Brew: This video is sponsored by NordVPN.
Chill: Grill, Grill!
Whatever happened to that Monolith that showed up in Utah?
Grill: Monolith? What are you talking about?
Chill: This thing! It’s like from that movie Space Odyssey!
Grill: Uhhhhhh...
Brew: In November 2020, an alien
monolith straight out of Arthur C.
Clarke’s magnum opus 2001: A Space Odyssey
has appeared in Utah, and the world could
not get enough of it and everything after.
Was it really a piece of space-age alien tech, sent
here by mysterious extraterrestrial benefactors?
Or is the answer to this mystery a little closer to home?
Today’s episode covers an ongoing story,
so some details may be subject to change.
We also ask you not to seek out any
of the places mentioned in this story.
And with that out of the way, let’s get into it!
Grill: So it was aliens, right? Right?
Brew: If I had my way, of course it would be aliens.
The first monolith was discovered on November 18th by
the Utah Department of Public Safety's Aero Bureau.
Officers were flying overhead working with the
Division of Wildlife Resources to count bighorn sheep
for a sheep census, when someone in the helicopter
noticed a strange… thing on the ground below them.
Bret Hutchings, the pilot of the helicopter said
that "One of the biologists ... spotted it, and we
just happened to fly directly over the top of it”.
They found that it stood about 12 feet high,
and sat in the centre of a small outcropping.
Hutchings said that it didn’t seem like it was
dropped, but planted specifically at that spot.
The Utah Department of Public Safety however, was quick to
tell the public that placing art in public spaces without
permission is illegal “no matter what planet you're from”.
The location of the monolith remained, at first,
a secret, since the DPS didn’t want anyone
coming to see it out of fear that folks would get
stranded as the object was far from civilization.
This didn’t stop many internet sleuths from
ascertaining the location of this space oddity.
Reddit user Tim Slane cross referenced images
of various canyons via Google Maps, to images
from the DPS helicopter flight that discovered
the object in the first place to locate it.
He noted that little clues like the cliff’s height, the
erosion patterns, and the flatness of the floor indicated that
it was a spot not usually flooded, and was likely at the top
of a watershed, a series of lowland areas that flow water, via
rivers and streams, into a larger body of water at the bottom.
He scoured the Utah landscape for watersheds until he
found what he was looking for— A small canyon, cleared
of vegetation, with an odd protrusion in the center.
There it was.
He also noted that satellite images on Google
Earth from 2013 and mid-2015 showed no sign of the
object, but images taken after October 2016 do.
So whoever planted the monolith must have done so after 2015.
After locating the object, Slane posted the
coordinates online for all to see, which inspired
adventurer David Surber to go take a look.
Surber found the object at those
coordinates, and quickly ran some tests.
He found that the monolith was not magnetic—
David: Y’all wanted the magnet test… So I didn’t
bring a strong enough one, but not sticking.
‘Kay, those are the attempts.
Brew: —and sounded like a cardboard box when
you knocked on it, hinting that it was hollow.
He also posted instructions on how to drive
to the location which spurred an influx
of tourists taking photos like madlads.
Other visitors later noted that the monolith was
likely not built by aliens, that is unless aliens
made a habit of building their extraterrestrial
technology out of materials you can buy at Home Depot.
Specifically, sheets of metal and rivets.
Grill: Oh yeah.
My favourite scene from ET is when the alien
ship shows up and we found out his family was
just doing some shopping at Home Hardware.
Brew: The plot thickens though, for only 10 days later, on
the 28th of November, the object vanished without a trace.
On the following Sunday the Bureau of Land
Management announced that the monolith
had been removed by an “unknown party”.
Grill: Who took it away?
ALIENS TOOK IT BACK!
Brew: Unfortunately not.
Fortunately for us, photographer Ross Bernards had driven six
hours to see the monolith, and after taking some really good
photos, watched as a set of four men stalked into the canyon,
wheelbarrow in tow, with the express intent of removing it.
