UTAH (ABC4 News) – The mysterious monolith in Southern Utah that has garnered attention from around the world has disappeared.
According to Bureau of Land Management-Utah spokesperson Kimberly Finch, BLM received a report that the monolith is no longer in the Red Rock region it had originally been found.
“We have received credible reports that the illegally installed structure, referred to as the “monolith”, has been removed from Bureau of Land Management (BLM) public lands by an unknown party,” said Finch. “The BLM did not remove the structure, which is considered private property. We do not investigate crimes involving private property, which are handled by the local sheriff’s office. The structure has received international and national attention and we received reports that a person or group removed it on the evening of Nov. 27.”
Public officials originally announced the discovery of the monolith over the weekend if November 21, but withheld its location to prevent people from getting lost while trying to find it. That warning did not stop individuals from sleuthing Google Images and trekking their way to its location.
Because of the attention the monolith was attracting, authorities issued the following statement:
“Although we can’t comment on active investigations, the Bureau of Land Management would like to remind public land visitors that using, occupying, or developing the public lands or their resources without a required authorization is illegal, no matter what planet you are from,” the Bureau of Land Management stated in a release.
So for now, how it got there, and how it got removed, remains a mystery.