Where the Steers and the Aliens Play
by Sean Casteel
FATE Magazine
Reprinted by permission
The story of multimillionaire Robert Bigelow is surrounded by the kind of mystery, intrigue, and conspiracy charges that typically fuel the UFO community's rumor mill. Some observers call him a generous benefactor who has nothing to hide. Others label him a manipulative puppetmaster who uses his money as a weapon and hordes the paranormal research data he once promised to make public.
Very little is known about Bigelow: Even the source of his fortune remains a mystery. Some say he is of the Bigelow Tea family, while others claim he made his money in Las Vegas real estate. Another rumor has it that the death of his son several years ago brought about his passionate interest in the paranormal, the mystery of survival after death, and UFO phenomena.
There are also foreboding rumors that when crossed, Bigelow responds through emissaries who threaten violence -- or worse. Accusations of bribery are commonly tossed around. Even more common are the whispers that Bigelow's public posture of secrecy points to covert connections to the CIA or other government agencies. Bigelow's determined silence in the press only further fuels the speculation.
But once in a while even Bigelow makes a move that unavoidably brings him into the public eye. Bigelow's purchase of a ranch in isolated eastern Utah perfectly illustrates how he operates: moving in with large sums of money and quickly covering his trail to keep it hidden from prying eyes.
The tale begins with Terry and Gwen Sherman, the ranchers who in 1995 purchased a large tract of Utah land -- and got much more than they bargained for.
Home on the Range
The family found their new ranch unusual from day one, according to UFO researcher Christopher O'Brien, who was one of the first to arrive on the Sherman case. "The house had sat empty for seven years. Any house that sits empty for even a month or two in this area is completely cannibalized to the ground. This place -- no one would touch it," says O'Brien.
The house looked like it had been vacated hastily the day before, and all the doors in the house had deadbolt locks. A central corridor could be locked on both ends, and a closet in that hallway could be locked from the inside. "It was very spooky -- like a Stephen King novel or something," says O'Brien.
The strangeness didn't end there. In July 1996, the Shermans made news by going public with claims of seeing several types of UFOs on their land. According to Zack Van Eyck, a reporter for Salt Lake City's The Deseret News, the Shermans reported having three cows mutilated and several others missing, and finding strange impressions in the soil and circles of flattened grass. They saw lights emerge from "doorways" that seemed to appear in the air. One night, as Gwen Sherman was driving home, she was chased by strange red lights. On another occasion, Terry Sherman and his son waved to a black craft, reportedly the size of a football field, and then felt they had received some kind of response from it. Terry, viewing the craft through a scope from about 400 yards away, supposedly saw a tall, dark figure get out.
Enter Robert Bigelow, who flew to Utah soon after the reports and offered to buy the ranch for about $200,000. The Shermans accepted the offer and bought a smaller ranch about 15 miles away, where they hoped to escape the upsetting events that plagued them for more than a year.
Zack Van Eyck tells FATE about the Shermans' dire need to unload the ranch. "Bigelow's been a savior to them because he got them off the ranch," he says. "I really am impressed with the Shermans. They had chances to sell the ranch; Terry told me that a guy from Colorado wanted to buy it. Terry just didn't feel comfortable, because he was afraid that this guy and his family would go in and have the same experiences. So Terry, not wanting to put any other family in that position, really had no choice but to sell to someone like Bigelow."
An article in Spirit magazine by David Perkins described the Shermans' experience on their last day at the ranch. The night before, they had locked all the doors and gone to bed. "The next morning they awoke to find their bedding covered in blood," Perkins wrote. "They [each] had a one-eighth-inch deep 'scoop mark' in the same place on their right thumbs. The ranch from hell had managed to nick them one last time."
Once he acquired the ranch, Bigelow reportedly hired a pair of scientists and a veterinarian to take up residence there. They would conduct research under the umbrella of the National Institute of Discovery Science (NIDS), a private research organization formed by Bigelow in October 1996.
Beyond these facts, little else is known. Bigelow maintains a strict silence with the media, and his hand picked assistant and spokesman John Alexander has granted the press no details into the nature of the research. Terry Sherman, now employed by Bigelow to maintain the ranch, told The Deseret News he could no longer comment on his experiences because of a non-disclosure agreement he had to sign.
So here lies the core of the Sherman ranch mystery: What is Bigelow hiding behind his tidy legal agreement that he doesn't want to make known to the UFO community and the public? Is that secrecy imposed, as some have suggested, because of covert connections to the military or government? Or are Bigelow's motives much more personal?
Secrecy and Denial
The answers may lie with John Alexander -- usually the only other person mentioned by name in accounts of Bigelow and his operations. Alexander once worked for the Department of Defense as head of Non-Lethal Weapons Research and is now NIDS's Director of Scientific Liaison. "He called me out of the blue one day," Alexander recalls. "I've never actually asked him how he got my name. He had heard of me from somebody."
But when asked whether Bigelow deserves his growing reputation as a secretive financier of paranormal research, Alexander stonewalls.
"I don't know," he says. "Have you stopped beating your wife? I mean, what kind of question is that?"
Asked about the non-disclosure agreement with the Shermans, he replies, after a long silence, "I'm trying to figure out where you're going with all this, or why or what we choose to answer." Alexander is also tight-lipped on the subject of whether any of the better known paranormal investigators are working at the Bigelow Ranch. "We do not address externally with whom we're functioning right now," he says. "I think that's consistent with most private research organizations."