They quickly set to work rocking the object back and
forth, attempting to dislodge it from its pedestal.
Bernards overhead one say, “This is why you don’t leave
trash in the desert” as they popped the monolith out.
The men then broke it apart, set it in the
wheelbarrow, and hauled it away in a truck.
As they left, one man turned to
them, and said “leave no trace”.
Chill: Leave only footprints, and
take nothing but pictures, right?
Brew: Exactly!
In addition to that, a number of days after the monolith
was removed, a video released on Tiktok and Youtube
from a user called “Mr Slackline” that shows the point
of view of one of the men as they haul away the object.
Grill: So who the hell are they?
Brew: Well, on December 2nd, Utah residents Andy Lewis
and Sylvan Christensen came forward saying that they
were the individuals who removed the original monolith.
Christensen said the reason they removed it was
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, things like this don’t help”.
A great influx of tourists could destroy the beauty of
the landscape, so far untouched by grubby human hands.
Remember, this monolith was discovered during a
census of the bighorn sheep population, so any
human intervention could harm their habitat.
The Bureau of Land Management has also said that
the location has no amenities, so tourists were
throwing garbage on the ground, driving over
vegetation, and even defecating wherever they liked.
Grill: Ew! What’s wrong with these people?
Brew: Your guess is as good as mine.
But it didn’t end there!
On November 26th, a second monolith was discovered
outside of the Romanian city of Piatra Neamţ.
Chill: It’s like the first one!
Something sus is going down, homie. I swear.
Brew: The main theory so far, as set out by
journalist Robert Iosub, is that this second
object is a shoddy knockoff of the first.
Appearing to be built by a presumably local welder,
who quickly threw it together and placed it nearby.
Grill: A knockoff? How do they know?
Brew: Well, first the Utah Monolith was neatly
riveted together, not welded, and second, the
Romanian Monolith was covered in random… circles? squiggles?
Perhaps added to increase the “alienness” of
the object which the Utah Monolith did not have.
Those who found it also mentioned that this
monolith was not embedded as firmly as the first,
suggesting it was placed there quite stealthily.
This, of course, didn’t prove that whoever planted
the first didn’t plant the second, but it too
mysteriously vanished 5 days later on December 1st.
The story continues though.
Early in the morning of December 3rd, a third monolith
was found in California, on a mountain outside Atascadero.
When discovered, onlookers found that it was not planted
firmly like the one in Utah, it could easily be pushed over.
This suggests to some that it could be another
copycat, but it’s all speculation at this point.
This 3rd monolith was, like the first two,
also removed, however the motives behind this
incident are a bit less scrupulous than the first.
Vice first reported that the 3rd monolith had been removed and
replaced with a wooden cross by a group of right-wing vandals.
They toppled the pillar proclaiming “America
first” and “Christ is king”, before launching
into racist, and anti-immigrant tirades.
They also called the monolith quote, “gay”.
Chill: They sound like the biggest losers on Earth.
Grill: More like the biggest losers in the galaxy.
Chill: Speaking of galaxy, Grill, do you
wanna watch the new Star Floors movie?
I hear that the space janitor finally gets to
use his powers to defeat the evil King Palpabean!
Grill: Sure, but it’s not on the Canadian Notflix.
Chill: No problem!
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Brew: Now, if you boys are done talking
about movies, the question still stands.
Who made the original pillar in Utah in the first place?
The prevalent theory at first was that the monolith was
created by the late minimalist sculptor John McCracken.
The David Zwirner gallery, which exhibited his work since
the 90s, saw the object and certified it a genuine McCracken.
But if that was true, then McCracken managed to
pull it off without spilling the beans to anyone.
Not even his close family.
That being said, James Hayward, a friend of
McCracken and artist himself, was not so optimistic.
He said that the corners on the monolith “are made
by a machine called a brake, which bends metal.
