Strange 'Metal Monolith' Discovered in the Middle of the Utah Desert, Officers Baffled
There is a mystery brewing among the red rocks of a desert someplace in Utah that the government does not want to identify.
Utah Division of Wildlife Resource officers were counting bighorn sheep from a helicopter operated by the state’s Department of Public Safety on Nov. 18 when they saw something they sure weren’t sheep, according to KSL-TV.
“One of the biologists is the one who spotted it and we just happened to fly directly over the top of it,” said pilot Bret Hutchings. “He was like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, turn around, turn around!’ And I was like, ‘what.’ And he’s like, ‘There’s this thing back there — we’ve got to go look at it!’”
The thing was a large metal monolith poking its mysterious presence skyward, shiny metal gleaming in the sun, but lacking any information about who might have put it there or why.
“I’d say it’s probably between 10 and 12 feet-high,” Hutchings said.
“We were kind of joking around that if one of us suddenly disappears, then the rest of us make a run for it,” he said.
The massive object was not dropped from above, Hutchings said, but firmly buried.
“We were, like, thinking is this something NASA stuck up there or something. Are they bouncing satellites off it or something?” Hutchings said.
Since it did not seem to have a scientific purpose, or any other purpose, the crew began to wonder if this was someone’s idea of art,
“I’m assuming it’s some new wave artist or something or, you know, somebody that was a big (2001: A Space Odyssey) fan,” Hutchings said.
That interpretation lit up Twitter.
The dawning of new intelligence in the United States #2001ASpaceOdyssey #monolith #Utah pic.twitter.com/kGBcPRulKu
— DAVID MUGGLE (@DAVIDMUGGLE1) November 24, 2020
2020 ending by going full Kubrick on us. Utah Wildlife Resources discovered a monolith in the desert. Time to blast György Ligeti’s “Requiem for Soprano…” https://t.co/oMyjy3BPhU
“That’s been about the strangest thing that I’ve come across out there in all my years of flying.” pic.twitter.com/u9uD2KUGvb
— Zack Sharf (@ZSharf) November 24, 2020
The state crew took pictures and video, but they are keeping mum about the location in hopes of preventing adventurers from heading out there and needing to be rescued.
Hutchings said that amid the marvels of the desert “That’s been about the strangest thing that I’ve come across out there in all my years of flying.”
Aaron Bott, a spokesman for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, called the monolith an “anomaly” but added, it was was “not too uncommon to find weird things that people have been doing out in the desert,” according to The New York Times.
Both said it was not easy to fret the monolith.
“It’s a tough place to get to on vehicle and on foot,” he said.
Lt. Nick Street, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety said officials are certain “it’s somebody’s art installation, or an attempt at that.”
“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,” he said. “It’s odd. 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 in sections — to do all that in that remote spot is definitely interesting.”
Officials said the monolith is technically violating the law because it is sitting on federal lands without having secured anyone’s permission.
“It is illegal to install structures or art without authorization on federally managed public lands, no matter what planet you’re from,” the Department of Public Safety said.
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