A third metallic monolith has appeared. This time, it’s in California.Like its counterparts in Utah and Romania, no one knows who placed the gleaming object on a hiking trail about halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco.The first monolith was spotted by public safety workers in a remote area of Utah on November 18. Later in the month, another similar structure was found on a hill in northern Romania, in the city of Piatra Neamt.Visitor: Monolith Toppled by Group Who Said ‘Leave No Trace’ Colorado photographer tells KSTU-TV that he saw four men come to remote Utah site Friday night and push over hollow, stainless steel objectBoth have since disappeared. According to the Associated Press, a group of athletes said on social media they broke the Utah monolith into pieces and took it away in a wheelbarrow.The monoliths have evoked images from the sci-fi classic, “2001: A Space Odyssey,” in which a black monolith, seemingly made by aliens, appears throughout the movie and appears to have a role in human evolution. These monoliths, however, are presumably made right here on Earth.Bret Hutchings, who spotted the Utah monolith, said the object appeared to be manmade, calling it “more of an art form than any kind of alien life form.”According to Reuters, some have speculated the monoliths are the work of artist John McCracken, who died in 2011. His son, reportedly told The New York Times in 2002 that his father “would like to leave his artwork in remote places to be discovered later.”
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