George Knapp Advertisement

PVT

Anyone who has lived in Southern Nevada for any amount of time soon realizes that there is a secret section within the Nevada Test Site known as Area 51, despite contradictory remarks as to its existence from members of congress and the White House itself.

Many are obsessed with learning as much about the area as they can and no one is more at the forefront than acclaimed investigative journalist George Knapp.

Knapp is often sent to investigate unexplained events that happen throughout the Southwest which led to his investigation of the Skinwalker ranch.

"Hunt for the Skinwalker" was written by team leader Colm Kelleher, Ph.D., and Knapp and is the true story of what really happened at the ranch in the mid '90's.

If you remember, a cattle ranching family moved to an isolated ranch in Northeast Utah to raise cattle and lead a quiet life. The tranquility would be interrupted as the family was terrorized by a series of seemingly unrelated and unexplained events.

Unable to control the forces invading their lives, the family sold the ranch to a Vegas billionaire who then funded a team of senior research scientists to investigate the phenomena there.

The accounts of encounters with flying objects, mutilated cattle, disembodied voices, teleported objects, strange lights and invincible creatures read like a catalog of the weird.

According to Rick Strassman, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of New Mexico, "Hunt for the Skinwalker" is "disturbing and compelling, this account of the power of one location to elicit numerous and complex anomalous encounters raises questions regarding our ability to perceive reality and the limits of the scientific method."

Knapp is an award-winning investigative journalist (two regional Edward R. Morrow awards and a national Morrow award, eight Emmy Awards, seven Mark Twain awards and selected by UPI as best in the nation for Individual Achievement by a Journalist) and television anchorman.

Since 1995, Knapp has been the chief reporter for the I-Team investigative unit at Channel 8 in Las Vegas.

Kelleher is a senior research scientist with a 20-year career in cell and molecular biology and has served as research director for Bigelow Aerospace in Vegas.

If you've been a race fan for the past fifteen-years, you probably have read at least one article written by Buzz Sodeman, better known as The Buzzman.

His coverage of racing action began as sportswriter for the Mohave Daily News in Bullhead City, Ariz., and led to an invitation from the Pahrump Valley Times to cover action at the defunct Pahrump Valley Speedway.

Sodeman has also covered IMCA modified racing at Canyon Raceway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Boone, Iowa.

Sodeman has taken the best of his "dirt racing" articles and compiled the action into a 340-page historical account that includes many of the Pahrump racers that are no longer active in the sport and the young guns that continue to race at the Death Valley Raceway.

He has included more than 100 photos, many never previously published, in his "Doin' It in the Dirt - Southwest Style."

Not only is this a historical account of the racers but it actually covers the inaugural season of the Mohave Valley Raceway and the following two seasons as well as the last two seasons of the Pahrump speed plant.

Fans of dirt track racing will read about and see Dan Fitzgerald in his first ride, a Ford street stock. There are pictures of Levi Kiefers' first two street stocks and his IMCA modified.

Do you remember Robin Ruud, Jimmy Perkins, "Kool Hand" Kelly Monahan and Tommy Warburton? This book has all the door-to-door, nose-to-tail action, where tradin' paint is the norm and "second is first loser."

He will also have copies available of his first two books, "Chrome Cadavers and Bull Ring Buddies" and "Optic Nerve."

Your chance to meet these authors is Saturday, March 29, at the Pahrump Community Library from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.