(Newser)
“The Utah Department of Public Safety really wants you not to start in the newly discovered monolith in San Juan County. But “the genie has run out of bottles” and “it’s a free country,” Corporal Andrew Battenfield tells the BBC. The outlet reports dozens of “maybe hundreds of people” have visited the monolith since officials announced their discovery on Monday. Officials did not provide the exact location of the structure, which was spotted by a helicopter pilot on November 18, fearing visitors would be put in danger. But the online slefs realized. Tim Redane, a Reddit user, said the BBC tracked the helicopter’s path until it landed on the radar, signaling a possible landing. He then checked the geographical characteristics of the satellite images, which were the same as those seen in the photos. A long, narrow shadow appeared in the images from October 2016, but not from August 2015.
Shortly after Slane posted the coordinates on the Internet, images appeared of people sitting in the public area visiting the building – a three-sheet stainless steel-looking, riveted and bedrock-embedded structure. David Surber, a former infantry officer in the U.S. Army, claims he was the first. The 33-year-old Utah resident said he drove for six hours before arriving Wednesday morning. “I was attracted by the fact that this object had been there for five years, hidden in nature,” he tells the BBC. “It was a good escape from all the negatives we experienced in 2020.” The monolith is thought to be a work of art, probably inspired by the late John McCracken. Internet fraudsters pointed to Petecia Le Fawnhawra, an artist known for his secret desert sculptures. But he tells Artnet News that “you can’t demand that.” Officials have not yet said whether the monolith will remain in place. (Read more weird stories.)
