#project deseret

[unwelcome-ozian]

Project Deseret was developed to conduct a highly classified military research, development, and testing program which was aimed at both offensive and defensive human, animal, and plant reaction to biological, chemical, toxicological, entomological and radiological warfare agents in various combinations of climate and terrain.

[not-so-superheroine]

deseret book is more persistent than duolingo.

i ordered 2 books for a church research project on Black saints in the early Church and also in the Reorganization, on which the one book had a small section us and all had info from the our shared early church history, and it was an ebook too!

and i get physical mail from them once a month. i have no idea how to cancel.

herald house, the community of christ publishing house, contacts me much less, and i buy books from them all the time.

and oh their church book app reminds me to read my scriptures and the words of their prophets regularly if it's not in sleep mode.

i have to admire the effort behind it, ngl.

[coaz-photography]

Their thrones will turn to electric chairs

[brothermouse]

Sunday doodles 8/4/24 Fast Sunday Doodles

And a Bonus Sunday doodle, just for tumblr (because I like you guys)

Steampunk Temple

I’m thinking of making this part of a project. Like, a collection of sketches and letters set in a steampunk alternate history world where some guy is traveling through Deseret, drawing cool stuff he sees and trying to convince his friend back home that he’s not going to get murdered by the Mormons. This would accompany a letter where the talks about how the Mormons built a walking temple to reach far flung communities.

So do you think that’s a cool idea or…?

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Francis Spufford’s “Cahokia Jazz”

Tomorrow (December 5), I'm at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC, with my new solarpunk novel The Lost Cause, which 350.org's Bill McKibben called "The first great YIMBY novel: perceptive, scientifically sound, and extraordinarily hopeful."

Francis Spufford's Cahokia Jazz is a fucking banger: it's a taut, unguessable whuddunit, painted in ultrablack noir, set in an alternate Jazz Age in a world where indigenous people never ceded most the west to the USA. It's got gorgeously described jazz music, a richly realized modern indigenous society, and a spectacular romance. It's amazing:

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Cahokia-Jazz/Francis-Spufford/9781668025451

Cahokia is the capital city of Deseret, a majority Catholic, majority indigenous state at the western frontier of the USA. It swirls with industry, wealth, and racial politics, serving as both a refuge from Jim Crow and a hive of Klan activity. Joe Barrow is new in town, a veteran who survived the trenches of WWI and moved to Cahokia with his army buddy, Phineas Drummond, where they both quickly rose through the police ranks to become detectives.

We meet Joe and Phin on a frigid government building rooftop in the predawn night, attending a grisly murder. Someone has laid out a man across a skylight, cut his throat, split his chest open, and excised his heart. This Aztec-inspired killing points at Cahokian indigenous independence gangs, some of whom embrace an apocryphal tale of being descended from Mesoamerican conquerors in the distant past. That makes this more than a mere ugly killing – it's a political flashpoint.

The Klan insists that Cahokia's system of communal land ownership is a form of communism (Russia never ceded Alaska in this world, so the USSR is now extending tendrils across the Bering Strait). They also insist that Cahokians' reverence for the Sun and the Moon – indigenous royals who have formally ceded power to elected leaders – makes them a threat to democracy. Finally, the Cahokians' fusion of Catholocism with traditional faith makes the spritually suspect. A rooftop blood-sacrifice could cause simmering political tension to boil over, and for ever white oligarch drooling at the thought of enclosing the shared land of Deseret, there are a thousand useful idiots in white hoods.

Joe and Phin now have to solve the murder – before the city explodes. But Phin seems more interested in pinning the case on an Indian – any Indian – than he is on solving the murder. And Joe – an indigenous orphan who has neither the language nor the culture that the Cahokians expect him to have – is reappraising his long habit of deferring to Phin.

This is the setup for a delicious whodunnit with a large helping of what if…? but Spufford doesn't stop there. Joe, you see, is a jazz pianist, and his old bandmates are back in town, and one thing leads to another and before you know it he's sitting in with them at a speakeasy. This gives Spufford a chance to roll out some of the most evocative, delicious descriptions of jazz since Doctorow's Ragtime (no relation):

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/41529/ragtime-by-e-l-doctorow/9780812978186

It's not just the jazz. This is a book that fires on every cylinder: there's brilliant melee (and a major battle set-piece that's stunning), a love storyline, gunplay, and a murder mystery that kept me guessing right to the end. There's fakeouts and comeuppances, bravery and treachery, and above all, a sense of possibility.

Most of what I know about Cahokia – and the giant mounds it left behind near St Louis – I learned from David Graeber and David Wengrow's brilliant work of heterodox history, The Dawn of Everything:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/03/08/three-freedoms/#anti-fatalism

Graeber and Wengrow's project is to make us reassess the blank spaces in our historical record, the ways of living that we have merely guessed at, based on fragments and suppositions. They point out that these inferences are vastly overdetermined, and that there are many other guesses that fit the facts equally well, or even better. This is a powerful message, one that insists that history – and thus the future – is contingent and up for grabs. We don't have to live the way we do, and we haven't always lived this way. We might live differently in the future.

In evoking a teeming, indigenous metropolis, conjured out of minor historical divergences, Spufford follows Graeber and Wengrow in cracking apart inevitability and letting all the captive possibility flow out. The fact that he does this in a first rate novel makes the accomplishment doubly impressive – and enjoyable.

It's EFF's Power Up Your Donation Week: this week, donations to the Electronic Frontier Foundation are matched 1:1, meaning your money goes twice as far. I've worked with EFF for 22 years now and I have always been - and remain - a major donor, because I've seen firsthand how effective, responsible and brilliant this organization is. Please join me in helping EFF continue its work!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/04/cahokia/#the-sun-and-the-moon

[gacmediadaily]

In a burgeoning era of faith-centered movies and television, Great American Family — fronted by Candace Cameron Bure — is dedicated to providing family-friendly content, rooted in faith.

“I think it’s harder and harder to find clean, quality, family entertainment on TV these days,” Laura Osnes, who stars in one of Great American Family’s latest releases, “Just in Time,” told the Deseret News.

Osnes values Great American Family’s “family-friendly content.” Audiences can rely on the network because they “don’t have to worry about what they’re going to see or concerned (about) what their children might be exposed to,” Osnes said.

“I love it that Great American Family offers that. You can trust its network, you can trust it with your entire family.”

‘Just in Time’ is a faith-centered story about hope and redemption

“Just in Time” follows Hannah, a young married woman suffering from infertility — a struggle that takes over her livelihood and threatens to devastate her marriage. In a moment of desperation, Hannah turns to her long-abandoned faith for support. Her call to God sends her on a journey of self-discovery and healing.

Osnes hopes audiences will be “moved and touched” by her character’s relatable struggles “whether you’re a person of faith or not.”

“Everybody has their own faith journey,” she added. “I love that I was able to bring my own faith journey into Hannah’s character.”

“So I hope people are either encouraged or inspired by watching the movie, or they’re challenged.”

