A mysterious metal monolith found in the remote desert of the western US, sparking a national guessing game over how it got there, has apparently disappeared, officials said.
The Utah Bureau of Land Management on Saturday said that it had received “credible reports” that the object had been removed “by an unknown party” on Friday evening.
The bureau “did not remove the structure which is considered private property,” it said in a statement. “We do not investigate crimes involving private property, which are handled by the local sheriff’s office.”
Photo: EPA-EFE/Utah Department of Public Safety
The shiny, triangular pillar which protruded about 3.7m from the red rocks of southern Utah, was spotted on Nov. 18 by baffled local officials counting bighorn sheep from the air.
After landing their helicopter to investigate, Utah Department of Public Safety crew members found “a metal monolith installed in the ground,” but “no obvious indication of who might have put the monolith there.”
News of the discovery quickly went viral, with many noting the object’s similarity with strange alien monoliths that trigger huge leaps in human progress in Stanley Kubrick’s classic sci-fi film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
“Somebody took the time to use some type of concrete-cutting tool or something to really dig down, almost in the exact shape of the object, and embed it really well,” department spokesman Nick Street told the New York Times.
“It’s odd,” he added. “There are roads close by, but to haul the materials to cut into the rock, and haul the metal, which is taller than 12 feet [3.7m] in sections — to do all that in that remote spot is definitely interesting.”
Some observers pointed out the object’s resemblance to the avant-garde work of John McCracken, a US artist who lived for a time in nearby New Mexico, and died in 2011.
His son, Patrick McCracken, told the Times recently that his father had told him in 2002 that he would “like to leave his artwork in remote places to be discovered later.”
Although officials had refused to disclose the object’s location out of fear that hordes of curious sightseers would flock to the remote wilderness, some explorers had been able to track it down.
Among them was David Surber, 33, a former US army infantry officer, who drove for six hours through the night to find it after spotting a Reddit post purporting to have found its coordinates.
“Awesome journey out to the monolith today,” he wrote on Instagram, where he also shared its location. “Regardless of who built it or where it came from. It was a positive escape from today’s world. Some for many people to rally behind and enjoy together.”
He said he was alone with the structure, which he described as formed of aluminum and formed of “three pieces riveted together,” for about 10 minutes before others arrived.
“Apparently the monolith is gone,” he wrote on Instagram later. “Nature returned back to her natural state I suppose. Something positive for people to rally behind in 2020.”
Tim Slane, who shared the coordinates on Reddit, said he worked them out by tracking the flight path of the helicopter.
Additional reporting by the Guardian
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