What began as routine wildlife support took a seemingly "extraterrestrial" turn for the Department of Public Safety of Utah after officers tripped upon a mysterious metal monolith in the middle of rural Utah.
Reports on the incident said that officers from the Utah Department of Public Safety's Aero Bureau were flying via a helicopter middle of last week, helping the Division of Wildlife Resources count bighorn sheep in Utah's southeastern part, when they saw something that appeared right "out of '2001: A Space Odyssey.' movie"
One of the biologists, according to pilot Bret Hutchings, spotted the monolith, "and we just happened to fly directly over the top of it."
The monolith was in the central part of the red rock and was described as a "shiny, silver metal monolith, sticking out of the ground. Hutchings estimated it to be 10 to 12 feet high.
Monolith, Seemingly Planted
It did not seem like it was just dropped randomly to the ground. Instead, he said, it appeared as if it had been planted there.
Hutchings also said they sort of joked around that if one of them suddenly disappeared, then the rest of them make a run for it.
Still, the pilot continued, he thought it was most probably placed there by whom he suspected, an artist, instead of an alien.
He assumed that "it is some new wave artist or something, or, you know, somebody that was a big fat," referring to a scene in the 1968 film where there was an appearance of a black monolith.
In a statement issued Monday, the UTAH DPS said, whether the monolith was intentionally placed there or not, it is still illegal to have structures or art installed without seeking authorization on public lands, "no matter what planet you're from."
The monolith's location, also according to DPS, is not being divulged, and it remains unclear who or what placed the monolith in that area.
As of yesterday, the Bureau of Land Management has yet to decide if further investigations are needed in connection to the occurrence.
What This Monolith Occurrence Has to Do with '2001: A Space Odyssey'
The "2001: A Space Odyssey" of Stanley Kubrick continues to generate headlines more than five decades after it was first shown in theaters.
This science-fiction epic returns in a form of news following the discovery of the crew members from the Utah Department of Public Safety and the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources of a silver metal monolith out in the Utah desert.
In this film, when the apes discovered the monolith during its first chapter, it has implicated that the mysterious slab imparts the animal species to utilize bones as weapons.
In the latter part of the film, the human discovery of the monolith results in breakthroughs in AI or artificial intelligence.
The exact location of the monolith was not given so as to prevent the public from traveling out into that Utah desert.
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