Osnes says Candace Cameron Bure is ‘grounded and kind’

A handful of years ago, Osnes made the transition from Broadway to the TV and film industry. Even after two Tony noms and a lifetime of musical theater experience, she still feels “less experienced” in film acting.

She has starred in several Hallmark and Great American Family movies, but this was her first time working closely with Candace Cameron Bure, executive producer of “Just in Time” and a former Hallmark regular who left the network in 2022 over a clash in beliefs.

Speaking of her work with Hallmark and Great American Family, Osnes said, “I have really enjoyed working for both networks.”

“I loved getting to work with Candace on this project, we’ve been acquaintances from afar for the last couple years.”

According to Osnes, Bure was “so present on set.”

“She was there every day on set and making herself very accessible and approachable. She is so kind and unassuming and yet has such expertise,” Osnes said. “She’s been doing this her whole life. Her wisdom and her knowledge about the entire genre and in filmmaking and in acting and in producing, she just does it all.”

Osnes continued, “I am so in awe of her entire brand that she’s created and built and the influence that she has. And yet, to be so grounded and kind, it’s really astounding. I loved getting to work with her. I hope we get to do many more things.”

[brlexe]

the LDS church is socialist?!

Buckle up bitches this one is wild.

So, for those of you who know of the LDS church, you probably know they have to pay 10% of their income in tithing, right? You probably also know that most "Mormons" (derogatory) are incredibly conservative and therefore, hate socialism. Well, those who are not able to pay their tithing often get support from the church in the form of money, food, and clothing. Additionally, there are a stupid amount of social projects that the church participates in including but not limited to.

church welfare

bishops storehouse

Deseret Industries

Relief Society (yes that is a social welfare program)

LDS family services.

There are so many more you can find here.

Anywho... these are all mostly free programs all funded through tithing. Switch out tithing with taxes (because that is basically what they are), and you have socialism!!!!

What makes this even better is the fact that a lot of Americans like to point out how much money all of these programs cost. My guy, the LDS church raised BILLIONS of dollars with just 10% of active member's income. I know it's a lot of people but the US government has even more.

[signipotens]

1, 2, 4 for the ask game?

Ooh! Thank you for indulging me :​]

I realised after I reblogged the ask game that almost all of what I’ve read recently has been research for my new big Mormon alternate history/fanfic project, so I’ll give you a Mormon thing and a non-Mormon thing for each :​p

1. What’s something you read recently and enjoyed?

For Mormon stuff, most of the books I’ve been reading are things I’ve read before, but I recently bought Jared Farmer’s On Zion’s Mount: Mormons, Indians, and the American Landscape (Harvard UP, 2010) and it’s so good. As much a history of a lake and a mountain as it is a history of the people who have come to live there, and even more so a history of the way that Americans—Mormons, Indians, and Gentiles alike—have used and conceived of the lands that they have built their homes on, Farmer does a fantastic job of situating Mormon Zionism both in its American and its particular Mormon contexts, and of showcasing the ways that mythology, history, folklore, and everyday life have come crashing together as the Mormons have made Utah into their national homeland and the Timpanogos have been wrenched from theirs.

For non-Mormon stuff, I’ve recently finished reading The Book of Abraham by Marek Halter (completely unrelated to the Mormon thing of the same name). Though at times it can be a bit of a bit of a who’s who of famous Europeans and pogroms, and the portrayal of women is lacking throughout (charitably, this is drawing on a general theme in Jewish and European historical chronicles, which also sideline women), I think it’s worth reading for the form alone. Drawing on all manner of epistolary, journalistic, biblical, and aggadaic styles, Halter follows the lives of generations upon generations of one Jewish family (after about 1600, his own) as they live their lives in various locales across Europe and SWANA between the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 and the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943. Makes me want to read Carlo Ginzburg’s The Cheese and the Worms again, since I think that’s one of the few books that might have the same vibes. Also going to read the sequel here soon.

2. What’s something you read recently and disliked?

Despite being, in my opinion, one of the seminal moments in Mormon history, and despite it being extremely well-documented, the Exodus to Utah is surprisingly poorly covered in the academic literature. That Richard Bennett’s duology We’ll Find the Place: The Mormon Exodus, 1846–1848 (Deseret Book, 1997) and Mormons at the Missouri, 1846–1852: “And Should We Die” (University of Oklahoma Press, 1987) is the best we’ve got is honestly a bit more a condemnation of the state of current Mormon scholarship than it is praise of Bennett’s work. That’s not to say that they’re bad, and I like the ideas at play—the establishment of legitimacy in the post-Martyrdom Church, the role of Religion™ in defining how Mormons went about finding their Promised Land, the practical mechanics of funding and moving several thousand people across a country—but the narrative, sourcing, numerical analysis, and Bennett’s writing style are fairly weak, and his analysis is lacking a certain breadth and depth as I would prefer for what ought to be the seminal work on the subject. Must be read alongside at least Lawrence Coates’ “Refugees Meet: The Mormons and Indians in Iowa” (BYU Studies Quarterly 21, no. 4, 1981) and something like Carol Madsen’s Journey to Zion: Voices from the Mormon Trail (Deseret Book, 1997).

For general fiction, at the beginning of summer I read through the first couple books in the Expanse series, Leviathan Wakes, Caliban’s War, and Abaddon’s Gate, and while I think they’re decently good and recommendable, I also couldn’t really get into them, I guess? My disappointment with how the books treat Mormons can be found elsewhere and is kinda pertinent to this; otherwise I just didn’t really vibe with the setting and didn’t particularly like the authors’ treatment of future religion and politics, tho I did enjoy the characters well enough, especially Holden. Don’t know if I’ll continue into the next arc, but I probably won’t for the time being, unless someone wants to convince me :​p

4. What are your top 3 comfort reads?

Mostly stuff I loved in my childhood. I think my main go-to is Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth, but I also love Jules Verne, especially Voyage au centre de la terre and Tour du monde en 80 jours, both of which never fail to cheer me up. My third, weird answer is Winthrop Sargeant’s eminent translation of the Bhagavad Gita, both for the content of the story itself and especially for Sargeant’s extensive glosses (each line is given in Devanagari, IAST, a word-for-word translation, and a prose translation, with an exhaustive concordance on each page giving the roots, inflectional information, and translations for each word in that page’s stanza. very fun for linguistics brain :​] ).

[jinleebelee]

1, 2, 12 and 18?

