The Utah Monolith Disappearance Mystery Has Been Solved

No, it wasn't aliens

Photo: Ross Bernards

BY Allie GregoryPublished Dec 1, 2020

After a Stanley Kubrick-style monolith mysteriously appeared and then disappeared in the Utah desert within the span of a few days last month, someone has finally spilled the beans about who took it away.

A nomadic photographer named Ross Bernards claims to have witnessed the structure's removal, and even posted a few photos of the monolith being carted off last Friday evening (November 27). As Bernards recounted on his Instagram, he watched a group of men — not aliens — retrieve the monolith from its desert location around 9 p.m. that night.

He explained:

[Four] guys rounded the corner and 2 of them walked forward. They gave a couple of pushes on the monolith and one of them said "You better have got your pictures." He then gave it a big push, and it went over, leaning to one side. He yelled back to his other friends that they didn't need the tools. The other guy with him at the monolith then said "this is why you don't leave trash in the desert." Then all four of them came up and pushed it almost to the ground on one side, before they decided push it back the other when it then popped out and landed on the ground with a loud bang. They quickly broke it apart and as they were carrying to the wheelbarrow that they had brought one of them looked back at us all and said "Leave no trace." 

The U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management Utah had previously confirmed that "an unknown party or parties" removed the monolith, but failed to mention whether the party was human or alien.

Visitors lilke Bernards had been flocking to the area to see the mysterious object in person, despite warnings from the bureau and the Department of Public Safety to stay away. It seems the four mystery men who hauled it off are in agreement with the department, as far as leaving no trace is concerned. 

Bernards added:

If you're asking why we didn't stop them well, they were right to take it out. We stayed the night and the next day hiked to a hill top overlooking the area where we saw at least 70 different cars (and a plane) in and out. Cars parking everywhere in the delicate desert landscape. Nobody following a path or each other. We could literally see people trying to approach it from every direction to try and reach it, permanently altering the untouched landscape. Mother Nature is an artist, it's best to leave the art in the wild to her.

So — there's one part of the mystery solved. All of this still fails to explain the object's origin and offers no insight into the recent appearance of a sister monolith in Romania. You'll have to stay tuned for more information about that. 

See Bernards' full post below.
 

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