‘Alien’ monolith which sparked mystery after appearing in Utah desert vanishes after tourists flock to visit

As if its original appearance wasn’t bizarre enough, the “alien” monolith found in a remote desert is now gone.

The mystery surrounding a giant metal monolith found in the middle of the Utah desert deepened today after it apparently vanished.

Utah’s Bureau of Land Management said it had seen credible reports the object had been removed “by an unknown party”.

The bizarre 3.6m structure – which looks like something out of a sci-fi movie – was discovered last week by shocked wildlife officers counting sheep from a helicopter.

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Images from Google Earth suggest it’s been there for years. Picture: Google Earth

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News of the find sent UFO spotters and conspiracy theorists into a frenzy with some even claiming the shiny tower was a secret alien antenna or homing beacon.

But a week later it has mysteriously vanished.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) said last night: “We have received credible reports that the illegally installed structure, referred to as the ‘monolith,’ has been removed.

“The BLM did not remove the structure, which is considered private property.”

"We have received credible reports that the illegally installed structure, referred to as the “monolith” has been removed by an unknown party. The BLM did not remove the structure which is considered private property..." More: https://t.co/ZXJDGzxDaD pic.twitter.com/xXHdijk496

— BLM Utah (@BLMUtah) November 29, 2020

It comes after it was revealed the huge metal oddity had been in its remote hiding place for at least four years – possibly longer.

Yet soon after news broke of its discovery, sleuths tracked down the co-ordinates and published them, leading people to drive hours to get to it, including a 45-minute off-road drive on a dirt track many miles from any major town at 15km/h and then a 15-minute hike up a dry stream bed.

But locals and environmentalists slammed the sightseers, claiming they would damage the desert and its vegetation and leave litter.

One of them, Tyen Howell, said: “We do not need more trash, more damage, and more traffic in our remote areas.

“If you don’t live in Utah please don’t send more strangers out here tearing up our roads and lands, who don’t know how to get to where they are going.”

The mysterious metal structure has reportedly disappeared. Picture: Utah Department of Public Safety/AFP

In just a week the metal object had already been scuffed and made dirty.

One Reddit user said they had managed to geolocate the obelisk by closely studying the surrounding rock formations.

They claimed the strange structure was first captured on Google Earth in 2016.

However, some satellite images of the mystery monolith date back to around a year earlier.

And Lieutenant Nick Street, a spokesman for the local Department of Public Safety, said it’s possible the structure has been there for “40, 50 years, maybe more”.

“It’s the type of material that doesn’t degrade with the elements. It may only be a few years old, who knows,” he said.

“There’s no real way based on the material it’s made out of to tell how long it’s actually been there.”

The mystery has sparked a number of bizarre theories about how it got there, while some pointed to a more simple explanation.

Some say it closely resembles the work of artist John McCracken, who lived for a time in nearby New Mexico.

McCracken, who died in 2011, was known for his freestanding sculptures in the shape of pyramids, cubes and shiny slabs.

Some have theorised it could be the work of an artist who died in 2011. Picture: Utah Department of Public Safety/AFP

Those who first spotted the object last Wednesday said they were stunned by what they found.

“One of the biologists is the one who spotted it and we just happened to fly directly over the top of it,” said pilot Bret Hutchings, who flew the chopper to help the wildlife officers count bighorn sheep in the area.

“He was like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, turn around, turn around!’ And I was like, ‘What,’” said Hutchings. “And he’s like, ‘There’s this thing back there – we’ve got to go look at it!’”

When they turned around, they couldn’t believe what they saw.

“We were kind of joking around that if one of us suddenly disappears, then the rest of us make a run for it,” Mr Hutchings joked.

Mr Hutchings and his crew still have no idea how the bizarre object came to be there.

“We were, like, thinking is this something NASA stuck up there or something,” Mr Hutchings theorised.

“Are they bouncing satellites off it or something?”

They also guess that it could be a reference to a scene in a movie.

“I’m assuming it’s some new-wave artist or something or, you know, somebody that was a big [2001: A Space Odyssey] fan,” Mr Hutchings said.

“That’s been about the strangest thing that I’ve come across out there in all my years of flying,” he said.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission