Silent Fields: The Horror of Oregon’s Ranchlands

It's the summer of twenty nineteen in rural Oregon. Now, this is a large ranch, one hundred and forty thousand acres of land. This includes forested areas. It's dense, and it's a place where people are generally a good distance away from their own neighbors. Somewhere in Harney County, again in Oregon, the cow boss, the person in charge of the cattle operation, Clint Weaver of Sylvie's Valley Ranch, heads out in a search because one of their pure red Hereford bulls is missing. Now, these are places where you go out with a high truck or an ATV. It's impossible to traverse on foot and make it back before sunset. So they searched around and finally they found it, but the bull was dead. Now Clint thought that maybe the bull had gotten into a fight, something that happens out there, and went with it, chucking it up to an ordinary death. But then the news of another dead bull strange. Two consecutive deaths just like that. So they explored it a little bit more this time and found that the reproductive organs were missing. He and some of the staff were curious and drove up to the area where the creek was to see what they could find, and finally, out there they found others, more dead cattle, missing their reproductive organs, and in some the tongues and eyes were gone. But even upon a brief inspection, things were already weird. The animals looked like they had just tipped over and died. Then they noticed the cuts, some that appeared to have been made with surgical precision. No bullets, no tire marks or footprints were nearby either, not a single drop of blood. Of course, out there we're bound to find eerie mysteries, some that deal with the vast empty terrain and actual darkness of the sky at night, almost expecting those creatures at lurk in the rural areas of our country, something that many people talk about. But this time it was different. Unlike in the cities with serial killers, here we end up with something that kills and we don't know what it is despite many investigations. So who's responsible? A person or a group of them? Animals, poisonous plants, a secret government operation, visitors from outer space. These strange cases would eventually involve the FBI and the US Senate. What do they find? What's roaming out there in the darkness of our fields. My name is Edwin, and here so horror story. The ranchers, upon the discovery of mutilated livestock, were shocked. Hodges, one of them, said that he just kind of stood there because they couldn't believe it. They hadn't seen something like that. Ever, strangely, it wasn't something that they hadn't heard of cows being found mutilated, with something that they had heard long ago, like in high school or from friends. And one of the ranchers, a man named Matt Carter, said that from a distance the dead cow didn't look natural when they first saw it. And here's why my head's up. The descriptions may be graphic for some, and let's begin with the cuts. The areas of the animals that had been cut off were described as surgical, as if made with razor sharp tools. It was noted that no animal can cut skin like that around a belly, and it would be extra difficult to do so without piercing the actual stomach. A key part of this mystery is that there was absolutely no blood at the scene. Now try to imagine that for a second. A bull or a cow can have up to thirteen gallons of blood, and there were no puddles, no signs of blood anywhere where had it all gone. There were also no signs of a struggle, finding no tracks, no rope burns, no scattered hoof prints or something that would show that the animal had been taken down by fours. Remember, bulls are immensely strong and they can weigh over two thousand pounds, making this all even more confusing. Also, when an animal dies out there, it's easy to imagine scavengers taking advantage of the situation almost immediately. Coyotes, vultures, crows, some animals would just be bound to arrive. And yet animals would not even get close to touch these remains. Now, it's not like the parts that they took could be resold at a high price or something like that. Plus, how would they even manage to get that done and leave no trace? So first they would have to get to the cattle all the way out there in a remote location, and then take it down. How such a huge animal did they tranquilize it that? There were so many questions, but all were overshadowed by the sense of paranoia. The safety they had felt in their land for so many years was over for the generational ranching families of eastern Oregon, like here at Sylvie's Valley Ranch, and others like the Roth family in Lake County who also had a similar incident happened to them. The land may be a workplace, but it's also their home. They know and understand their animals from the time that they were born to the time that they're sold off, and they see their offspring have their own and they take care of them for generations. Finding them in such a state and in such a bizarre fashion made them feel violated in their own home. Stephen Roth, from another ranch, said that he was scared to go out without a gun now having to risk having one around his young kids. After the events, everything changed for them, and since Sylvie's Value Ranch serves as a type of luxury cabins and spa kind of place along with their cattle operation, they had some reorganization to take care of, so they started up new policies. Ranch hands were now to travel in pairs and carry guns with them. Families also carry pistols children who were no longer allowed to go out there alone anymore. But they also underwent a financial blow to their livelihood breeding bulls, pure bred ones like the ones they had there Hereford bulls were valued at six thousand to seven thousand dollars each. They were just reaching their peak value for siring. Adding to that the potential earnings once day sire over one hundred calves. It added up to hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of future livestock, and it was all gone in an instant. Now going back to the scene here where they found the bulls. When they first arrived, the ranchers started walking the fields, photographing the carcasses, scouring the property for clues, similar to what a first responder to a crime scene would do. They even searched for poisonous plants, but found none. Seeing that they had found no explanation, they called the Harney County Sheriff's office and were assigned Deputy Dan Jenkins as a primary investigator. When the police started making their observations, things got weird. The bulls had indeed been drained of blood, suggesting a highly controlled clinical process. Organs that were removed were made with precise cuts, like with sharp