Love you Jin💙

Mfm I love you too you meanie lee

1 what's a unique tickle spot you have/you like to tickle

On the to tickle part ( you all owe me for saying the t word when I'm this lee mood) I haven't really tickled people considering that ever few blue moons my sister would tickle me and even when I could 99 out 1 I'd be lee too

But I really really like having my ear tickled... theirs two ways that really really get me besides the occasional tickles with feathers that sometimes work and sometimes don't going one whispering (which you could whisper teases) and two blowwing- I actually had someone not on purpose do this to me because of how lee I was at school

Basically the kid ( I call students kid cause that whay I do he was around my age so don't you be thinking I'm so fucking pedo and crap) wanted to whisper something and me being the lee and lee that I was in class immediately walked towards him and when insay it tickled it tickled and it felt amazing and I actually asked him "what was that" just to get tickled again-

I also have very very very aenarive shoulders if you massaged them it would tickle me like crazy and I enjoy it very very very much

2 what's an underrated tickle tool in your opinion

Well I'd say the eletric flosser....and baby oil

(Your so freaken mean ashy using tools against knowing how much I love and fear tools or wait idk if you did or not but YOU DO NLW AND I WANT REVWNGE ADTER THIA LEE MOOD IS GONE)

12 favorite tickle spot in general

Um- I have a few like my neck ears shoulders and one that I get very very very embarrassed about and I'm really super insured about and feel that if I say I might upset others or I don't know um my feet... it's stupid I know but I feel very embarrassed about liking my feet tickled and just rgh it's all stupid and embarrassing and haven't told anyone about that- I just think it's stupid for me

18. A time something unintentionally tickled

I do have two incidents and this was back in the 6th grade for the first one (aka my worst first worst year in middle school and yes all the years were bad if ya wanna know what happened boy do I have a sotry for yall it's a 3 year story and I'll tell yall if ya want later )

Anyways anwaysv

Me and these three students were working on a project something about the past when the country's were alll fucked up in different places. Pendora Era or whatever and wellll one of the kids call him J poked me in the side I think or hip and I jumped. I remember it tickled pretty bad and I covered my hand on that spot. The two girls asked what happened and I either said something tickled or nothing. Either the kid knew what was going on or something but he poked me again and it tickled like a fucking bitch causing me to giggle like a fucking idiot. But then after we all lined up he did it again but it hurt and it didn't tickle (which still disappoints me to this day cause I really really liked being tickled- even back then-)

The second time when I was out of that middle hell thankfully was arooound the 10th grade. A friend of mine from school really liked giving out hugs right. It was his natural thing. I was at gym and I saw him and he saw me. He ran up to me and did his usual hug but what I didn't expect was the God damn mother fucker. His fuckinf voice or breathe fucking ticked my God damn neck and I started to smile like a bitch and hugged him tighter not wanting this to end. Thankfully I had a mask on (during the covid crap still going on)

Now as some of yall know I freeze up when people hug me when I'm not expecting or expecting it. It just something I'm not used to . Physical affection but when this kosher fucker hugged me and it started to tickle I didn't want it to end- not one bit see this is how Deserete I get yall

[recentlyheardcom]

3 takeaways from No. 16 Utah’s devastating loss at Arizona State – Deseret News

No. 16 has taken down No. 1 — at least in one sense. Utah, the preseason favorite in the Big 12, lost 27-19 Friday night to the team projected to finish last in the league, Arizona State. How did it happen? Here are three takeaways from No. 16 Utah’s second straight loss, one that drops the Utes to 4-2 overall and 1-2 in Big 12 action and puts their hope of a league title and College Football…

[cksmart-world]

SMART BOMB

The Completely Unnecessary News Analysis

By Christopher Smart

June 4, 2024

BONKERS OVER VERDICT — MIKE LEE WANTS PAYBACK

Utah's Sen. Mike Lee has had it with all the injustice done to his hero Donald Trump. The Biden White House just convicted Trump of 34 felonies for falsification of business records and Lee's not going to take it. The toady-for-life has joined with seven other trumpriots: Sens. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who will hold their collective breaths until all meaningful work in the U.S. Senate crawls to a stop. “The White House has made a mockery of the rule of law and fundamentally altered our politics in un-American ways,” they wrote in a letter sent by stork to the big judge in the sky. President Joe Biden and his minions have weaponized the legal system that led to 34 unanimous guilty verdicts issued by a jury of Trump's peers. “Those who turned our judicial system into a political cudgel must be held accountable.” Some hinted he may toilet-paper Jenny Wilson's house, since the Salt Lake County mayor is one of the only Democrats in Utah. But what about that thing where Trump could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it. Well, no more — and you know it's gotta be Biden's fault.

FLYING DRIVERLESS TAXIS, OH MY!

Here's a recent headline from the Deseret News: “Would you get on a flying taxi without a pilot?” (Expletive deleted) No! We're not kiddin' about this Wilson. They're coming and there's nothing we can do about it. And you thought The Jetsons — the animated futuristic comedy of the 1960s — where people got around in flying cars would never happen. Never say never. Still, if the driverless automobile taxis in San Francisco are any indicator, we could be in for some scary rides. The San Francisco autonomous taxis malfunctioned regularly causing massive traffic jams all over the city; they blocked streets impeding emergency vehicles; they drove through wet cement and generally scared the hell out of everyone. The California DMV finally suspended their use. But get this: An outfit called Project Alta says it will have operational air taxis in Salt Lake City in time for the 2034 Winter Olympics. (No site of the 2034 Games has not been selected, although Salt Lake City is in the running.) You're right Wilson, it does sound like pie in the sky. And what if the pie falls out of the sky? What's the polite way to say squashed bodies. Collateral damage? On a positive note, the sky taxis could be a perfect compliment to the proposed space-age “entertainment district” downtown — The Jetsons would love it.

LORDY, THEY'RE WEAPONIZING THE FLAG, TOO

No one in their right mind could possibly think that an upside-down American flag flying at the house of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito could mean he supports Jan. 6 rioters, election deniers or Donald Trump. So said Alito in a pretensious letter to Sens. Richard Durbin and Sheldon Whitehouse regarding their plea to Chief Justice John Roberts that Alito be recused from the case of Trump v. United States. It's like this, Alito said, “My wife did it!” He asked her to take the flag down but she told him to stuff it. As to the “Appeal to Heaven” flag flown at his beach house, well, “My wife did that, too,” Alito said. (Both flags have been adopted by MAGA and election deniers.) Alito's wife, Marth-Ann, has First Amendment rights, too, he barked. And she's quite the battle axe so he doesn't like to mess with her. Dems observe that Alito clearly has the appearance of bias in favor of Trump and his claim of total immunity when he directed a mob to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6. Balderdash, Alito exclaimed. No reasonable person who is not motivated by politics or ideology could possibly think he's biased because he keeps his Christian Nationalist predilections to himself. Democrats have weaponized flags and other stuff, Alito said, like the free vacations he gets from billionaires. It totally sucks, right Martha-Ann.

Post script — That'a a wrap for another fun-filled week here at Smart Bomb where we keep track of presidential polling, so you don't have to. Well Wilson, Trump was found guilty of 34 class E felonies. Now, the BIG question: Will it help him or hurt him in the Nov. 5 election. Some pundits say it will give him a boost because it will energize his base. Within hours of the guilty verdict his campaign took in more than $60 million in contributions. But other observers say, not so fast — undecided voters might not want a convicted felon in the White House. Yes Wilson, that would make a good bumper sticker: Let's Put A Felon In The White House. It's funny how that works in a backwards kinda of way. Biden and Trump will square off in debate on June 27 and that could, according to Dan Balz of the Washington Post, bring into focus two questions undecided voters must ask themselves. One: Which candidate poses the bigger threat to the future of the country? Two: which candidate will make the lives of Americans better than they are today? On the other hand, if it turns into a WWE wrestling match, well who knows... Titan Trump with his signature bodyslam vs. Batman Biden and his sneaky snake chokehold. Get the popcorn, Louise, it's going to be The Thrilla in Atlanta.