Is it possible that Alexander's evasiveness is merely a symptom of "nothing new to report?" Rumor has it that when the Shermans moved out of the ranch, so did the paranormal phenomena. It's a rumor that Alexander declines to confirm. "I don't believe that's accurate," he says, and adds, "There's never been a goodly number of [mutilated cattle] cases. It has been a sporadic phenomenon for decades. To the best of my knowledge, the phenomenon's never been consistent or in big numbers -- with a couple of rare exceptions.
"Our web site pretty well gives the stated position: that we're interested in a couple of specific areas where we want to have some hard results. I think one of the problems in the field is that many people have said more than they know. But we haven't gotten any results that I know of that we'd be choosing to release."
(The NIDS web site is located at
www.anv.net/nids/. The section called "Research News," where new information would likely be posted, has been "Under Construction" for all of 1998 thus far.)
When asked if a photo of Bigelow is available for the press, Alexander replies, "No. And I don't know if he has any. I mean, he must have some at home or something. But he does not have any that are given out."
In a quietly amused tone, Alexander talks about a recent error made by a tabloid television show that he could not recall the name of. "Some television program had him identified and ran a picture of him. It wasn't him," he says.
Abduction researcher and occasional Bigelow associate David Jacobs doesn't have a Bigelow photo either. When asked, he seems to realize for the first time that no photo exists. "I don't have any pictures of Bob," he says. "Oddly enough, I actually don't."
Researcher Christopher O'Brien shares the following anecdote about Bigelow's apparent camera-shyness: "Bigelow gave a sizable amount of money for a new wing for some life studies center at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, and Strange Universe hired a photographer to go to the opening and get a picture of him. I guess Bigelow bought him off. This guy told Strange Universe, "Hey, he offered me more money."
But aside from these kinds of tactics of avoiding (or bribing) paparazzi, O'Brien says he supports Bigelow's basic game plan.
"I applaud the whole idea Bigelow's come up with, putting together a crack team of scientists who are trying to locate specific areas where specific-type activity is occurring," O'Brien says. "The problem I do have is his hoarding the data and not making any of the findings public. He's leaking just enough to keep people off his case. But the full findings should be a matter of public record. I think most people you talk to who know anything about NIDS or Bigelow will agree that that's the main sticking point that people have in dealing with him and whatever agenda he is exercising."
Reporter Van Eyck has his own misgivings in regard to the hesitancy to release data being evinced by Bigelow and NIDS.
"If there isn't some type of military or government connection," he asks, "then why is Robert Bigelow so hesitant to release any information? I mean, he and John Alexander say that they just want to do these studies independently and without any interference so that the data won't be skewed. I understand all that.
"If it's not some kind of covert operation, then the guy in charge of it just happens to be very secretive about himself," Van Eyck adds. "But I would hope that someone who has the money and the interest would do the research and then put it out as quickly as possible, and say, 'Look, here's what we've been doing. Here's what we've seen.' It's too bad that's not what's happening. I think that's what's disappointing to all of us who came across this before Bigelow bought it up. We were hoping that this information would not be privatized."
The Good Philanthropist
There are other voices who speak in Bigelow's defense. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Bigelow was a regular fixture at numerous UFO conferences around the country. While attending these gatherings, he made the acquaintance of several of the better-known experts, including abduction researcher and author Dr. David Jacobs and animal-mutilation expert and filmmaker Linda Moulton Howe. Both Jacobs and Howe say there is nothing particularly mysterious about him.
"He's always been completely open with me," Jacobs says. "He was enormously helpful to everyone, and he did it without wanting anything in return. I have nothing but good things to say about him."
Bigelow sponsored a 1992 Roper Poll designed to elicit from respondents whether they had experienced any of a number of phenomena connected with the abduction experience. Jacobs, fellow researcher Budd Hopkins, and Harvard psychiatrist Dr. John Mack worked on the project, which they termed a success. Bigelow also footed the bill for those researchers' workshops on the psychological impact of abduction, which were given to mental health professionals around the country free of charge.
"Robert Bigelow is a businessman," Jacobs says, "and he's interested in the subject. He's funded all sorts of projects and he's one of the few who has. We owe him an enormous debt of gratitude for that."
For Linda Howe, Bigelow was willing to cover the costs of having mutilated animals examined by veterinarians. "We were able to make contact with veterinarians and veterinary pathologists that we could pay for tests. We had not been able to do that before," she says. "That was the extent of my work with him."
So from two widely respected researchers who received direct monetary help from Bigelow, there is almost no sense that Bigelow is anything but a generous benefactor who operates very much in the open.
"I wish I could tell you all sorts of dirt and mysterious things and nefarious dealings, Jacobs says, laughing, "but I can't. You're dealing with the world of conspiracies and the soft underbelly of flying-saucer land. Everybody believes that deep, dark conspiracies exist everywhere. And here's a 'shadowy figure,' you know, Bob Bigelow. But it ain't like that."
Without being able to talk to Robert Bigelow himself, we can only offer the testimonies of those who know him and those who know of him. Like so many of the mysteries surrounding the UFO phenomenon, Bigelow continues to be shrouded in a self-imposed veil of secrecy, a veil unlikely to be lifted any time soon. Meanwhile, Bigelow and his NIDS staff members are presumably waiting for the activity to start up again. And surely they will be ready.
"Listen," Jacobs adds, "you've got to be fair to Bob. Bob has dispensed funding when no one else in the country has. And he's asked very, very little in return. He's never cost anybody a penny. He never wants money for anything. Never. And boy, is that ever different!"
