A mysterious monolith, resembling the ones that sparked global intrigue during the pandemic, has been taken down by authorities after being discovered in a remote mountain range near Las Vegas.
The monolith, a 195cm shimmering prism, was found by the Las Vegas police search and rescue team near Gass Peak in the Desert National Wildlife Refuge. This vast refuge, home to bighorn sheep and desert tortoises, is a protected area managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Removal of the mysterious monolith
The police announced the removal of the monolith on Friday ( June 21) via a series of posts on X. “It remains unknown how the item got to its location or who might be responsible,” they stated.
These mysterious structures, reminiscent of the monolith in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” first appeared in Utah’s red-rock desert in November 2020. Since then, they’ve been spotted in Romania, central California, New Mexico, and even on Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas, only to vanish just as mysteriously.
“This thing is not from another world,” clarified Lieutenant Nick Street of Utah’s Department of Public Safety back in 2020 when the first monolith was found. That monolith had been embedded in an area so remote that officials withheld its location to prevent people from getting lost or stranded. Nevertheless, internet sleuths quickly identified the coordinates, leading to a surge of tourists who inadvertently damaged the fragile ecosystem.
Mysterious and dangerous?
Similarly, concerns for public safety and environmental protection prompted the removal of the latest monolith in Nevada. The Desert National Wildlife Refuge, the largest wildlife refuge outside Alaska, is critical for the protection of rare plants and animals. “This poses a danger to you and the environment,” warned the Las Vegas police, urging the public to stay on marked trails and refrain from leaving behind objects.
Acting manager of the wildlife refuge, Christa Weise, confirmed the removal of the monolith but did not comment on whether federal authorities had launched a criminal investigation. Currently, the monolith is stored at a secret location while authorities decide its fate.
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A shiny monolith was removed from mountains outside Las Vegas. How it got there is a mystery
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