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NEVADA BILLIONAIRE BUYS UFO RANCH FOR STUDY

By Zack Van Eyck, Deseret News staff writer

FORT DUCHESNE, Uintah County -- The search for answers to life's greatest mysteries has led millionaire Robert M. Bigelow to an isolated cattle ranch in the heart of the Uintah Basin.

Here, far from the bright lights of his native Las Vegas, the real estate magnate hopes his team of scientists can unearth the roots of UFO folklore prevalent in this region since the 1950s. Bigelow, easily the most prominent American financier in the paranormal research field, is convinced there is more to the observations of Terry Sherman's family than the simple misidentification of mundane events.

The Shermans made national news in July - the same time as the blockbuster 'Independence Day' hit the theaters -- by going public with bizarre tales of anomalous activity on their 480-acre ranch, nestled beneath a red-rock ridge between Fort Duchesne and Randlett.

Sherman told the Deseret News and journalist Linda Moulton Howe on a national radio broadcast that his family saw several types of UFOs, witnessed lights emerging from circular ''doorways'' that seemed to appear in midair, had three cows mutilated and several others disappear and found unusual soil impressions and circles of flattened grass in a pasture.

Weeks later, Bigelow hopped a jet to Vernal and met with the Shermans, offering to buy the ranch for about $200,000. The deal closed in September. The Shermans have purchased a smaller ranch 15 miles away near Whiterocks -- far removed, they hope, from the disturbing occurrences they endured for 18 months.

Bigelow has erected an observation building and moved in a pair of scientists and a veterinarian. He has someone on the property 24 hours a day, recording anything out of the ordinary.

Officially, the research is being conducted by the National Institute for Discovery Science, which Bigelow formed last October. Among the big names in the institute's stable of scientists is John B. Alexander, former director of non-lethal weapons testing at Los Alamos National Laboratories in New Mexico.

'Our approach is to do good, high-quality research using a standard scientific approach and do what we can to get hard data,' Alexander said in a telephone interview from the institute's Las Vegas offices. 'One of the missions of the institute is to make information widely available.'

But for now, the lid is on tight. Bigelow won't talk to the media and Alexander would give no details of how or why the research is being conducted. Sherman, now employed by Bigelow to maintain the ranch, said he can no longer discuss the activity because of a nondisclosure agreement Bigelow had him sign.

Alexander said results of the study would be published in scientific journals and on the institute's Web page.Link: (http ://www.accessnv.com/nids).

The secretive behavior concerns several regional UFO researchers, including Ryan Layton of Davis County and Chris O'Brien of Crestone, Colo. Both visited the ranch in July before Bigelow became involved.

'It's the most impressive case I've ever personally investigated,' said O'Brien, author of 'The Mysterious Valley'' about UFOs in Colorado's San Luis Valley. 'It should be public knowledge, and the public should be allowed some sort of involvement in any investigation.'

Linda Moulton Howe, who has written books on cattle mutilations and other phenomena, received a research grant from Bigelow in 1994 to study plant and animal tissue associated with mutilation cases. She was not surprised at Bigelow's interest in the Sherman ranch.

'There's a lot of speculation about possible openings or tears in the electromagnetic fabric of our planet,' Howe said from her Pennsylvania home. 'To the general audience, that sounds like science-fiction. However, even in quantum physics today, there is discussion about space time, worm holes, black holes. The fabric of reality having something to do with the relationship between the electromagnetic spectrum and gravity forces is becoming a language that we are seeing more and more in print.'

Gary Hart of Bloomington, Ill., an investigator of 'hyperdimensional' phenomena, said he believes the Sherman ranch may be the site of an 'interdimensional doorway,' similar to ones he has investigated near Sedona, Ariz., Pine Bush, N.Y., three other U.S. locations and elsewhere in the world.