blades, and even when the carcasses were found in soft dirt or mud, no tracks were found, it seemed impossible for someone to be able to accomplish such an act. Now, this was already going to be a tough case, but there were even more things that started to get in the way of the investigation. Keep in mind here, rural law enforcement is different than the ones in cities because remote locations are difficult to access and that transportation hurdle alone takes a long time. The carcasses were discovered after the first twenty four hours, so any type of analysis would not be very effective. But here's why this was so important. These things the cattle mutilations, had happened before, in the nineteen seventies, when the fear became so intense that ranchers across the West began to carry guns all times. Theories of occult practices, killer helicopters that chased people, and investigations that would eventually involve the FBI and the US Senate, and that by itself is a pretty bizarre story. In the mid nineteen seventies, ranchers in the American West started discovering their cattle dead under inexplicable circumstances similar to the ones I told you about. Investigators were baffled because it didn't seem like random acts of cruelty, because they had a distinct pattern, again surgical precision, specific organs removed, specifically the penis, testicles, utters, vagina, rectums, tongues, lips, ears, and eyes. There was also the absence of blood and no trace of a culprit. And as reports of these mutilations spread, ranchers started arming up. These types of killing showed that there was an unknown, in intelligent, and highly capable perpetrator out there. Communities started organizing men in pickup trucks formed vigilante patrols armed with citizens band radios to scan the pastures and also the night sky for any signs of the midnight marauders. And you heard that right, the night sky. Because what made things worse was that there were these sightings of unidentified helicopters reported to be flying around without lights or markings, and that they were spotted near mutilation sites, and in one report, residents said that they had even been chased by them. That made them realize that perhaps this was a well equipped clandestine operation. The public started pressuring local and state law enforcement agencies, all while they're desperately searched for answers. The reasons they kept giving were that the mutilations were the work of natural predators and scavengers. But this was not enough for these experienced ranchers, people familiar with the areas and predators. How would law enforcement claim to know more than they did? And it was this battle of credibility that made things even worse than that, because the ranchers and communities were terrified knowing that this is what the authorities were providing answers that didn't make any sense, and it was not enough. These surgical cuts made by small predators like foxes who have shearing teeth like scissors, it just couldn't be right. And these specific organs being cut out because supposedly predators and scavengers attack soft tissues first on a dead carcass. I guess it's likely the no blood. The answers were that the animals died of natural causes like an infection or a disease, that they were mutilated once they were already dead. I wasn't sure what to make of this information and what this meant for the blood. But if someone out there knows how this works, please let me know. I know maid spread and consistent pattern that was happening over twenty two different states. Well, the answer was that it was a fad generated by publicity. Now, this kind of gas lighting going on here would anger just about anybody, But the community kept pushing. They reached out to their senators like Floyd K. Haskell of Colorado and Carl T. Curtis of Nebraska. The FBI director at the time, Clarence M. Kelly, kept saying that the FBI had no authority to investigate. There was no specific federal crime that could be proven like the interstate transportation of stolen cattle, so their hands were tied and mutilations remained a state and local matter. Now, all of this, plus the official statements the jurisdictional stands that was unsatisfying. They burnt along these other theories that went perfectly well with the strangeness of the evidence. Everyone from the ranchers, local deputies, journalists, those who had seen the evidence first hand started leaning into more supernatural explanations. One of the first major theories pointed to a nationwide Satanic cult. It was a nineteen seventies after all, and the Satanic panic of the eighties and seventies was in full swing. It all started when a federal prison informant named Kenneth Bankston claimed that a group called the Sons of Satan was performing the mutilations as part of a ritual sacrifice. This was dramatic enough for an investigation at the federal level by ATF agent Don Flickinger. Finally some support, but it was short lived. Investigators concluded that Kenneth had made up the story in an attempt to get transferred to local jails instead, where it would be easier for them to escape. Now, many began to suspect other worldly visitors to be responsible the reports of strange lights and helicopters. Remember in the nineteen seventies, people were also barely leaving the Roswell incident behind, the one where reported alien spacecraft crashed and had many witnesses supposedly hushed by the government. With this idea, this theory suggested a few things that aliens were harvesting biological samples. Prominent UFO researcher doctor j. Allen Heineck investigated, but at least in one key case, evidence that seemed to point to a UFO landing with strange circles in the snow was found to be a type of fermented fodder that was covered by snow, and it was in that circular shape. It was one of the most mundane explanations ever. If you ask me, it sounds like we were out of theories here. But incomes one of the most important ones, and one that may have been true. This one was about a clandestine government project that was response for the whole thing. The seventies must have been some wild times because of this. Think about it. We're leaving Watergate and the mk ultra era of deep public distrust and official institutions is on full blast. The idea was that a secret agency was conducting bacteriological warfare research by injecting cattle with toxins and then later retrieving tissue samples. Now what you have thought of this yourself, because I don't think I would have, But up until now it holds up. New Mexico State Police officer Gabe Vallis was very adamant in his opinion that these mutilations were the work of the US government. He believed that the CIA or the Department of Energy