Well shucks Wilson, poor old Martha-Ann Alito, she's been havin' a time of it and of course so has her Sammy Pooh. So the staff here at Smart Bomb is wondering if you and the guys in the band don't have a little something up your sleeve for the couple of the moment:

When a man loves a woman, Can't keep his mind on nothin' else, He'd change the world for the good thing he's found. If she is bad, he can't see it, She can do no wrong, Turn his back on his best friend if he put her down. When a man loves a woman, He'll spend his very last dime Tryin' to hold on to what he needs. He'd give up all his comforts And sleep out in the rain, If she said that's the way It ought to be. Well, this man loves you, woman. I gave you everything I have, Tryin' to hold on to your heartless love. Baby, please don't treat me bad. When a man loves a woman, Down deep in his soul, She can bring him such misery. If she is playin' him for a fool, He's the last one to know. Lovin' eyes can never see.

(When a Man Loves a Woman — Percy Sledge)

[coaz-photography]

A Challenge of Authority

Ellies fires upon a Free States Scout at a checkpoint, killing the man, on her way to Santa Barbara.

[brothermouse]

Sunday doodle 8/11/24

Pitched this idea last week and got some positive responses so here’s one part of my new project. You know where it’s a collection of sketches and letters set in a steampunk alternate history world where some guy is traveling through Deseret, drawing cool stuff he sees and trying to convince his friend back home that he’s not going to get murdered by the Mormons.

Letter transcript:

My Dear Friend Victor,

As my previous letter was sent from a rather dubious, yet reliable location, I anticipate that this letter shall outpace it and reach you first. As such, I shall briefly recount its contents.

First you must know that I am well and relatively unscathed. When I arrived in St George I believed all my rough traveling behind me and it would be airships all the way to Salt Lake. Hardly thirty minutes in the sky a band of Confederate Holdouts revealed themselves and took control of the ship, intending to sail it back to one of their secret enclaves in the South to aid in their misguided “war effort”. Fortunately they were foiled by a Deseret Federal Marshal (Lt. Whitterby of the Danite division) who subdued the rebels and orchestrated an emergency landing in the town of Kanab, a good distance east of St George. As I said, the exact details are in my other letter which I sent from the Kenab post office. The postmaster there seemed old as Methusala, leading to my doubt on the speediness of that letter’s delivery. This letter I shall send from the St George post office which is of a more modern fashion.

But I must tell you of the mechanical wonder I encountered in Kanab! After the ordeal the band of Johnny Rebs were locked securely in the Kanab town hall (the town is too small for a proper jailhouse). The other passengers and I were given a little rest and refreshment in the same building (the town is also too small for a hotel). I took this time to write my previous (or possibly forthcoming) letter and send it off. After a while we heard the sound of twin airships approaching. These were the Thunderbird and the Tiancum, which Lt. Whitterby called for. One to return us to St George and the other to take away the villains. He asked us to remain where we were, that we might witness the official arrest and then sign documents witnessing that the correct persons were taken into custody (I swear these Mormons are obsessed with everything being witnessed!)

When the Deseret Marshals marched in they were accompanied by the most peculiar automatons. I was able to make sketches, which I have included. There were four of these contraptions, one for each of the Confederates. They each bore the stern face sculpted from copper or brass, I could not tell. I was told that they bore the face of that wiley old General O.P. Rockwell, who gave our General Sherman and all those Union boys such a rough time in the siege of Echo Canyon.

Each Rockwell was directed by its operator to stand directly behind the hijackers and hold the criminals' hands behind their backs, like a pair of handcuffs. Just as I was wondering why entire automatons were called for what a mere pair of handcuffs could do, one of the scoundrels broke free and made a break for it, rushing as though he would leap out of the window to freedom! But then the Rockwell machine did a strange thing. One of its hands dropped, as if it was on a hinge and a small device extended from the open wrist. With a pop, it shot a tiny harpoon attached with a thin wire at the man. I wondered at this, as the harpoon and wire were both far too small to catch a fish, let alone a desperate criminal. But when the harpoon struck him there came a sound like a deep angry buzzing and the man became stiff as a board and toppled over as if dead!

The foiled escapee was looked over and determined to still be alive, (though with quite a lot less fight in him) and was bound in the same manner as the rest. In asking Lt Whitterby what had just transpired, he told me that the machines “Rockwell Automatons” where based on a design currently being used in both London and Chicago ment to assist local law enforcement in apprehending and holding dangerous criminals. When I brought up how easily the man had been felled, the Lieutenant told me that that particular innovation was of pure Deseret origin. In the Chicago models a simple gun is concealed in the wrist, and the London model is given a club. Both were determined to be far too brutal for the liking of the Deseret Marshals, so an alternative device was created. This deceive, I was told, delivers a small electrical charge to the target, not powerful enough to kill, but just enough to temporarily confuse the nervous system and render the target harmless.

But look! I have been writing and sketching aboard the Thunderbird so long that we have been returned to St George so that I might continue my journey to Salt Lake! I must finish this letter and mail it while I can. As always I shall write to you whenever I am able.

Your friend,

Jacob K. Steinsworth

P.S. Please thank your wife, Isabel for her insistence that I carry a pocket Bible on this trip. It proved quite useful during the ordeal with those Confederate hijackers. Again, the full details are in the other letter.

[papercutsunset]

10 (do you know how it will end?) and 5 (is there a romance? why do they fall in love?) for whatever ur working on now

I'm working on everything, babey. I'm all over the place. I'll answer for whatever, I think.

I have answers to both, but I'm going to put them under the cut for spoiler reasons.

10: Do you know how it will end?

Beach Day: The ending has been plotted out for months. Tiff drags her grandfather up to the house, hits him with Baby Jesus from the lawn nativity, and goes to dig a grave in the rain; Esther comes by, decides to ask questions later, and helps her; later, Andy and Tiff have a scene of, like... everything is over, and we're okay. We're not going to Gatlinburg; we're not going back to Fort Reverence; we're not going home yet; let's go to the beach, even though Tiff's arm is broken, Drew got his torso slashed open, and Andy's still in shock. Let's throw a rat in the ocean.

Kay Gets Cursed: There are two endings. After they break out of the Storyteller's curse, obviously both Denny and Kay wake up in Dr. Deseret's home lab, and Jessie is also there (because of reasons that happen in the plot). Denny's chapter is, like in Unholy Water (and in PP2), mostly a conversation between herself and Jessie where she admits a bit of the truth. This time, they have to talk over the whole lycanthropy thing. In her epilogue chapter, Kay hypes herself up and talks to Dr. Deseret about her options. It's a huge moment of hope for her, that she can fix what has been happening. Kay's chapter ends with her walking into her and Mikey's apartment. (Lizzy and I already talked over that what would happen after the canon is basically that a very tired from working all day Mikey would come home and give her some hot chocolate, and then they would have an extensive debrief. Mikey's a good gal.)

