The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch Season 7: More Questions, Still No Answers

When The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch returned for its seventh season, the promise was the same as when the series began in 2020. A team of scientists and researchers would use modern technology to investigate one of America’s most famous paranormal locations and, hopefully, find some answers. As the seventh season comes to a close, it follows the same pattern as the previous six seasons: no answers and more questions.

This doesn’t mean there is nothing worth investigating at Skinwalker Ranch. For decades, ranchers, law enforcement officers, researchers and visitors have reported strange lights, unusual objects in the sky, cattle mutilations and other encounters that have never been explained. It is what made the ranch interesting long before the History Channel showed an interest, and why it still deserves serious investigation.

Season 7 once again brought increasingly advanced technology to the ranch. The team drilled deeper into the Mesa, looking for what they believe could be an object or structure beneath the surface. Other tests also produced what the team claims is evidence of buried objects, while previous investigations have indicated anomalies and possible cave systems within the Mesa.

More ceramic fragments recovered from the Mesa were also tested. The results were presented as unusual and worthy of further investigation, but once again they didn’t provide an answer to the bigger question of what, if anything, might be hidden inside the Mesa.

The Bubble has become one of the biggest parts of the Skinwalker Ranch mystery in recent seasons. The team believes there may be some kind of invisible field above the ranch, particularly around the area known as the Triangle. Season 7 again saw the location become a major site for investigation.

Drone experiments, rockets, radar, smoke and electricity were used to try to understand whatever might be there. Once again, there were unusual readings and equipment problems that the team believes could be connected to the Bubble. Smoke experiments also produced results they considered anomalous, while Doppler radar was later brought in to investigate the area. Again, as with previous seasons, more questions arose, but very few, if any, answers.

There were also more possible UAP sightings and detections. During one experiment, Cameron Fugal and Pete Kelsey were flying over the ranch in a helicopter when they reported seeing a metallic-looking object moving near the treetops around Homestead Two. Later in the experiment, the ground team detected unidentified objects that appeared to be moving near the helicopter, including one seen using thermal imaging. At the same time, a drone being flown around the Triangle was reportedly being pushed around 50 feet off course when it reached a particular area. With several unusual things apparently happening at the same time, Brandon Fugal eventually called off the helicopter flight because of safety concerns.

This is the type of incident that makes Skinwalker Ranch so interesting. There were multiple people involved, different instruments being used, and several unusual observations that deserve closer examination. But once again, what caused them remains unknown. An unidentified object is exactly that: unidentified. Without more information, there is no way of knowing whether the objects, the drone problems and what was seen from the helicopter were connected.

At Homestead Two, a Navajo shaman also performed a ceremony in an attempt to provoke a response from whatever might be happening at the ranch. Similar ceremonies have been carried out in previous seasons, and as before, unusual activity was reported, but nothing that provided any clear answers.

Taken individually, some of these incidents are interesting. Taken together, they give the team plenty to investigate. But that is where the same problem we have seen for seven seasons returns. We still don’t know what any of it means.

Drilling into the Mesa has encountered unexpected resistance, as in previous seasons, and other tests have indicated that something may be different beneath the surface. But the team has still not identified the object or structures they believe may be underground. The results are interesting, but they don’t tell us exactly what is there.

The Bubble has the same problem. Equipment has malfunctioned, and unusual readings have been recorded. But none of this tells us what the Bubble actually is, or even establishes that all these different anomalies are being caused by the same phenomenon.

Nobody should expect the team to solve the mystery every week. If whatever is happening at the ranch has remained unexplained for decades, it would be unreasonable to expect a television programme to provide an answer simply because cameras are there. But after seven seasons, it is reasonable to ask how much closer we are to understanding any of it.

Each year, the technology improves. The experiments become more elaborate. More rockets are launched, more drones fill the sky, and more sensors are placed around the property. The amount of data increases, but the answers don’t.

Instead, one mystery often leads to another. Something strange appears beneath the Mesa, so they drill towards it. The drill encounters something unexpected, which becomes another mystery. Instruments detect something above the Triangle, which leads to the Bubble. Attempts to investigate the Bubble produce more anomalies, which then lead to more experiments.

It creates a cycle in which almost any unexplained result can lead to another investigation without necessarily bringing us closer to an explanation. There is also a wider pattern here that isn’t unique to The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch.

The Curse of Oak Island is the best example. The programme began in 2014 and has now reached its thirteenth season. The mystery itself is genuinely fascinating. People have been searching Oak Island for more than 200 years. Strange structures and artefacts have been found there, and there are legitimate historical questions about what happened on the island.

But after more than a decade on television, the treasure still hasn’t been found. Instead, one discovery leads to another theory, which leads to another excavation, which produces another object or anomaly that needs further investigation. There always seems to be something potentially significant just a little deeper underground or in another part of the island. Season 13 continued that search, including another major excavation in the Money Pit area.

Mystery at Blind Frog Ranch follows a similar path. What began as a search for a supposed treasure has expanded into underground structures, possible historical connections, a buried UFO, and other mysteries. Now in its sixth season, the pattern remains the same: each apparent step towards an answer seems to uncover another question.

That doesn’t mean the people making these programmes aren’t finding anything. It is actually part of what makes them so compelling. Skinwalker Ranch, Oak Island and Blind Frog Ranch all have mysteries that deserve investigation. The problem is that the mystery can also become the programme.

That doesn’t necessarily mean the producers are deliberately avoiding answers. Real investigations often produce more questions than answers, particularly when dealing with something that isn’t well understood. But when the same pattern continues season after season, it becomes reasonable to ask whether we are watching a mystery being solved or simply watching it being extended.

The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch increasingly fits that pattern. Seven seasons have produced more data, more experiments and more anomalies than the team had when they started. But just like Oak Island and Blind Frog Ranch, the closer they appear to get to an answer, the more questions seem to appear.

That doesn’t mean the Skinwalker Ranch team isn’t finding anything interesting. Some of the readings and incidents deserve further investigation. Nor does it mean that everything reported at the ranch over the decades has an ordinary explanation. It simply means we still don’t know.

Seven seasons of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch have given us an enormous amount of data, dozens of experiments and more anomalies than when the series began. What they haven’t given us is independently verifiable evidence explaining what is actually happening there.

Season 8 has already been announced. Many of us will probably be watching. Skinwalker Ranch remains fascinating because there are still events and reports that haven’t been explained. After decades of stories and seven seasons of experiments, any independently verifiable evidence would be a milestone not just for the programme, but for paranormal research itself.