Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Mystery art to smile at — or frown at
Just who arranged plateau’s rocks in southwest valley?
A mysterious artwork on a plateau overlooking Las Vegas appears to have started emerging in 2017, according to historical satellite photos from Google Earth Pro.
The work of land art, which depicts a large triangle with a face on one corner and a yin and yang symbol at the other, was spotted in January by Dave Golan, 60, a Las Vegas doctor who lives nearby and walks his dogs up to the plateau, which is near South Fort Apache Road and West Cactus Avenue, where the Mountain’s Edge neighborhood ends and the desert begins.
And the piece apparently keeps evolving. When Review-journal photographer Bizuayehu Tesfaye photographed the artwork with his drone on Jan. 19, the face was clearly smiling.
That happy face in Tesfaye’s photographs is a contrast to the most recent available satellite image on Google Maps, which is dated 2023 and shows a frown on the face. Even if that satellite image wasn’t actually captured in 2023, satellite imagery from April 2022 also shows a frown.
After the Review-journal published a story and photos of the work of art, several readers emailed their theories and tips about the piece.
Anjaneyulu Yarlagadda, 36, of Las Vegas, sent a Twitter direct message to say the face looks like Lord Hanuman, a figure from Hindu mythology, who, according to brittanica.com, was the “the monkey commander of the monkey army. His exploits are narrated in the Hindu Sanskrit poem the Ramayana (“Rama’s Journey”).”
Pam Lum, 52, a biology professor who lives in Las Vegas, emailed to say the face looks like that of the Monkey King from the popular Chinese children’s novel “The Journey to the West.”
“Hope this helps with finding the artist,” Lum wrote.
The image, which was created when somebody or even a group of people, rearranged the rocks on the plateau, is hard to see when you’re standing right in front of it. The rearranged rocks, each of which is pretty heavy and also jagged, blend in with all the many other rocks scattered about the plateau. It hides in plain sight.
Golan, a former trauma physician at University Medical Center who now operates clinics in Las Vegas, was looking down at the plateau from a higher ledge on the hill at sunset in early January when he noticed that some of the rocks there appeared to be positioned in an intentional design.
He went home and checked the satellite imagery on Google Maps. And there it was: the face, the symbol and the triangle. The triangle’s sides are each over 50 feet in length.
But who did it? And how long has it been there?
To the question of who created the piece, that’s still unknown.
The query of how long it’s been there, that has become more clear, thanks again to Google and two readers, Brent Ozar, 49, a small-business owner who lives in Henderson, and Richard Kimmell, 62, a commercial property manager who lives in Las Vegas.
Both Ozar and Kimmell emailed the Review-journal to say that the evolution of the piece from its inception can be seen in historical satellite images that can be viewed on Google Earth Pro, which allows a viewer to see the historical satellite imagery for a given location.
Looking at the satellite images of the plateau, it appears the piece was started in 2017. We can deduce this by looking at a satellite image from
March 2016. There is nothing there.
Then, by May 2017, a circular formation of rocks has emerged.
In November 2017, there is a circular formation and to the lower left of that, what appears to be a Star of David, albeit very faint in the photo.
Golan said in a text message that the visible progression of the artwork lends itself to more questions than answers.
“It adds to the mystery knowing that the artist didn’t start with a set plan,” Golan said. “What made them decide to scrap the star? Who is the face? Why did they turn the frown upside down? I don’t know. What I really want to know is if they have created any others elsewhere in the desert.”
By May 2019, the artwork was looking pretty close to what it looks like now, and it also looks pretty much the same in images from both February 2020 and April 2022.
Finally, the artwork is laid out on land that is owned by the federal Bureau of Land Management. A spokesperson said that the first time the bureau had heard about the existence of the artwork was when the Review-journal reached out for comment and to ask if the bureau knew who created the art.
Kirsten Cannon, a spokesperson for BLM’S Southern Nevada District, said that while land art pieces can be an important addition to BLM lands, permits need to be issued when such art is created so that details can be worked out to reduce the possibility of environmental destruction.
“Since you told us about this, we will begin an investigation and determine the next steps,” Cannon said in an email in January.
On Tuesday, Cannon said BLM law enforcement officers “went to the area, took photographs and compiled a report,” indicating that an investigation had begun.
“At this time, there are no suspects,” Cannon said. “Since we can’t currently pinpoint who did this, our lands division will add this to our workload queue to coordinate with our resources division for reclamation work.
That potential reclamation work, which refers to the possibility of artwork on the plateau being dismantled and the environment being restored to its natural state, or not, will be decided going forward, but Cannon said there is currently no timeline for this.
“Determining how the area will be reclaimed will be part of the next steps in the process,” Cannon said.