PP2: Tiff gets the parasite out of her (happens off-screen, in Unhooking), and then has a really long conversation with her aunt about how she can't keep doing this; Denny and Jessie have a bit of a talk, wink wink. (If you've been in the Treehouse, you know that means that they kiss at the end of it. It's relevant for that oneshot we tried and for MLSG.)

The Monster Lesbian Support Group: Even though it's a project I started a few days ago, I actually do have the ending. Bloodsaw stands in the cemetery at the end of it, looking up at Laura's backdoor. They finally made it, but they've also seen Laura interacting with her children and her wife, and doesn't want to reopen the wounds. The rest of the group gets there (having found them after they ran off after the Thing), lets them have a moment, and then gives them a ride back to Lake Wonder (their car broke down. It was a plot point). Not much is said, since Bloodsaw wouldn't want that. They just get in the car, turn on some music, and start driving. (Kay's in the front seat, of course. There's a culmination of a subplot wherein, for once, Tiff isn't overenthusiastic and Bloodsaw isn't a total dick to her. They end up laying on her in the backseat, even though Denny says not to do that.)

5: Is there a romance? Why do they fall in love?

So... I'm not big on writing romance. I'll play one out, of course. I started doing it for real with Frankie Burns on Darkened States back in October, and branched out from there. It was a bit of an exercise in stepping outside of my comfort zone. Since Frankie and Kay appeared at around the same time, I think that discomfort on my end does show in both their portrayals. I realized, though, that I can just play the character as extremely awkward or otherwise as very unwell about what's happening. That led to all sorts of Winona Whatever things (you'll see in Season 2), led to some small details about Alf and the room (you'll see in Season 2), and some thoughts on Denny. Denny's the epitome of awkwardness when it comes to this thing, right?

It's a perk of being aroace, I guess. I need you to keep that in mind, because it flavors the way this progresses and it flavors my approach to things.

Beach Day:

No romance at all. All the main characters are family. More than that, Tiff's aroace and, though she makes threats about moms and has canonically had sex with girls (and one boy named Gavin who got her stomped by horses) before, romance isn't her style. Attraction in general isn't. So, no romance in this one. I think the extent of it is a mention of that one time someone kissed her and she walked away and never spoke to him again, and the conversation she has with Alice at the youth group Christmas party.

Kay Gets Cursed:

There are established bounds of the universe here.

Kay and Mikey are in an established relationship. They have been since 2017, when they met at Lumberland, almost died in the tunnels, killed/ate an anarchocapitalist business major clown, and went out for a burger afterwards. There's a lot about the relationship, especially about how Mikey is one of three people in the entire world by the beginning of this who knows what's going on with her, about how Mikey is wonderful, about how she wants to see Mikey in armor sometime... I mean, part of the ending tower sequence is stumbling on their alternate universe selves in the tower together, with Cursed Mikey in armor and a Sleeping Beauty pose, and Cursed Kay kneeling at her bedside with bone thorns coming out of her body. In this case, they're already in love, but it's more about letting it sink in that Mikey is going to stay at her side no matter what.

There are also some established rules for Denny and Jessie: namely, that they can't get together in this one.

Denny has had a weird relationship with her feelings for Jessie for forever, right? You don't get over the girl who cut your hair in fifth grade because she hated you, who guided you by the stars in the woods, who helped you through a thousand things as a teenager. She's always going to have a place in your life.

But Denny can not ask her out. To do so would be to upset the status quo and risk one of the most important relationships in her life. So, like-- she makes some realizations during this (so does Jessie), but they're not there yet.

PP2: Yes. This is the culmination of that arc from Kay Gets Cursed. They kiss at the end. Since this is another Tiff-and-Denny adventure, it's more about non-romantic relationships (except for Denny and Jessie).

The Monster Lesbian Support Group: In a way, yes? But also, no. It's more about Bloodsaw learning to let Laura go, even if they do still love her. (It's been a few weeks for Bloodsaw; it's been twenty-six years for Laura.)

[nerdygaymormon]

Hello! Love your blog btw! I’m doing a little research project on the evolution of language in the lgbt community and I was hoping you might be able to help me out with something, I seem to remember a past version of ‘for the strength of youth’ to include a part discouraging youth from using lgbt to identify with and to instead use ssa or same sex attracted.

They’ve recently removed this section (yay!) but I can’t find any previous editions online, do you know if you or any of your followers might have a photo or a link of this particular passage they might be willing to share? It would really help me a lot!

If not, thanks anyways!

Thank you, I'm glad you love my blog!

While church leaders did council against identifying as LGBT, to only use those words as an adjective to describe a feeling or a behavior, that advice didn't ever make it into the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet. To my surprise, the church's preferred language of "same sex attraction" also is not included in the For the Strength of Youth

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For the Strength of Youth was first published in 1965, and subsequent editions published in 1966, two in 1968, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1990, 2001, and 2011.

You'll notice a big gap between 1972 and 1990. At some point in the 1970's the pamphlet had ceased to be used and I grew up a teenager in the 1980's without ever hearing of For the Strength of Youth.

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1990 is the first time homosexuality was included in the pamphlet. "the Lord specifically forbids … sex perversion such as homosexuality, rape and incest" It also said "Homosexual and lesbian activities are sinful and an abomination to the Lord." This is an example of the church using homosexual to mean gay men and lesbian for gay women. 

The 2001 version removes calling it "unnatural affections," "perversion" or an "abomination" and states, "homosexual activity is a serious sin. If you find your-self struggling with same-gender attraction, seek counsel from your parents and bishop. They will help you."

The 2011 version uses mostly the same language as the 2001 version, except that they added 'lesbian' to the sentence so that it says "Homosexual and lesbian behavior is a serious sin." To most people, the word homosexual includes lesbians, but inside the church they add ‘lesbian’ when they want to be clear this applies to more than gay men. 

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I hope the following is useful in illustrating the changing language used by the LDS church

1841 - Joseph Smith caught John C. Bennett, mayor of Nauvoo, having sex with a man. The reporter wrote the alleged crime is too "revolting, corrupt, and disgusting" to be named.

May 1842 - William Smith, Joseph Smith's brother, accused John C. Bennett of "buggery" in The Wasp newspaper.

April 1855 - In The Deseret News, Nathanial Vary Jones who'd been president of the East India Mission in Calcutta, India said that around the year 1700 the people of Burma (Myanmar) were about to become extinct because the men were practicing "the crime of Sodomy" instead of procreating with the women until the king and queen decreed that the women should wear clothing that exposed more skin in hopes of "reclaiming their men" which prevented their people's extinction. This is the first time the church-owned Deseret News uses the word “sodomy”

Oct 1897 - For the first time in General Conference, the word "homosexual" is used by apostle George Q. Cannon. This is the first time the word homosexual is used in a public church setting, which is interesting because that word was first created in Germany in 1892. In just 5 years it had become widely known and accepted even in Salt Lake City

From then on, Homosexual is the term used in Utah newspapers but the topic is rarely discussed in LDS settings or in LDS printed materials

Nov 1952 - J. Reuben Clark speaks at the annual General Relief Society Conference and used the words “homosexual” and “homosexuality.” 

Oct 1953 - J. Reuben Clark again speaks of "the filthy crime of homosexuality" at the priesthood session of General Conference. The Lavender Scare was in the news with Congressional hearings in 1950 and a federal law made in 1953. I think that made it okay to reference homosexuality in a church setting

From the late 1950′s onward, LDS leaders started regularly addressing homosexuality in public. The focus was on gay men, only rarely did gay women get addressed

Mar 1960 - Apostle Mark Petersen writes an editorial in the Deseret News blamed "pin-up-boy" magazines for homosexuals and pocket-sized books featuring "lesbianism, homosexuality" for an increase in crime

Aug 1984 - Newly-called apostle Dallin H. Oaks writes a memo for how the Church should publicly address homosexuality. He advocated for distinguishing between homosexual feelings and homosexual behavior. He references a 1978 BYU address by Boyd K. Packer which says we should not use gay or homosexual to refer to people. 

Nov 1987 - Joy Evans of the Relief Society General Presidency stated that "there are lesbian women, as well as homosexual men, in the Church." This appeared in The Ensign magazine

1989 - Evergreen is founded to help Mormons who want to "diminish same-sex attractions and overcome homosexual behavior." This is the first reference I can find where 'same sex attraction' is used for an LDS audience. The LDS Church continued to use homosexual. While Evergreen is not a church organization, LDS General Authorities would regularly speak at their annual conference

May 1993 - Apostle Boyd K. Packer identified three enemies of the Church that are leading members away--"the gay-lesbian movement, the feminist movement (both of which are relatively new), and the ever-present challenge from the so-called scholars or intellectuals." This is the first instance I can find of a church leader using the term 'gay'

Oct 1993 - Apostle Dallin H. Oaks gives a General Conference talk stating that "Satan seeks to … confuse gender" May be the first official reference in LDS Church to trans people, but in context could be suggesting gay people are confused and acting more like women.

Feb 1994 - The First Presidency issues a statement opposing Same Gender Marriages.

April 1994 - In General Conference, apostle Boyd K. Packer in a conference address mentioning "gender identity" and "those confused about gender"

April 1995 – The apostle Richard G. Scott stated in general conference that "committing homosexual acts, and other deviations approaching these in gravity are not acceptable alternate lifestyles."

Sept 1995 - "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" was read at the Relief Society General Conference

1995 seems to be the year the LDS Church moves away from the term 'homosexual"

Oct 1995 - President Gordon B. Hinckley in October General Conference states that "same-sex marriage" is an immoral practice. In that same conference, Seventy Durrel A. Woolsey stated Satan proclaims "same-gender intimate associations and even marriages are acceptable."

Oct 1995 - In The Ensign magazine, Dallin H. Oaks is the first church leader to suggest homosexuality is biological when he wrote "some kinds of feelings seem to be inborn." It would be many years before other LDS Leaders stopped insisting that homosexuality is a choice or an addiction and can be changed. Oaks also wrote "we should refrain from using [gay and lesbian] as nouns to identify specific persons. Our religious doctrine dictates this usage." 

From this point forward, "Same Sex Attraction" is the primary term used in Church publications and used in General Conference with few exceptions. When "Same Sex Attraction" isn't used, typically "homosexuality" is used. I’ll include some exceptions below:

Oct 1998 - In General Conference, church president Gordon B. Hinckley referred to "so-called gays and lesbians"

Oct 1999 - At General Conference, church president Gordon B. Hinckley said "so-called same-sex marriage … is not a matter of civil rights; it is a matter of morality"

Aug 2002 - The Ensign prints an article by an anonymous LDS woman attracted to other women who advises against "attach[ing] labels to yourself or others who struggle with this problem" since these temptations "do not define who we are"

2004 - Deseret Book releases the book In Quiet Desperation: Understanding the Challenge of Same-gender Attraction by Ty Mansfield, and Fred and Marilyn Matis.

Dec 2004 - President Gordon B. Hinckley was interviewed on Larry King Live and said "we're not anti-gay. We are pro-family. Let me put it that way. And we love these people and try to work with them and help them. We know they have a problem. We want to help them solve that problem." Larry King asked if this is a problem they caused, or they were born with? to which President Hinckley responded, "I don't know. I'm not an expert on these things. I don't pretend to be an expert on these things. The fact is, they have a problem." Now that a prophet had said it may be something they're born with, church language changes to controlling and diminishing these attractions instead of getting rid of them.

Mar 2006 - The PBS special called The Mormons includes an interview with apostle Jeffrey R. Holland who says the "gay or lesbian inclination" will "not exist post-mortality". He also used uses the phrase "struggling with gender identity" and "gender confusion" as synonyms for homosexuality. This is the first reference I can find to say homosexuality is a condition of mortality and will not exist after death.

April 2006 - The church Newsroom published did an interview with apostle Dallin H. Oaks and Seventy Lance B. Wickman. Elder Wickman says, "same-gender attraction did not exist in the pre-earth life and neither will it exist in the next life." Elder Oaks supports that by saying "There is no fullness of joy in the next life without a family unit, including a husband, a wife, and posterity." This is the first reference I know of that says being gay didn't exist in pre-earth life

2007 - North Star is founded (and will eventually absorb Evergreen) as a support for members who experience "homosexual attractions"

April 2007 - The BYU Honor Code is revised to state "one's stated same-gender attraction is not an Honor Code issue" In other words, you will no longer be in trouble for saying you are lesbian, bi, or gay

Oct 2008 - Apostles Ballard and Cook and member of the Presidency of the Seventy Clayton gave a satellite broadcast to all California members to oppose same-sex marriage and noted the existence of temple-worthy members who "struggle with this great challenge" of "same gender attractions"

Sept 2010 - Speaking at the Evergreen International annual conference, Keith B. McMullin of the Presiding Bishopric counseled that if someone says they are homosexual, lesbian, or gay that they should be corrected since it is "simply not true" and God "doesn't speak of His children this way"

2011 - As part of the "I'm a Mormon" campaign, Mormon.org published a member profile with the headline, "I'm Gay. I'm a Mormon"

Dec 2012 - The website mormonsandgays.org is launched

May 2014 - Apostle M. Russell Ballard gave a CES devotional where he stated "individuals do not choose to have [same-sex] attractions".

Mar 2015 - In an interview with KUTV, on the topic of gay marriage, Elder D. Todd Christofferson says a member may support gay marriage and advocate for it on social media and it would not threaten their membership in the church as long as it's "not an organized effort to attack our effort or attack our functioning as a church."

