Strange monolith found in a remote Utah desert
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.
“While on this mission, they spotted an unusual object and landed nearby to investigate further,” the department said in a statement. “The crew said there was no obvious indication of who might have put the monolith there.”
The object was found in a remote area that Aaron Bott, a spokesman 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 the 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.
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.” 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. (Two Utah film associations did not reply to questions about that possibility.)
But the authorities were confident that “it’s somebody’s art installation, or an attempt at that,” said Lt. Nick Street, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety.
He said the monolith appeared to be made of stainless steel, put together “with humanmade rivets” and embedded into the rock, though how deep was a mystery.
“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.”
Street added that officials had no idea how long the monolith has been there, saying, “For all we know it’s been installed since the ’40s and ’50s.”