Mysterious Monolith Discovered in Utah

It's just "about the strangest thing that I’ve come across out there in all my years of flying," a Utah Department of Public Safety helicopter pilot tells KSL-TV: That thing is a 10- to 12-foot high metal monolith sticking up out of the ground in a "very remote" red rock area in the southeastern part of the state. The helicopter was assisting Utah Division of Wildlife Resource officers in counting bighorn sheep when a biologist spotted the monolith. "He was like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, turn around, turn around!" the pilot says.

"We came across this, in the middle of nowhere, buried deep in the rock. Inquiring minds want to know, what the heck is it? Anyone?" the Department of Public Safety's Aero Bureau posted on Instagram. The team says the monolith seems to have been planted in the ground, as opposed to having been dropped from above, and that it appears to be manmade; some of them suspect it was installed as some sort of artwork. There's also, of course, rampant speculation that it was installed by aliens. "It is illegal to install structures or art without authorization on federally managed public lands, no matter what planet you’re from," the DPS notes in a press release. (More strange stuff stories.)