Brendan Jesus
Let’s not make a big deal about this, but we need to have a quick chat about the 1.6 GHz signal. I should state that the phenomenon of this mysterious signal that pops up sporadically is intriguing. And I want to believe! But I recently found out something that’s quite…revealing. Dr. Travis Taylor is correct, the 1.6 GHz signal seems like a communication signal. Want to know why? It’s the same signal lav mics run on. You know, like the wireless mics they all wear to pick up dialogue?
I hear you barkin’ big dog, “But the signal pops up randomly!” And I agree with you big dog. We just have to accept that if we want this show to be looked at scientifically, or at least be respected and cherished for the certain anomalies on the ranch, we must discount this odd signal. I’ll still ooh, and ahh, and report to you when the signal pops up, but the signal doesn’t do it for me anymore.
You know what does do it for me? A strange gel-like substance buried deep within the Mesa.
This Is Not A Drill Pt. 5 (Pt. 1)
Me a few months ago: I wish they’d try drilling again, it was spooky and captivating.
Me at the end of Season 5 Episode 10 “What the Gel?”: My god can we please stop drilling and do something else?
Thomas Winterton and Kaleb Bench join Erik Bard and Dr. Travis Taylor over at the Mesa drill site, this is right after veterinarian Dr. Haleigh Lundgreen and vet tech Kate Thornton departed the Mesa (the finale of Season 5 Episode 9 “Spinning Out”). Thomas and Kaleb inform Erik and Travis about how the cow’s eyes hemorrhaged from the inside as well as the brain function issues the cow had endured. They all feel pretty bad for the cow, and so do I.
Travis reminds us that it’s been about a month since the drilling started and that they’re still really no better off than they were when they started. However, this is not a dig at Alex Swanson or Jared Lednisky of Mark Construction Inc. But it’s time to get back into them there hills. Thomas heads up to where the drill head should be. Alex says they are going to remove the drill head to try and figure out why it lost connection to the beacon receiver. If there is nothing wrong with the battery it should read a voltage of around 3.619 volts. Travis tests it…it reads 3.619 volts. Oh well, no time to dwell on that right now.
Jared starts the drill back up and is ready to give it another go. What could go wrong?
Johnny Law Is In Town, And He’s Squealing
Over at Homestead One, Dragon, Thomas, Kandus Linde, and Tom Lewis meet up with retired Uintah County Sheriff Kris Porritt. Kris was close with Kenneth Myers, and Kenneth was the one who owned the ranch from 1942 to 1992 (but others have reported it up to 1994) until billionaire Robert Bigelow purchased it. Why is a retired sheriff on the ranch? Well, he’s here to tell a secret he promised Kenneth Myers he would never reveal.
Something feels off about this. Not only does, spoiler alert, what Kris reveals here specifically go hand in hand with evidence found later on, but he’s breaking a promise he made over thirty years ago. You can make the argument about how it’s for the greater good, but the Myers completely abandoned the farm for certain reasons. As Brandon Fugal says in Season 2 Episode 7 “Can You Dig It?”, “One thing we have learned over the last few years, is that strange activity has been reported on this property going back to at least the early 1900s…and I believe the search for the truth trumps any previous effort to try and cloak or keep a lot of these events secret.”
They all load up into a Jeep and head over to the Eastern Fence Line. Kris reveals he was called out to the ranch, by Kenneth, to investigate a mutilated cow. The cow seemed to have been surgically operated on. From the cow’s shoulder blades to the tip of its nose, it was missing all of its bones. Also, it was completely drained of blood. That’s not even the craziest part. Kenneth also showed Kris a 10-foot wide piece of aluminum-looking metal. Kris says it looked like a wreckage, and then goes on to refer to it as a flying saucer or alien craft-like object.
Kenneth Myers picked up the piece of metal in his hand and crumpled it. The material was incredibly malleable. Suddenly, the material unfolded itself. Below the material was, what looked like, an impact of something heavy ramming into the ground. Even crazier is when Kris reveals the presence of a green gelatin-like substance. Kris ends his stint on Skinwalker Ranch by saying Kenneth was afraid to come forward with this information as he thought the government would come in and take over the ranch.
