By Tim Binnall
A helicopter survey of big horn sheep living in the wilderness of Utah led to the unexpected discovery of a mysterious monolith which had suddenly appeared planted in the ground. According to a local media report, the weird find was made this past Wednesday by officers with the Utah Department of Public Safety as they helped the state's Division of Wildlife Resource with their annual creature count. As they flew over the southern part of the state, one of the biologists aboard the chopper noticed something highly unusual which brought their work to a sudden stop.
"We just happened to fly directly over the top of it," pilot Bret Hutchings recalled, "he was like, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa, turn around, turn around!' And I was like, 'what.' And he's like, 'There's this thing back there – we've got to go look at it!'" The source of all the excitement was a puzzling metal monolith standing strikingly out of place in a cove of the state's iconic red rocks. Understandably curious about the object, the team proceeded to land the helicopter and investigate it up close. "We were kind of joking around that if one of us suddenly disappears," Hutchings laughed, "then the rest of us make a run for it."
Fortunately, the ten-to-12-foot tall rectangular metal object was not dangerous, though it was undoubtedly mysterious. The team observed that it did not appear to have fallen from the sky and, instead, was likely planted in the ground. As for its purpose, they initially suspected that perhaps it was somehow connected with NASA, maybe as a means of contacting satellites, but ultimately concluded that it appeared more likely to be some kind of artwork rather than a scientific instrument.
For now, the monolith remains in place, although the group has opted not to reveal its precise location lest ill-equipped thrillseekers journey to find it and wind up needing to be rescued from the remote location. It remains to be seen whether or not the nature of the odd object will ever come to be known or if it will simply vanish as quickly as it appeared with the meaning behind the monolith forever a mystery. What's your theory on the puzzling discovery? Share your thoughts with us at the C2C Facebook page.