Sept 2015 - Elder Rasband who is in the Presidency of the Seventy gave a BYU address where he uses "same sex attraction" once and instead uses the word "gay" 6 times as he shares an example that a person shouldn't be fired for being gay and neither should a woman marginalized at work for sharing her Mormon beliefs

Feb 2016 - In a broadcast, Apostle Elder Bednar stated "there are no homosexual members of the Church" since we are not defined by sexual attraction or behavior

Oct 2016 - the website mormonsandgays.org was changed to mormonandgay.org so that it didn't come across as "us" and "them." The website says it's okay to refer to yourself as Lesbian, Gay or Bisexual but emphasizes several times that you don’t need to call yourself Lesbian, Gay or Bisexual if you don’t want to

Aug 2017 - Elder Oaks told Kansas youth to not use sexual orientation labels on themselves, and that he has letters from people who stopped having gay feelings and married and had children

Sept 2019 - President Russell M. Nelson speaks at a BYU devotional and uses the acronym LGBT several times. This may be the first time a church leader publicly uses the phrase LGBT. Despite this, there hasn't been a shift by the church to move away from "same sex attraction" or "homosexuality"

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I think the Church turned to the phrase same-sex attraction because reducing it to an attraction means it’s not an essential part of who I am and how I experience the world. “I have same sex attraction” sounds like something I caught and can get rid of. That fits with the assumption this is temporary and can be changed. However, saying “I am bisexual” means this is an immutable part of me.

I think another effect of reducing this all to an “attraction” is to say that “no, you’re not in love.” Straight people love, gay people lust.

It also keeps that word "sex" front and center so that church members are reminded about gay sex every time gay people are mentioned.

I think it's a paradox the Church has spent so much effort to teach we shouldn't focus on these feelings, and then uses a term that puts them front and center

[theparanormalperiodical]

Everything You NEED To Know About Skinwalker Ranch, And The 4 Craziest Sightings Of Skinwalkers That Will Make You Lie Down And Cry

In case you couldn’t tell, I’m kinnnnnda obsessed with the paranormal.

Spirits, UFOs, and urban legends often make an appearance on my blog, as do the places that claim to home them. But there’s a small ranch in southern Utah that claims to be a hotspot for all of this activity.

Yep - all of it.

For decades Skinwalker Ranch has been visited by paranormal investigators, scientists, and tourists looking to catch a glimpse of the mutilated cattle littering the land, the humanoid creatures lingering in the trees, and the UFOs flying overhead. And for decades they’ve been capturing evidence of the supernatural phenomena that allegedly takes place here.

But the thing is, the Uinta Basin - the region of Utah where the ranch is located - is also known for its widespread supernatural activity. It’s even earnt a reputation for being one of the most mysterious places on the planet alongside locations like Area 51 and Stonehenge.

Countless camera crews have ventured beyond the appropriately themed gates of the ranch and have spewed out movies, documentaries, and TV programmes that all aim to capture what is going on at Skinwalker Ranch and why.

And I think it’s time we explored the ranch together…

Welcome to Skinwalker Ranch (or Sherman Ranch), a 512-acre property just outside of the city of Ballard, Utah. The ranch first shot to fame in 1996 when it made its media debut in Deseret News, the local newspaper. You see, the family that owned it began to witness peculiar - and petrifying - events.

In the late 90s, the ranch belonged to Terry and Gwen Sherman and they gave the exclusive to the paper.

“For a long time we wondered what we were seeing, if it was something to do with a top-secret project… I don’t know really what to think about it.”

What the Sherman’s were seeing was a huge range of inexplicable events. They claimed to have seen at least 3 different types of UFO, found several mutilated cattle, and failed to find others. One of the cattle, in particular, was discovered with a strange injury: there was a hole in the centre of one of its eyes, but it exhibited no signs of a struggle, other injuries, or even blood.

The Shermans - like the tourists and investigators to follow - saw a vast array of UFO activity at this location within their short 15 month stay. There was a small box-like craft which emitted a bright, white light; there was an (estimated) 40-foot long object floating in the sky; and there was a huge spacecraft they claimed was the size of several football fields that soared above them. If these UFOs weren’t terrifying enough, they’ve also reported strange lights in the sky. One of them even followed Gwen when she drove back from work one evening.

But you don’t have to look up if you want to see somethin’ spooky.

On one occasion the family discovered 3 circles of flattened grass. Each topped 8 feet in diameter and were 30 feet apart. They’ve also seen smaller versions of the crop circle pattern they found.

Nevertheless, the Sherman’s haven’t just seen the activity - Terry thinks he’s heard the aliens/spirits/skinwalkers behind it, too. On one daily dog walk, Terry heard male voices speaking. They were speaking above him. He estimates they were 25 feet up in the air but saw nothing. The erratic and frantic behaviour of the dogs, however, suggests he was not the only one to think something was afoot.

The Sherman family were not the only ones to report such activity. Terry shared his findings and experiences with other ranchers in the area and they confirmed that they had seen the same things.

These shared experiences go beyond the local area; they span the entire Uinta Basin. According to a local UFO-investigator, Joseph Hicks, there had been 1000s of sightings of UFOs in this region since the 1950s. He had personally investigated over 400 of them.

Hicks summarised his findings: those who saw UFOs reported seeing living beings in the windows or the porthole of the ships they say. And apparently, over 10% of those living in this region have seen something paranormal.

"You can't throw a rock in southern Utah without hitting somebody who's been abducted”

- Trent Harris, a local filmmaker

In fact, some of the most famous sightings of UFOs have taken place here such as a Navy officer capturing footage of flying discs near Tremonton in 1952 and one woman claiming she was even abducted by aliens that visited the region in 1973. There are far more stories to be told, but that’s for another post.

The Sherman’s only stayed on the ranch until 1996 before handing it over to Robert Bigelow, the founder of National Institute for Discovery Science who would own the ranch for the following 20 years. Very little has been made public about what was discovered during this time, but we do know Bigelow and his team of scientists did connect with a Pentagram programme that investigated the paranormal.

Brandon Fugal bought the ranch in 2016 and he continued the scientific investigations into the paranormal activity taking place at the ranch.

24/7 monitoring conducted by various cameras and sensors has captured a serious of unexplained events including evidence of mysterious energy sources that float above the ground. Could these be portals to another realm? Or something else entirely?

Despite the latest efforts to capture evidence of the supernatural, it can actually be traced back to the 1800s. Legend has it a curse was placed on the land Skinwalker Ranch now sits on by the shaman of the Native American Najavo tribe following a dispute with the Utes (another tribe). The curse was a demonic being that could shapeshift into different predators.

It was called a skinwalker.

What is a skinwalker?

According to Navajo culture, a skinwalker is a dangerous witch that can turn into an animal (they either shapeshift into, possess, or disguise themselves as a predatory animal).  

