagnetic events are confined to the ranch and about half a mile around, with nothing in town. A cold open shows a coyote standing on two legs among the sheep. See Sherman Ranch phenomenon and Livestock mutilations.
The dusk event. In Walkers 03, 50 feet from the gate, the rental car dies and every device goes dead. A high whine, flickering lightning and a pulsing sky follow; the car is dragged six inches sideways and scorch marks are found in the engine. See The dusk event.
The vanished car. The Voyager disappears from the guest house overnight, with the ground where it sat at about 200 degrees, and is found pancaked in Roosevelt (Walkers 04). See The vanishing car.
The night event and the ring. Ground-penetrating radar finds the cavern (Walkers 05). The same night a psychic modulation event levitates Andrew and removes the Biz's fillings; Bigelow's sky camera records a bright white ring (Walkers 05). See The night event and The white ring.
The beam. At the yard fence a sheet of metal shakes violently along a faintly glowing vertical line; a dropped watch is launched along an arc pointing toward Roosevelt; then the beam is switched off with an electric pop (Walkers 06). See The beam.
The break-in. A naked intruder attacks the guest house, and Bigelow's recordings, drives and three employees vanish (Walkers 07). See Bigelow's recordings.
The launch. In Walkers 09 the farmhouse floats in the sky inside a loose halo of barbed wire, roof panels and horseshoes. As the sun sets a pale purple glow grows, the house vanishes in a vapor trail, launched toward Roosevelt, and a burning white ring about a kilometer across forms above the ranch, echoing the image from the earlier security footage of the levitation. Only the little wooden barn is left standing. The ranch is also the surface of the cavern, whose collapse ends the case.
Inhabitants¶
Alberta (who no longer lives there), Robert Bigelow's research staff and security, Walt Murphy, and Nancy the goose.