Global News
A third metal monolith appeared without explanation in California, continuing a mysterious — though evidently human — trend that has captivated armchair conspiracy theorists around the world.
The new metal monolith was discovered on Pine Mountain in Atascadero, Calif., on Wednesday morning, in a spot that was unoccupied one day earlier.
The three-sided, roughly three-metre-tall object was similar in size and shape to the ones recently discovered in Utah and Romania, which have since disappeared.
Got up close and personal with the mystery California #monolith today. Anyone else been out to see it? pic.twitter.com/8pOimhQiyY
— Kaytlyn Leslie (@kaytyleslie) December 3, 2020
California resident Gary Lyons says he came upon the new monolith early Wednesday during his daily hike on Pine Mountain.
“I guess this is a thing now, right?” he says in a brief video showing the object. “Be prepared to see these everywhere.”
The objects’ origins and true purpose remain unknown, but the sudden trend is starting to echo the crop circle phenomenon of decades past.
It’s also inspiring a similar mix of fascination, skepticism and (mostly) tongue-in-cheek theories about the supernatural.
Internet boards such as Reddit and 4chan have hosted all sorts of speculation about the objects. Are they art? Are they alien? Or are they simply pranksters trying to capture the general public’s imagination during a weird, scary and locked-down 2020?
The trend dates back to mid-November, when Utah state officials first discovered a monolith while counting bighorn sheep from a helicopter in a remote area near Moab. They revealed photos of the object while trying to keep its location a secret, but internet sleuths ultimately tracked it down using public data and satellite footage.
Archived satellite footage revealed that the Utah monument had been standing in the remote wilderness of Utah for at least four years, unnoticed by the public and unannounced by its creator.
Internet pilgrims flocked to the site shortly after its location was revealed, and news of it quickly spread around the world.
However, no one has claimed it as their own or explained its true purpose.
