“It remains unknown how the item got to its location or who might be responsible,” Las Vegas police said in a series of posts on X announcing the removal of the glimmering, 1.9-metre-tall prism.
This photo provided by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department shows a monolith near Gass Peak, Nevada. Photo / AP
Its discovery over the weekend, and quick removal because of public safety and environmental concerns, revived a pandemic-era mystery that captured the public’s imagination when shiny monoliths evoking the object that appears in the Stanley Kubrick movie 2001: A Space Odyssey began to appear around the globe.
Members of the Las Vegas police search and rescue team found the object near Gass Peak, part of the vast Desert National Wildlife Refuge where bighorn sheep and desert tortoises can be found roaming.
In November of that year, a similar metal monolith was found deep in the Mars-like landscape of Utah’s red-rock desert. Then came sightings in Romania, central California, New Mexico and on the famed Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas.
“This thing is not from another world,” Lieutenant Nick Street of Utah’s Department of Public Safety said at the time.
The Utah monolith, believed to be the first in the series, had been embedded in the rock in an area so remote that officials didn’t immediately reveal its location for fear of people getting lost or stranded while trying to find it. But internet sleuths quickly found the co-ordinates, and hordes of curious tourists eager to see and touch the otherworldly object arrived, flattening plants with their cars and leaving behind human waste in the bathroom-free backcountry.
The mysterious monolith is removed in Gass Peak, part of the vast Desert National Wildlife Refuge in Nevada. Photo / AP
Authorities said the same concerns led them to tear down the latest monolith on Friday.
It was illegally installed on federal land established to protect bighorn sheep and is home to rare plants and desert tortoises. The Desert National Wildlife Refuge, which is managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, is the largest wildlife refuge outside of Alaska and can cover the state of Rhode Island twice.
Christa Weise, acting manager of the wildlife refuge, confirmed the monolith had been removed but said she couldn’t comment on whether federal authorities have opened a criminal investigation.
The former site of the mysterious monolith. Photo / AP
The police department said the object was being kept at a secret location while authorities try to figure out the best way to dispose or store the massive structure made out of a reflective sheet of metal that was moulded into a prism and secured with rebar and concrete.
Photos accompanying the department’s social media posts showed the object on its side after its removal, which left a large indent in the ground because the rebar had been buried deep into the dirt and rocks.
The department said it “discourages anyone from venturing off marked trails or leaving objects and items behind”.
“This poses a danger to you and the environment,” Las Vegas police said.
In Utah, the removal of the monolith there also left behind a hole in the red rock. The Bureau of Land Management said today it was still actively investigating the Utah case.
