Mysterious metal monolith discovered in remote Utah desert
It looks like something out of 2001: A Space Odyssey. With the way 2020 is going, maybe we should pretend we didn't see it.
Nothing unusual here.
It's a story as old as time. You're in a helicopter flying over a remote region of southern Utah while counting bighorn sheep, when suddenly you spot an unexplained monolith sticking up out of the ground. Cue the 2001: A Space Odyssey theme music.
Utah NBC affiliate KSL TV reported the unusual find on Saturday, sharing footage taken by the crew of a Utah Department of Public Safety helicopter that was assisting the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources in a sheep count.
KSL reporter Andrew Adams tweeted the station's creative take on the news, which mimics a Star Trek episode.
The @UtahDPS helicopter was assisting the @UtahDWR in counting bighorn sheep in remote southern Utah Wednesday when the crew encountered something entirely 'out of this world'...@KSL5TV #KSLTV #Utah
— Andrew Adams (@AndrewAdamsKSL) November 21, 2020
Photojournalist: @Photog_Steve5 pic.twitter.com/f8P0fayDIS
"I'd say it's probably between 10 and 12 feet high," pilot Bret Hutchings told KSL. "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." The crew landed to take a closer look. Hutchings said the monolith was stuck firmly into the ground and speculated it might have a NASA connection, or was perhaps a work of art.
The Utah Department of Public Safety shared the story on Facebook, saying, "No day is the same for the members of our Aero Bureau, and what they encountered recently while on a mission counting big horn sheep was very ... unique." The department is keeping the exact location a secret.
The monolith bears a striking resemblance to the alien monolith prop created for Stanley Kubrick's iconic film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Aero Bureau shared a photo on Instagram along with the question "Inquiring minds want to know, what the heck is it?"
What is the monolith? Artwork? Possibly. A message from an alien civilization? Not likely.