The yee naaldlooshii as they are also known aim to cause harm or misfortune to others. These ‘evil’ witches co-exist with the other forces of good in Navajo culture. They believe spiritual powers can be used for good or for evil, with medicine men being the polar opposites of the skinwalkers as they use their abilities to heal.

The skinwalker practice is a part of ‘Witchery Way’ where human corpses are used to curse and harm victims. A number of other Native American tribes have their own take on a skinwalker, but they go by different names.

In order to become a skinwalker, one must follow a simple but bloody initiation: they must kill a family member. Then they acquire their new powers of transformation. To match their new abilities, they can sometimes wear the skins of the animals they shape shift into, and these, uhh, accessories can strengthen their power.

It’s for this reason that the Navajo don’t wear predatory animal pelts.

Skinwalkers use their powers not only to cause misfortune but to collect ingredients for black magic (so for more misfortune, it’s just one big circle of evil). They can control people and animals and have been blamed throughout history for drought, disease, death. The death of livestock is another crisis often pinned on these witches, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that dead, mutilated, and missing cattle are a prominent feature of the paranormal reports that come out of Skinwalker Ranch.

The only way to tell if a predatory creature coming towards you is actually a witch is by their glowing red eyes or humanoid features.

What paranormal activity has been reported here?

Skinwalker Ranch is one of the famous haunted locations on the planet. She’s featured in at least seven TV series and films that have all attempted to get to the bottom of what’s causing the huge volume of supernatural events here. 

By the time I’ve rattled off all of the mysterious sightings and experiences, the aliens will have gotten bored, landed in the ranch’s drive next to a beat-up Volvo, and formally introduced themselves to Brandon Fugal.

So, let’s just cut to the craziest activity witnessed here.

First up, Skinwalker Ranch is known for being one of the most investigated locations on the planet. This means that electrical malfunctions are some of the most reported phenomenon. When news reporter Andrew Adams first showed up at the gate to get interviews for a story, problems began.

The camera they were using to record the interviews failed to connect to the smartphones and one of the drones they used to get landscape shots of the ranch claimed it had a fault: “Too strong magnetic interference detected. Ensure there are no magnets or metal objects nearby.”

When this prompt appeared on the screen of the drone controller the radio frequency sensors began to light up. The team then noticed something strange - something strange in the sky. They saw a contrail appear in the sky, and even captured it on one of the cameras the ranch used. They were no aircraft signatures recorded on their technology, and the trajectory was different to that of a bird or a plane. Closer inspection revealed it was a cigar-shaped UFO.

We also need to discuss what the ranch is best known for: being a ranch. That means they have lots of cattle doing, you know, cattle things. They also have a lot that die, get mutilated, or go missing. On one occasion, the Shermans were riding horses looking for some the cows that just kept going missing.

They found some hoofprints in the snow and began to follow them until they stopped. There was nothing at the end of the footprints. The cow that made the prints just simply vanished. They soon discovered other cows mutilated in a manner similar to other alleged UFO cattle mutilations that take place across the world: there was a deep hole cored out of its rectum in a very precise, surgical way. There was no blood. There was simply a chemical smell, a circle of twigs around the cow, and the tops of the trees also appeared to be severed or razored off.

Fellow ranchers local to the area have seen the same thing on their own land.

We now turn to the skinwalkers - the beasts that have given the ranch its terrifying and also hella gross name. Mysterious and large animals have been reported across the ranch for hundreds of years, but the most famous was witnessed by Terry Sherman himself. He saw a wolf three times its regular size. Sherman shot at it, but to no avail. A year later, after the ranch had changed hands, a biochemist believed he saw a huge humanoid creature staring down at the research team from a tree.

Later inspection of nearby animal prints believed to be from the creature suggested it was a huge bird of prey.

Even those that don’t even set foot on the ranch experience the wrath of the skinwalkers: a classic urban legend claims many have driven through the Navajo Reservation when they see something in a rearview mirror. A humanoid beast runs alongside the car and keeps up the pace before they dart back into the wilderness.

The thing is, this isn’t actually an urban legend. Countless tourists and residents driving through Arizona or near the ranch report such sightings.

Rerouting your 2021 USA roadtrip won’t keep you safe from the skinwalkers. They’ve been seen outside of its barbed-wire fences, too.

The 5 most terrifying sightings of skinwalkers

#1 - The Navajo Witch Purge

Honey, I deal in ghost stories. But this tale of terror can be traced back to Navajo history.

After a series of wars with the US Army, the Navajo were expelled from their land (Arizona) and travelled to a new some in New Mexico. This is also known as the Long Walk of the Navajo (1864). Failed crops, difficult conditions, illness, and eventually death threatened the people forced from their land. The US government eventuaaallly admitted they made a mistake and allowed them to travel back.

However, in their time of strife, many had turned to becoming Skinwalkers to escape the conditions. They returned to their homeland, but the Skinwalker accusations began soon after. 40 suspected witches were killed to restore harmony to the tribe in 1878.

Someone even discovered witchcraft artefacts concealed in a copy of the Treaty of 1868.

#2 - 1980s roadtrip sighting

As mentioned previously, the urban legend of driving through the reservation has played out in real life on several occasions. Back in the 80s, a family was doing just that when something jumped out from a ditch. It was dark and it was hairy, but it was also wearing a shirt and trousers.

Days after this skinwalker sighting, they began to experience strange things. One night, they woke to the sound of drumming and chanting. They went to the windows to see what in the hell was going on and saw dark figures surround their house. The figures soon left as they were unable to climb the family’s fence.

This experience fits claims of a ‘hitchhiker effect’ - if you visit the ranch, you experience strange things for a while after.

Something stays with you.

#3 - Sighting by a repairman on a (different) ranch

A man was doing repair jobs on an old ranch home when he heard laughter from a sheep pen. He went to investigate and saw the sheep huddled in one corner. A ram however was separated from the group, was standing upright, and laughing like a human. He then saw the ram had human eyes.

The ram stopped laughing, dropped back to the floor, and walked away on all fours.

#casual

#4 - The murder of Sara Saganitso

Sara was only 40 years old when she was killed. She was a housekeeper at a medical centre and a member of the Navajo tribe. One night in 1987, however, she didn’t return to her family home from work. Her body was discovered badly bruised and mutilated at the medical centre.

There was a stick in her neck, graveyard dirt near her car, and one of her breasts had been bitten off.

George Abney (a former professor at a local college) was later charged with her murder and claimed he was experiencing weird dreams and receiving messages from god. However, his lawyers claimed the graveyard dirt suggest a black magic ritual took place that was similar to the ones carried out by skinwalkers.

One year later, Abney was acquitted and cleared of charges. Even Saganitso’s family believed Abney’s innocence, and the case was reopened a year later. The murder is still unsolved.

***

Would you visit the Skinwalker Ranch?

Let me know in a comment below! And while you’re at it, like and reblog this post if you’re into it, and follow for more spoookkkkkkiness.

(No, srsly, I post a new article on the paranormal every saturday and a new ghost story every damn day.)

(And yes, my parents are disappointed in me.)