One of the most intriguing stories of the past couple of weeks is, without a doubt, the mysterious appearance and equally mysterious disappearance of an aluminum monolith in the rocky landscape of Utah, U.S. One part of that mystery has been solved.
Contrary to what many were willing to believe, it has nothing to do with aliens or their attempts to make contact with us. The monolith, which was discovered by officials from the Utah Department of Public Safety on November 18 and whose existence was only disclosed to the public several days later, went missing on November 27.
At the time, the DPS said that, while they were still investigating who put it there without permission, they did not care about who took it because it was private property. Within hours, a similar construction popped up across the globe, in Romania, only for it to disappear within days, as well.
Because 2020 has been a terrible year and we all need something to take our minds off our reality, many hoped/chose to believe that these structures, though obviously man-made, were clues from some sort of yet-unknown alien lifeform. UFO buzz picked up, as did traffic to those two areas, with many rushing to see the structures and, later on, the empty locations for themselves.
It was that which prompted the disappearance of the Utah monolith, the thieves says. Led by base jumper and slackliner Sylvan Christensen, the 4-man team removed the monolith on the night of November 27 because “you don’t leave trash in the desert.” They posted videos and photos of the act online, as did another hiker who happened to be there just as they started removal operations.
Christensen, who works as a canyon adventure tour guide for Moab Adventure Tours, says in a statement (which you will find in full below) that the removal isn’t something they’re proud of (since it makes them thieves), but was necessary. Because of the buzz around the monolith, traffic in the desert intensified, with terrible consequences to the fragile desert landscape. Art is something that should be respected, he says, but not if it’s illegally placed and causes such damage to the environment.
Meanwhile, his gesture has polarized the internet. Many praise him for removing the structure when authorities wouldn’t, but there are also those who criticize him for spoiling their fun and being a hypocrite by doing something illegal to right an illegality.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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