A mysterious glittering metal monolith was discovered during a helicopter survey of bighorn sheep in southeastern Utah last week. The smooth, tall structure was found in one of the most remote parts of the state, according to officials.
As per reports, several members of the Utah Department of Public Safety and Division of Wildlife Resources spotted the shiny monolith from above on November 18.
Utah Department of Public Safety crew members then landed to investigate it and found 'a metal monolith installed in the ground' but no obvious indication of who might have put the monolith there.
'It is illegal to install structures or art without authorization on federally managed public lands, no matter what planet you're from,' warned the agency in a press release Monday.
The three-sided stainless-steel object is about as tall as two men put together. It is clear that it took some planning and work to construct the 10 to 12 feet (3 to 4 meter) monolith and embed it in the rock.
News of the discovery quickly went viral online, with many noting the object's similarity with strange alien monoliths that trigger huge leaps in human progress in Kubrick's classic sci-fi '2001: A Space Odyssey.'
Others remarked on its discovery during a turbulent year that has seen the world gripped by the Covid-19 pandemic, and optimistically speculated it could have a different function entirely.
'This is the 'reset' button for 2020. Can someone please press it quickly?' joked one Instagram user. 'Up close it reads: 'Covid vaccine inside', wrote another.
The spot at which the monolith was discovered is so remote that officials are not revealing it publicly, worried that people might get stranded trying to find it and need to be rescued.
Bret Hutchings, the pilot who happened to fly over the obelisk, speculated that the obelisk had been planted by 'some new wave artist.'
Some observers pointed out the object's resemblance to the avant-garde work of John McCracken, a US artist who lived for a time in nearby New Mexico, and died in 2011.
On Tuesday a spokeswoman for his representative David Zwirner said it was not one of McCracken's works, but possibly by a fellow artist paying homage.
However later in the day Zwirner gave another statement in which he suggested the piece was indeed by McCracken, meaning it had lain undiscovered in the desert for nearly a decade.
