California monolith pops up after finds in Utah, Romania
LOS ANGFLFS >> Days after the discovery and swift disappearance of two shining metal monoliths half a world apart, another towering structure has popped up and then quickly vanished, this time from the pinnacle of a trail in California.
A f t er phot os were posted on social media, the tall, silver metallic structure drew hikers to the top of the Pine Mountain trail in an Atascadero park, halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, KEYT-TV reported Wednesday.
The 3- sided, 10- foottall, 200-pound monolith was similar to two others discovered recently in the Utah desert and in Romania. Like those structures, the origin of the California edifice is also unknown.
But by Thursday, the California monolith had vanished, apparently torn down by a group of young men that traveled five hours from farther south to remove it, the city of Atascadero said in a Facebook post.
Video posted online showed a group of young men wearing night-vision goggles toppling what appears to be the monolith before dawn while chanting “Christ is king” and “America First.” One man also is heard saying to the camera: “We don’t want illegal aliens from Mexico or outer space.”
The men replaced the structure with a wooden cross, which also disappeared. All that was left Thursday of the monolith were few pieces of supporting rebar.
Police were reviewing the video, The Tribune of San Luis Obispo County reported.
The destruction wasn’t appreciated by locals.
“We are upset that these young men felt the need to drive 5 hours to come into our community and vandalize the monolith,” Mayor Heather Moreno said in a press release. “The monolith was something unique and fun in an otherwise stressful time.”
“Bummer ,” Matt Cadaret, a gravedigger at a nearby cemetery, told the San Francisco Chronicle. He had planned to hike up to see the structure.
“It’s too bad it’s gone,” he said. “People were real excited about it. Anything that gets people excited is a good thing.”
Another monolith spotted two weeks ago in Utah’s otherworldly redrock country became a beacon of fascination around the world as it evoked the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” and drew hundreds of people to the remote spot.