Thomas and Dragon meet up with Travis and Erik at the Skinwalker Ranch Command Center. They tell Travis and Erik everything Kris just revealed to them. Thomas also mentions what happened the first day they got on the ranch. In the exact area Kris had them at, they saw something odd in the tree. A perfect circle in the middle of the tree’s canopy.
The next day. Travis, Thomas, Erik, and Dragon are joined by arborist Jon Kammerer of Arbor+. They take him out to the tree to see what he thinks of the hole in the canopy. Jon throws a rope up and scales it like a spider monkey. After inspecting the tree, Jon says the damage he sees done to the tree is not natural and that they look like it would have occurred roughly 30 years ago. This pretty much lines up with the timeline Kris stated. I appreciate Erik for what he does next, in a talking head he states that this is NOT proof of anything but it does correlate with the story they were told.
This Is Not A Drill Pt. 5 (Pt. 2)
Travis, Thomas, Erik, and Kaleb are at the Mesa drill site. Now that the battery in the drill head’s receiver has been replaced, Jared got back to drilling. The drill head is now approaching the 180-foot mark. Again. Alex then informs everyone that the drill head’s signal went out. And then it’s back. And then it’s gone. Travis is also able to chronicle the erratic signal on his computer. As if on cue, the drill head, which has now hit the 180-foot mark, is having difficulty going through the material. Jared states the only time they had an issue like this before was when they were drilling into something and hit a steel plate.
While this is going on, the previous spoils pit has been emptied. Dragon heads over to the spoils pit and starts looking for gold. Figuratively, of course. That’s when Dragon notices something and immediately calls Erik over. In Dragon’s hand is some odd-looking greenish gelatin-like object. Erik says he probably shouldn’t be touching it. Jared confirms to them that whatever that is has nothing to do with the drill. They put the goo into a jar for testing.
Dragon continues to dig through the spoils pile and pulls out ANOTHER gelatine-like object, this one is pink. Travis pontificates about whether or not this goo is organic or biological. And that’s when a piece of WOOD is pulled out of the spoils pit! Kaleb asks if it could be wood from a mineshaft, which could potentially be evidence of some of the personal beliefs I discussed during last episode’s coverage.
Alex informs the team that they have about 260 feet more to go with this first borehole—they’re not even halfway done. So without a signal, this job will be even more difficult than it already is. That’s when it’s decided they will pull out the drill head to try and change the signal it’s operating on.
That’s Some Goo-d Evidence
Over at the Skinwalker Ranch Command Center, Travis, Thomas, Erik, Kaleb, and Dragon video call Dr. Mitchell Power, the Curator of Botany at the National History Museum of Utah. They have sent the samples to him for analysis, and what he found is shocking.
Dr. Power discusses Sample #1 the piece of wood. Using high-resolution cameras, they were able to get incredibly up close to the object and see something strange. This is not wood. Dr. Power reveals pore spaces all over the object, similar to pore holes in aquatic plants. He says that it seems clear the drill has penetrated an ancient buried wetland deposit. Hmm…
Sample #2 is the gelatin-like substance. The first interesting observation from Dr. Power is how the goo does not match the geological history of the area. He took a smear sample of the goo. His initial observation was thinking the goo was algal material. That turned out to be incorrect. In the smear sample, he was able to find burnt plant materials, as well as a heavy presence of charcoal materials.
It’s almost as if something caused a fire deep within the Mesa.
Final Thoughts
To be frank with you, I have no clue what this goo can mean. Part of me feels like if this goo is such an anomaly, in the science world, we would have heard something more about it. Could this information have been held under an NDA? Will this episode result in actual disclosure of some sort? It’s become more and more clear the Oak Island-ification of this show, but I would hope if actual discoveries are made then Brandon Fugal would make sure it gets in the right hands.
Who knows.
With just four episodes left of this season, I have no clue which direction it will take. All I know is that next week we have the hundreds of drones back. And I can’t wait to see what happens there.
