A group of men livestreamed themselves toppling the 12ft tall metallic structure overnight on Wednesday, only a few hours after its initial discovery.
The large metallic structure is the third of its kind found in recent weeks, the first having been found in Utah on November 18 and another appearing in Romania on 27 November. The structures’ mysterious origins and random locations have been captivating conspirators online.
In a clip circulating on social media, one man turns to the camera and says: “We don’t want illegal aliens from Mexico, or outer space”.
Several others then emerge and begin to push the monument over as they chant “Christ is king.”
Vice reported that the uploader’s account featured other videos including conspiracy theories involving Hilary Clinton and other racist content.
The monolith, which had been situated on Pine Mountain near the small Californian town of Atascadero, was the third of its kind to have been discovered in recent weeks.
First Contact
The original monolith was spotted in Utah on 18 November by officials in the Utah Department of Public Safety (DPS). The team were surveying the area by helicopter in an attempt to count the region’s longhorn sheep.
Brett Hutchings, the helicopter’s pilot, told KSLTV: “One of the biologists is the one who spotted it and we just happened to fly directly over the top of it”.
“He was like, ‘Woah, woah, woah, turn around, turn around!’”
Officials from the DPS who visited the site shared several photos of the structure online,but refused to disclose its location over concerns tourists would get lost accessing the remote location.
However, a Reddit sleuth named Tim Slane was able to locate the monument on Google Earth by tracking the helicopter’s approximate route.
Slane told the BBC: “I have received some angry messages for my revealing of the location. If I had not found it, someone else would likely have found it soon enough”.
Slane’s discovery also revealed the monument had actually first appeared some time between August 2015 and October 2016 adding to the object’s intrigue.
Many drew parallels between the mysterious monolith and a similar structure seen in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Other theories suggested the monolith may have been the work of late minimalist sculptor John McCracken.
A spokesperson for McCracken’s gallerist, David Zwirner had told the Guardian the piece was not McCraken’s. However, Zwirner later suggested the work could be McCracken’s when speaking to the New York Times.
E.T. Go Home
The site attracted many enthusiastic visitors until, on 27 November, an Instagram post by ‘rossbernards’ shared photos of a group toppling and removing the Utah monolith.
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Bernards reported: “All four of them came up and pushed it almost to the ground on one side.”
“They quickly broke it apart and as they were carrying [it] to the wheelbarrow that they had bought one of them looked back at us and said ‘leave no trace’”.
Adventure athletes Andy Lewis and Sylvan Christensen later announced they had removed the monolith. A YouTube video featuring images and footage of the removal was uploaded to the account ‘Mr.Slackline’ was later confirmed to be Lewis by the Salt Lake City Tribune.
Second Wave
Also on 27 November, the same day as the Utah monolith was removed, a second, near identical structure was found in Romania.
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The monument, which was located on Batca Doamnei hill near the archeological landmark of the Petrodava Dacian Fortress made international headlines before also disappearing on 30 November.
Two days later, the third monument in Atascadero, California was reported. However, visitors suggested it seemed more flimsy than the previous two. This fact was seemingly confirmed by the success of the recent attempt to topple it.
Who planted the monoliths, why they were created and if they’re all connected remains a mystery. We here at Raven look forward to welcoming the aliens with a range of carefully scrutinised Christmas sandwiches.