Inside the scariest national park in America

When Navajo Ranger Stanley Milford Jr. and partner Jon Dover were assigned to the department to investigate paranormal activity in Arizona and Utah’s Monument Valley, the pair couldn’t believe it. “Oh god, we’re going to be like that The X-Files” said Dover.

But as Milford discovers in ‘The Paranormal Ranger – A Navajo Investigator’s Search for the Pashplained’ (William Morrow), Dover’s mind was correct. “I never expected to go in search of ghosts, bigfoot, UFOs, aliens or Navajo witches,” he writes.

“[But] The cases led me to a conclusion: There is much more to this world than we can imagine.”

The son of a Navajo father and Cherokee mother, Milford’s 11-year stint investigating paranormal activity within Navajo reservations defined his career. From UFO sightings in Arizona to Big Foot encounters in New Mexico’s Chuska Mountains, Milford treated each case with equal seriousness. “For those who have experienced paranormal encounters, the event can be traumatic,” he writes. “I learned to shut my mouth and open my ears.”

Several inquiries followed him home. In November 2010, Milford visited the offices in Window Rock, Arizona. “Employees heard disembodied voices, felt invisible hands touching them,” he writes.

Soon, Milford was targeted. “I felt an invisible finger touch my lip. He moved through my mustache, from one side to the other,” he recalls. “[Then] I heard two male voices, about three meters away. “[But] There was nobody there.”

Later, a chair was shot across a room, a laptop battery crashed into a wall, and dozens of coins rained down, all landing upside down. “The only conclusion was that a spirit was saying, ‘Watch out, I’m here,'” he adds.

Afterwards, Milford’s cousin and fellow investigator Tony was also followed. He found a dollar bill with ‘DIE’ emblazoned on it and saw a 12-inch butcher knife flying around his kitchen. “The spirit was trying to send a message,” writes Milford. “If he wanted to hurt us, he could.”

Today, Milford no longer doubts that he has powers beyond our understanding. “Paranormal investigation is less about what’s out there than what’s right here in front of us,” he writes.