Screenshot KEYT via CNN / Screenshot Newsflash Daily Mirror / Terrance Siemon via AP
Adding to the count, a third mysterious metal monolith has now appeared in California.
The first of the shiny metal pillars showed up in a remote part of Utah’s desert near Moab. Biologists helping to count bighorn sheep from a helicopter spotted it from the air.
Shortly thereafter another one of the mysterious structures appeared atop a hill in Romania on Friday, the same day that the Utah monolith disappeared.
Now, it looks like monolith mania has reached California.
Reports from Atascadero News said this third plinth was discovered by hikers atop Pine Mountain in Atascadero, California.
Atascadero News said that unlike the structure found in Utah, the one atop Pine Hill was not attached to the ground and appeared to be made from stainless steel.
“I’m pretty sure it wasn’t here yesterday,” Dennis Swanson told KEYT-TV after making the two-mile hike to the ten-foot tower.
Utah resident Sylvan Christensen claimed in a video posted to both TikTok and Instagram that he and his friends were the ones responsible for hauling the metal structure away.
In a statement, Christensen said they removed the monolith because its presence was negatively impacting the surrounding desert.
“We removed the Utah Monolith because there are clear precedents for how we share and standardize the use of our public lands, natural wildlife, native plants, fresh water sources, and human impacts upon them,” he wrote.
“Let’s be clear: The dismantling of the Utah Monolith is tragic— and if you think we’re proud— we’re not. We’re disappointed. Furthermore, we were too late. We want to make clear that we support art and artists, but legality and ethics have defined standards– especially here in the desert— and absolutely so in adventuring.”
Longtime Utah lawyer Greg Skordas joined KSL’s Dave and Dujanovic that because the monolith placed in the Utah desert was on public land without a permit or permission, those responsible for removing it likely won’t face any charges.
“You can’t just go to a national park or BLM land and create art and expect it to be part of the landscape, you can’t deface things, you can’t draw graffiti. . .” Skordas said. “Whoever put that there probably committed the crime, although that was five years ago as Debbie said. Removing it was probably a good thing because of all the attention it was getting and all the pollution it was creating by people coming to visit the site.
You can hear Skordas’ full conversation with Dave and Dujanovic here.