For years, there have been rumors of underground military tunnels, helicopters disappearing in Secret Canyon, men in black, camouflaged military with M-16 rifles chasing away hikers, UFO sightings, paranormal activity, strange lights appearing and disappearing with the blink of an eye, pseudo-portals to parallel universes and other anomalies in and around Sedona.

These urban legends have become fodder for mystery novels and have circled Sedona’s history like its vortices for decades. Most believe these alleged phenomena are pure fabrications without proof of their existence, or have rational explanations.

‘Beyond Skinwalker Ranch’

In December, a television crew from the History Channel, accompanied by Andrew Bustamante, a former CIA officer, and Paul Beban, a freelance journalist, descended upon Sedona to explore and film a new series, “Beyond Skinwalker Ranch,” which will debut on Tuesday, June 6, at 10 p.m.

According to the show’s logline, “Investigators Andy Bustamante and Paul Beban explore Bradshaw Ranch in Sedona, and encounter dangerous radiation levels, a strange temperature anomaly and a [unidentified anomalous phenomena].”

The tall tales about Sedona caught the attention of both executive producers at the History Channel and Brandon Fugal, owner of Skinwalker Ranch, located near Ballard, Utah, which is the subject of “The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch,” a History Channel program now in its fourth season.

Fugal claims that Skinwalker Ranch is the site of paranormal and UFO-related activities.

Executive producer David Carr claimed their findings at the former Bradshaw Ranch warranted more airtime than originally planned and a second episode, “Bradshaw Ranch, Part 2,” will air on Tuesday, July 11.

“In terms of the results that we got, we are not holding back,” Carr said. “There is no censorship and that’s part of the mission. ‘[The Secret of] Skinwalker Ranch’ and certainly ‘Beyond Skinwalker Ranch’ is that we’re going to present the truth that we found, and our truth is based on science. We’re going to stick with that but we’re not going to be afraid to reveal the truths that we find.”

Former Bradshaw Ranch

The former Bradshaw Ranch is located 12 miles outside Sedona between Hartwell Canyon and Loy Canyon. It was formerly owned by Bob Bradshaw, a Hollywood stuntman who purchased the property in 1960.

The 90-plus-acre ranch became a set location for five Western movies, two television series and numerous commercials. It was also the subject of a 1995 book written by Bradshaw’s wife, Linda, and UFO investigator Tom Dongo, “Merging Dimensions: The Incredible Saga of Bradshaw Ranch.”

Linda Bradshaw and Dongo claimed in the book that orbs, bright lights and otherworldly beings began to appear at the ranch in 1992.

John Bradshaw, son of the late Bob Bradshaw, former Sedona vice mayor and CEO of a Jeep tour company, said he is very familiar with the stories.

“There’s some weird stuff that was out there that I couldn’t really explain,” Bradshaw said. “So, I didn’t really disprove it or prove it. So it’s still up in the air for me. I’m not convinced either way. But these are conspiracy theories. That’s how we did the [Jeep] tour … I’m one of those people that I need to see it with my own eyes before I believe it.”

Bradshaw’s son, Mason, who was also interviewed for the program, says he never experienced any paranormal activity near the ranch until after he returned from college. “I really didn’t understand it until after high school,” Mason said. “But with the paranormal activity and sighting of aliens and orbs, I never really experienced that until I came back from college and now I see orbs out there all the time. You can see them over Jerome.”

Land Transfer

Bob Bradshaw sold the land to his Jeep tour company for $2.75 million in 1998, according to Yavapai County property records. Gamma Investors LLC, a venture capital company, had acquired the land by 2001 and sold it to California nonprofit Trust for Public Land for $10 in May 2001, which then sold it in June 2001 to the U.S. Forest Service for $3.15 million.

According to Bustamante, the land was not sold but seized.

“Paul [Beban, the investigative reporter] opened that question — ‘What happened here with the changeover in ownership of Bradshaw Ranch?’ What we discovered in official government records — state government and federal government records — is that there was never a willful transaction of the land,” Bustamante said, claiming the ranch was seized through eminent domain. John Bradshaw neither confirmed nor denied that the ranch was seized, saying, “It’s complicated.”

The land is currently being used by the Southwest Experimental Garden Array from Northern Arizona University. SEGA has a special use permit from the National Forest Service for up to 20 years to conduct long-term climate change research on up to 22 acres at the site. The site houses several solar panels and a generator, among other equipment.

Before any filming began at Bradshaw Ranch, the History Channel team acquired all the proper documentation and permits from both the city of Sedona and the U.S. Forest Service needed to film in the areas in which they were interested. Bustamante and Carr claimed they met with some “pushback” while conducting experiments within the area.

“What we did encounter was near-peer competition trying to hinder or impact our investigation,” Bustamante claimed. “We did also collect some compelling evidence that suggested a level of sophistication that would really only be accessible to the federal government or the U.S. military and that’s all evidence that we were able to capture with our tools and our equipment that we’ll be able to show.”

“I think that we’ve found some evidence that pushes some of the questions that both Linda Bradshaw and Tom Dongo asked about [the possibility] of merging dimensions,” Carr said. “We push the understanding of whether those questions are based on realities. We push that far, very far forward.”

Radio Signal

Bustamante and Carr claimed that they discovered 1.6 gigahertz UHF radio signal transmissions identical to those that they observed at Skinwalker Ranch in Utah.

“What I will tell you is that one of our primary pieces of evidence that we wanted to corroborate in Sedona and other areas of our investigation was this 1.6 gigahertz frequency,” Bustamante said. “What is it? Why is it happening — because it happened in more than one place. Is there any pattern to it? Do we know where the transmission is coming from? Do we know the source — which was a big part of our investigation? I did not in a million years expect to find what we found around that frequency in Sedona, Arizona, and I will leave you with that.”

“When you see what we found, it left [astrophysicist] Dr. Travis Taylor at Skinwalker Ranch speechless,” Bustamante continued. “I can’t wait to see what the rest of the audience thinks when they see Travis’s reaction to what we discovered about that frequency.”

The 1.6 GHz ultra-high frequency radio band is in widespread use for satellite navigation and telephony, including by the GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Globalstar and Iridium systems, some cell phones and satellite television and has a detectable range of up to 150 miles.

Reported Findings

The network’s crew used a drone magnetometer, thermal cameras, spectrum analyzers, Geiger counters and a gamma camera.

“I always approach these projects with a high degree of skepticism but with open-mindedness,” Carr claimed. “We’re skeptics in the sense that we’re not going to join as believers without some facts to back it up. Not just stories, but actual facts.”

Carr, who has worked on “Ancient Aliens,” and the “Curse of Oak Island” reality show, says that the findings of this particular series have caused him to change his attitude about what he thinks is possible.

“As for me as a filmmaker, I’ve been able to deliver what I see with my own eyes to the viewer,” Carr said.

Bustamante, whose said his job as an intelligence officer in the CIA was to steal secrets from people, claimed that in this case, “secrets are being kept from us.” “Once you have actually done that level of work, that level of investigation, when you’ve documented your findings and shared them with your peers like Dr. Travis Taylor and [Principal Investigator and Chief Scientist], Erik Bard — once you have that opportunity, there is no forgetting that. You don’t ever go back again,” Bustamante said.