I thought ‘2001’ was just fiction
At the base of a barren slot canyon in Utah’s Red Rock Country, a team that was counting bighorn sheep by helicopter spotted something odd and landed to take a closer look.
It was not a sheep.
It was a three-sided metal monolith, about 10 to 12 feet tall, planted firmly in the ground with no clear sign of where it came from or why it was there. The Utah Department of Public Safety, revealing its existence to the wider world Monday, said the team found the “unusual object” last week in southeastern Utah, during a survey with the state wildlife agency.
The object was found in a remote area that Aaron Bott, a spokesperson for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, described as rugged and very rocky, with many canyons and potential hazards. “It’s a tough place to get to on vehicle and on foot,” he said.
The helicopter pilot, Bret Hutchings, told local news station KSL TV that as the crew approached, “we were kind of joking around that if one of us suddenly disappears, then I guess the rest of us make a run for it.”
But Hutchings said it was probably an art installation. “I’m assuming it is, you know, some new wave artist or something, or somebody that was just a big ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ fan,” he said, referring to the Stanley Kubrick film in which a matte black slab is discovered by curious, increasingly agitated primates.
“I have to admit, that’s been about the strangest thing that I’ve come across out there in all the years of flying,” he added.
As Utah officials shared photos of the discovery, many other observers noticed its similarity to the movie, especially in one photo that shows a crew member who had clambered onto another’s shoulders to look at the monolith’s top. On Facebook, the Utah Highway Patrol shared photos of sheep and the object, asking the public for its thoughts.
Respondents had suggestions: a “resonance deflector,” “an eyesore,” “some good metal.” Some theorized, vaguely, that it was a satellite beacon. Others joked that it was a Wi-Fi router. Some said it was a leftover movie prop — Red Rock Country has served as the backdrop for “Indiana Jones,” “Star Trek” and “Mission Impossible” movies. (A Utah Film Commission spokesperson said, “To our knowledge, the monolith that was found in Utah this week is not from a film production.”)
The Art Newspaper observed that the object resembled the “free-standing plank sculptures” of the minimalist artist John McCracken, who lived in New Mexico before his death in 2011 and whose work is represented by the David Zwirner Gallery.
“The gallery is divided on this,” Zwirner said. “I believe this is definitely by John.”