When you bend metal with a machine,
the corners are not sharp and crisp.
They’re rounded”, whereas McCracken’s sculptures
were made by hand, specifically without using machine
tools in order to make his sculptures with fine edges.
In fact, when looked more closely, McCracken’s other
work doesn’t look much like the Utah monolith anyway.
His work typically involves rectangular boards
of plywood covered in fibreglass and painted.
They do look a hell of a lot like the monolith
from Kubrick’s, 2001: A Space Odyssey though.
Not only this, but if you remember the monolith was
installed in and around 2015, except McCracken died in 2011.
On December 3rd, an Instagram artist collective
called “themostfamousartist” broke the news that
they’re now selling “Authentic Alien Monoliths”.
Their original post reads “any collectors
interested in an official alien monolith?
Asking 45k.
Includes documentation and signed”.
Grill: Wait, did they just admit to a crime?
Brew: Not, technically.
The spokesperson for the collective, a gentleman by
the name of Matthew Christopher Monahan, or Matty Mo,
has not directly said that they were behind the first
monolith, because doing so would be admitting to a crime.
He said “I can say we are well known for stunts
of this nature and at this time we are offering
authentic art objects through monoliths-as-a-service.”
It’s a possibility that this artist collective might simply
be jumping on the bandwagon to take credit, but without a full
admission or proof that they planted it, we can’t be sure.
Then, another one showed up in Melbourne on December
8th, and the creators claim to have placed both
of the Romanian and the Utah monoliths as well.
They offered no proof though, and in a video called
“Why did I build Monoliths all around the World?”
they even pay someone else to build one for them.
It appears to be a cross-promotional stunt
between Youtubers “I Did a Thing” and Aussie
Netflix show, “Aunty Donna’s Big Ol House of Fun”.
Their timeline doesn’t add up though.
The Utah Monolith had been planted sometime before October
2016, while they “claim” they planned it in December 2019.
Brew: So it just looks like they were
capitalizing on a viral sensation.
Speaking of which, many have suggested the men
who removed the first monolith did so because they
wanted to be famous, but that’s not entirely true.
Andy Lewis, one of the men who removed it, made an Instagram
post on December 20th, 2020, stating that they had donated
the Monolith to the Bureau of Land Management “so that they
can launch a full investigation surrounding who installed
the art, why, and figure out a place for it to live now”,
because “the idea behind the art — as well as the art was
beautiful” but, they “also wanted to create discussions
behind land management techniques and the importance of the
natural world, its native people, plants, and inhabitants.”
OK, so in the months since we began working on this episode,
over 100 monoliths have been discovered across the globe.
That includes one made of...
gingerbread, which doesn’t really count, and
one that was discovered by Hide the Pain Harold,
the internet’s favourite man on the edge.
I can’t cover all of them.
In cases like this I really wish I had an assistant.
There’s just… so many to sort through.
I’m so tired.
Grill: So… it’s not aliens.
Brew: Probably not.
Grill: And it was just some jerks looking to make money?
Brew: Well, whether or not they are the original
creators, and whether or not their intention
was to simply make money, we may never know.
At the end of the day, there are positives
and negatives from this whole situation.
Multiple environmental agencies have said the
environmental impact of these objects would be
disastrous, not to mention the danger inherent with
people running off into the wilderness could be tragic.
But it was a really nice break from 2020.
A globe spanning alien mystery will do that.
Chill: I still think it sucks that
only rich people can have them now.
What’s the point of a mysterious alien monolith
if you know that Geoff Buttzos can just buy one like it’s a print off Etsy?
Brew: I’m reminded of what John Green has said.
John: The maybes are essential to what makes art
feel visceral and thrilling to me, and I know it’s
human nature to seek answers and I hope we find them,
but in the meantime, let’s revel in the mystery”
Brew: And now we have the answers,
but wasn’t it more fun without them?