was involved and felt he was given the run around by the nearby Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory when he asked for help from them, and then doctor Robert Hedelius, a US Department of Agriculture veterinary medical officer, bolstered this theory because after performing an autopsy on immutilated heifer, doctor Hedelius concluded that the animal had died from a Cloustridium infection that was likely injected, possibly with a dark gun. By this time, in the late nineteen seventies, years of investigations had gone by, dozens of official reports had been made, and the mystery was just as deep. The frustration of ranchers and the confusion of law enforcement culminated in a high level conference in April of nineteen seventy nine. US Senator Harrison Schmidt of Albuquerque, New Mexico was joined by law enforcement officials, investigators, and ranchers from multiple states to share evidence and coordinate efforts. Basically, they ended up determining that no one was keeping track of stuff, and no one knew who should have been investigating in the first place. Now, most officials ended up agreeing that they needed a central depository for data so that they could all look at it come up with their own ideas. The FBI was also there, but they kept saying that they wanted to stay out of it. They were directed to investigate fifteen specific cases on Indian reservations, though, and they actually had clear jurisdiction there, but they were concerned that they would be drawn into a broader investigation without a congressional mandate. In the end, the conference resulted in a grant being awarded to the Santa Fe District Attorney's office to coordinate to regional probe. This kept the responsibility on the hands of the states and local authorities, not a unified federal response. Now, I kind of warned you in the beginning that this was an unsolved case, so hopefully this wasn't too disappointing. But yes, all of those mutilations that caused a national panic in the nineteen seventies were never solved. The panic subsided slowly, and the phenomenon never completely disappeared. All I kept thinking about during the research here was how precise and clin evidence was dismissed by officials who knew nothing about taking care of cattle. It feels like sometimes even now, when we see real things in front of us, the government blindly tells us that know that the reason is something else. It just drives me crazy. But this was a perfect mix of anxiety in the post war era, deep seated distrust of government, and this invisible culprit that killed cattle that we never understood and could not fight. What truly happened on those remote pastures under the cover of darkness. That's going to remain as one of those great unsettling mysteries of modern American history. Why we're only certain animals targeted. I don't believe these are random, because there are almost exclusively animals of high value to the ranchers, some that would cause some serious financial harm. These are young, pure bred bulls that are just reaching their peak value as breeding animals. It's worth noting here that even in the nineteen seventies, wild animals like elk and deer were also reported being found in a similar manner across the West and the Midwest. But other questions are more mysterious that don't have any answers to any of them. The one about the lack of physical evidence is what bothers me. The most large animals have a lot of blood, and any type of killing out in a field would make a mess. In fact, in one of the documentary interviews, they say how impossible it is to even get rid of blood once it's leaving the animal, even in buckets. It's heavy, messy and takes multiple people to even get close to the mysterious scenes that were left behind. The ranchers, though, think that if they had to come up with a reasonable explanation that even law enforcement would accept, is that there are people out there with bad intentions doing this, whether that's for satanic rituals to harm the ranchers financially, if they come from the government. It's people that are doing these things, maybe out of pure evil, but who how would they have done it? All of that is going to remain a mystery. The documentary that I just mentioned I found during the research of the recent events in twenty nineteen in Oregon, and it was called Not One Drop of Blood by Jackson Devereux Lachlan Hinton in collaboration with reporter Anna King, and in it to go into the story and for three years of filming, they decided to focus on an accurate portrayal of a rural community grappling with the case. In their own words, they visited for weeks at a time across a changing season to capture life out there, the hard work, The family bonds, and they ended up with this film that clearly prioritizes this human experience. Now, this is the part that I loved about it. It's the real world consequences of inexplicable phenomenon on the lives of these hardworking people. That's kind of what the show's all about. Though sometimes we get creepier than others. The documentary shows how law enforcement is faced with this impossible task, not enough resources or time in the most remote and rugged areas of the United States, almost no witnesses, and very little physical evidence. Now, in a certain part of it, an official says, my personal opinion, it's aliens. I don't know how else to explain it. Of course, this sounds a little bit random, but it goes to show that it's just this deep and unsettling mystery that even aliens become a feasible explanation. Frankly, I love an alien story, so I might consider it. But this documentary crew never set out to solve the mystery, and they didn't. The twenty five thousand dollars reward offered for information leading to a conviction remains unclaimed. A testament to the case's impenetrable silence. The reporter there talked about the silence, specifically saying that when you stand alone out there, miles from anyone and look up at the sky, the silence is overwhelming. It's just awful, big out there, she said. Could it be possible that out there in the wild open spaces that are still secrets, so dark and deep that they defy all explanation. What do you think of this mystery? Who's responsible? This episode of Horror Story was written and produced by me Edwin Karubias. Thank you for the feedback on what to add to our newsletter. By the way, if you have more ideas, please send them my way. My email and everything is in a description of this episode. Also, make sure you've tapped follow already and if you did, next week's story is going to show up on your feet. Thank you very much for listening, and really thank you for keeping me company a week after a week Keep it scary everyone, See you soon.