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How it got there is still unknown.
“It remains unknown how the item came to its location or who may be responsible,” Las Vegas police said Friday in a series of X posts announcing the removal of the glowing 1.9cm prism.
Its discovery over the weekend and its swift removal over public safety and environmental concerns revived a pandemic-era mystery that captured the public imagination when the shiny monoliths resembled the site that appeared in the Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey began to appear all over the world.
Members of the Las Vegas police search and rescue team found the site near Gass Mountain, part of the vast National Wildlife Refuge in the desert, where bighorn sheep and desert tortoises can be found roaming.
It was the latest discovery in a series of mysterious columns that have appeared since at least 2020.
In November of that year, a similar metal monolith was discovered deep in the Mars-like landscape of Utah’s Red Rock Desert.
Then came sightings in Romania, central California, New Mexico and on the famous Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas.
They all disappeared as quickly as they appeared, adding to the lore.
“This thing is out of this world,” Lt. Nick Street of the Utah Department of Public Safety said at the time.
But Internet sleuths quickly found the coordinates, and hordes of curious tourists eager to see and touch the unearthly object arrived, flattening the plants with their cars and leaving human waste in the bathroom-less desert.
It was illegally installed on federal land created to protect bighorn sheep and is home to rare plants and desert tortoises.
The Wilderness National Wildlife Refuge, which is managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, is the largest wildlife refuge outside of Alaska and can cover twice the state of Rhode Island.
‘Mysterious’ photos still unexplained
Krista Wise, acting manager of the wildlife refuge, confirmed Friday that the monolith had been removed, but said she could not comment on whether federal authorities had opened a criminal investigation.
The police department said the object is being kept under wraps while authorities try to figure out the best way to dispose of or store the massive structure, made of reflective sheet metal that is molded into a prism and held together with rebar and concrete.
Photos accompanying the department’s social media posts showed the site on its side after it was removed, leaving a large dent in the ground as the rebar was buried deep in the dirt and rock.
The department said it “discourages anyone from straying from marked trails or leaving objects and items behind.”
“This poses a danger to you and the environment,” Las Vegas police said.
In Utah, the removal of the monolith also left behind a hole in the red rock.
The Bureau of Land Management said Friday it is still actively investigating the case in Utah.
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