The Department of Defense (via AARO) declassified a UFO report called Kona Blue in April 2024. This report detailed an attempt to set up a classified UFO special access program under the auspices of the Department of Homeland Security. It was going to replace AATIP after that program was shut down. While the proposal was ultimately denied, it contained some intriguing mentions of Skinwalker Ranch, including a reference to two other locations with similar anomalous activity.
You can read the full report in our story here.
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Skinwalker Ranch is Mentioned Multiple Times in the Report
One of the first references to Skinwalker Ranch (without directly naming it) is on Page 8 of 15 of the declassified document.
The proposal suggests a greater focus on a “well-studied experimental location that has been researched for approximately 15 years. The intent is to locate, calibrate and then subject other sites to the same intensive study as the primary location. Within each location, focus remote sensing capabilities on all known hot spots…”
Because Bigelow had been studying Skinwalker Ranch under the auspices of AATIP prior to this proposal (and the ranch is mentioned later by name in the declassified report), it’s likely this “experimental location” is referring to the ranch.
This location is brought up again on pages 25-26, where they note that they’ll establish human observers as “biosensors” in their monitoring efforts, along with investigating where “individuals exposed to phenomena at site locations experience continuing effects as they relocate away…”
But they get more specific on page 32 of the report, revealing the location is in Utah. Here, they note: “a four hundred eighty-acre research property in Utah with a fifteen year history of intensive anomalous activity is owned by [redacted]. The property is under 24/7 armed guard.”
Then they name the ranch on page 44 in a memo discussing the plans for the project. This is the only time that Skinwalker Ranch (then called Bigelow Ranch) is cited by name. But this memo also names two other locations with high degrees of anomalous activity.
It reads: “Material has also been acquired through various sources since the DIA program ended in December 2010. For example, ongoing observations and recording of anomalies observed at sites at the Bigelow Ranch in Utah, the San Juan Valley in Colorado, and Marley’s Woods in Missouri.”
One of the Anomalous Locations Is in “San Juan Valley in Colorado”
The UFO report mentions “San Juan Valley in Colorado” as one of the hotspots for anomalous activity much like Skinwalker Ranch. However, according to Google Maps, this isn’t actually a specific location, or at least a recognized one today. After doing some research, it can be narrowed down to two distinct possibilities:
1. Wolf Creek Pass Region Near Three Ancient Historical Sites
References to “San Juan Valley” can be found on this postcard where it states that it is near Wolf Creek Pass, located in the San Juan Mountains on the Continental Divide. Another postcard also shows the San Juan Valley near Wolf Creek Pass. And Pagosa.com says Wolf Creek Pass was constructed to create a route from San Luis Valley to San Juan Valley.
This location comes up in several older government documents. The National Parks Service mentions it in a chapter about the history of Southwestern Colorado, writing: “the Pagosa Lumber Company constructed in 1905, a logging railroad spur which stretched into the hills north of Pagosa Springs for more than a dozen miles, then descended back to the southeast into the San Juan Valley.”
In another chapter, the National Parks Service writes: “in the San Juan Valley, Grand Gulch and Chaco Plateaus, and the plateau-like Mesa Verde are prominent features.” (Grand Gulch is in Utah and Chaco Plateau is in New Mexico, though Mesa Verde is in the far southwestern part of Colorado.)
This region also would fit this map on another NPS page.
An article in Dispatch features a journalist visiting all three ancient sites on a road trip and mentions that they are among the country’s best-known ancient archeological sites. Chaco and Mesa Verde were abandoned 800 years ago, he notes.
2. It’s a Typo & Should Read San Luis Valley
Equally intriguing is the theory that this is a typo and should read “San Luis Valley,” which is a real location you can find on any map. The valley covers 8,000 square miles and locals refer to it simply as “the Valley.”
People have made this typo before.
On page 8 of a U.S. Department of the Interior PDF (a geological survey from 1935), the document talks briefly about the San Juan Valley, but the map itself doesn’t list a San Juan Valley. It does have the San Luis Valley.) Atlas Obscura also makes this mistake when writing that a hot springs spa is located “in the heart of the San Juan Valley,” but the spa’s Facebook page notes that it’s in “remote San Luis Valley.”
And San Luis Valley is home to the UFO Watchtower commemorating many UFO sightings.
Another Hotspot is Marley’s Woods in Missouri
The second hotspot named in Kona Blue is called Marley’s Woods in Missouri. But once again, this isn’t a specific location that you can just find on a map, unfortunately. “Marley Wood” in Missouri is the location of a bunch of UFO sightings over the years that have been profiled numerous times.
In 2022, Fox 2 briefly reported on Marley Wood because it was the focus of an episode of UFO Witness on the Travel Channel. The episode was called “Nordics and the Cube.” According to State of the Ozarks, Marley Wood refers to an undisclosed location in south central Missouri. Here, crop circles, hauntings and strange sightings are fairly common. After dusk, generations of people have reported seeing strange balls of white light that are referred to as the Piedmont Lights. Physicist Dr. Harley Rutledge investigated them in 1973 and said they defied the laws of physics and at least some may have been a craft.
This video is purportedly from 2008:
In a Piedmont Lights case in the region in 1973, more than 500 UFO sightings were reported to the Piedmont Police every night from February to April 1973. One group spotted an object hovering about 400 feet over the ground with four lights that looked like portholes (red, green, amber and white.) It didn’t make any noise. Half an hour later, another resident in Mill Spring saw an object flying near her farmhouse and she thought people were in it. It didn’t have any blades and it was 30-feet long or longer, flying below the tree tops. It was a “light-colored body with a darker tail.” There was also a spotting near Brushy Creek and another near Tip Top Mountains that had “prongs on it” and a “red light.”
You can see a MUFON writeup about the 1973 case here.
And here’s a two-hour video on it.
One person who watched the video replied in the comments: “These Marley Woods are another Skinwalker Ranch. Great mystery. There are so many – but this is remarkable!”
It’s fascinating that the Kona Blue report lists one source of anomalous sightings that is well known (Marley Woods) and another that is more mysterious (San Juan Valley.) What do you think?
This work by Stephanie Dwilson is licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0
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Stephanie Dwilson is a licensed attorney and has a master's in science in science and technology journalism. She's known for her thorough, accurate reporting and commitment to journalistic integrity in all her work. You can reach her at writerdube@gmail.com.
