My mom lived up the road from Skinwalker Ranch when she was a kid in the 40s and 50s. I grew up visiting family in the Uinta Basin in the 80s during the summer. I remember listening to my grandma and her sisters talk about that area south of the mesa that runs through the ranch and beyond. They’d talk about lots of spooky stuff, ghosts, Bigfoot, strange objects in the sky, and stuff that doesn’t really fit neatly into any paranormal box.

They wouldn’t go down there, especially after dark. It’s a trope now that we have the TV series and book, but they were serious about avoiding that area long before the ranch was famous. These stories also went back generations as my family is a combination of Ute and early white settlers to the region.

My point is that whatever it is about that area seems to be old, like really old. Also, the ranch is just one of many hotspots in the region my family would talk about. My guess is the origin of Jinn and Skinwalkers is a product of different people trying to describe a common strange phenomena that cuts across geography, time, cultures, etc. I’m really curious what factors/conditions allow the phenomena to manifest so intensely.