Open Veils · Answer
When did Jay Stratton first go to skinwalker ranch?
Stratton's first documented visit to Skinwalker Ranch occurred in 2009, when the property was still under Robert Bigelow's ownership and operating as a dedicated observation site under the AAWSAP program. He witnessed a triangular craft transiting at high speed over the mesa that he — drawing on his background as a science and technical intelligence analyst — classified as non-human in origin. That same visit is linked to the now-famous 'hitchhiker effect' account involving his family.
Evidence
- According to Chapter 15 of the memoir, Stratton arrived at night accompanied by naval aviator J. L. Bourne and Marine aviator David Wilson.
- Separately, Stratton told Fox News host Sean Hannity (per UAP Drop, November 2026) that the first non-human intelligent craft he personally observed was a triangular object flying at high speed over the ranch's mesa during that same 2009 deployment.
- Walking toward Homestead #2, all three encountered a sharply defined cold zone estimated at 20 degrees below ambient temperature — anomalous enough that they could move their hands in and out of its boundary.
- His analyst background — evaluating known U.S., Russian, and Chinese airframes — led him to rule out all conventional explanations.
- This pattern — anomalous phenomena apparently 'following' investigators home — was first systematically described by Kelleher and Knapp in relation to other NIDS researchers at the same property.