The Utah monolith was a metal pillar that stood in a slot canyon in northern San Juan County, Utah, United States. The pillar was 9.5 ft (2.9 m) tall and made of metal sheets riveted into a triangular prism. It was unlawfully placed on public land between July and October 2016, where it stood unnoticed for over four years until its discovery and removal in late 2020. The identity of its creators and their objectives remain unknown as of 2026.
Officials with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources discovered the monolith in November 2020 during a helicopter survey of wild bighorn sheep. Within days of its discovery, members of the public located the pillar using GPS mapping software; many visitors then traveled to the remote location, causing damage to the local environment. Following intense media coverage, the monolith was covertly removed on November 27, 2020, by four residents of Moab, Utah, including athlete Andy Lewis. After nearly a month in their possession, Lewis gave the monolith to the Bureau of Land Management.
Following the discovery of the monolith, over two hundred similar metal columns were erected throughout the world, including elsewhere in North America and in countries in Europe and Australia. Many were built by local artists as deliberate imitations of the Utah monolith.
On November 18, 2020, wildlife officials with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources were in San Juan County, Utah, conducting a survey of bighorn sheep from a helicopter piloted by the Utah Department of Public Safety (DPS). While flying over a slot canyon in a remote area, one of the wildlife officials spotted a metal pillar and asked the pilot, Bret Hutchings, to fly over the location again. Hutchings described the moment to a local news channel:
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, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, turn around, turn around!" And I was like, "What?" And he's like, "There's this thing back there – we've got to go look at it!"
Hutchings said that the pillar appeared to be man-made and had been "firmly planted in the ground". He described it as "about the strangest thing that I've come across out there in all my years of flying", and added: "We were kind of joking around that if one of us suddenly disappears, then the rest of us make a run for it."
On November 20, the Utah DPS posted a photo of the pillar on Instagram. On November 23, the Utah DPS released videos of the pillar on their website but did not disclose the pillar's location, citing safety concerns.
The pillar was installed by unknown individuals on public land in an area known as Lockhart Basin, which became part of Bears Ears National Monument shortly after its installation. The site has no public services such as parking, restrooms, or cell phone service.
The exact location of the monolith was not disclosed by the Utah DPS to prevent people from endangering themselves while trying to find it. Within a day of the Utah DPS announcement, Reddit user Tim Slane identified the object on Google Earth by tracking the flight path of the helicopter and comparing it with the videos the Utah DPS released. Slane told The Verge that "he was aided by clues like the cliffs' height, the canyon's erosion pattern (indicating a more exposed area), and a flat floor suggesting it wasn't frequently flooded (and, by extension, was near the top of a watershed)". Maxar satellite images suggest that the monolith appeared between July 7, 2016, and October 21, 2016, and Google Earth satellite images show that surrounding scrub vegetation had been cleared.
Within 48 hours of the Utah DPS announcement, members of the public had reached the site and uploaded photographs and videos of the monolith to social media.
The metal structure was a triangular prism with three sides that stood approximately 9.5 ft (2.9 m) tall above the bedrock. The base of the monolith formed the shape of an equilateral triangle; the sides of the triangle measured approximately 1.9 ft (0.58 m) long, and its altitude around 1.67 ft (0.51 m). The structure was not magnetic and had a hollow interior. It appeared to be made of stainless steel or aluminum sheets 1⁄8 inch (3 mm) thick, joined together with blind rivets. There was silicone caulk or epoxy along the base, and one early visitor said that the metal produced a sound "like a cardboard box" when hit or knocked on.
Dave Sparks of the reality television series Diesel Brothers went to the monolith and described it in a video he posted on Instagram: "They got a concrete saw and they cut it into the red rock there. You can see right here on the bottom where they had a couple of over cuts with the saws." Wendy Wischer of the University of Utah's School of Fine Art said: "One person alone could not have done it so there is a group of people who have some knowledge of it somewhere. Most artists want some recognition for what they are doing but this seems to include a level of humor and mystery as part of the intention."
Upon first discovering the pillar, the Utah DPS described it as a "monolith", a term later repeated by other media outlets. Although the word monolith refers to a single great stone, the word has also become closely associated with the Monolith from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), to which the Utah monolith bears a general resemblance.
Several art critics and online users compared the object to works by artist John McCracken, who lived in the Southwest, believed in the existence of extraterrestrial life, and expressed an interest in leaving behind a piece of artwork in the desert. The object resembled the metallic monoliths McCracken made and was described as "nearly identical" to McCracken's Fair (2011) by New York gallerist David Zwirner (who displays the work). A spokesman for Zwirner later retracted this statement, telling The Guardian that it was likely created by another artist paying homage to McCracken.
Several online users suggested that the monolith was the work of Petecia Le Fawnhawk, who had installed sculptures in desert locations and lived in Utah, but she denied that it was her work. An artist collective known as "The Most Famous Artist" initially took credit for installing the monolith, but later admitted that the work was not theirs. The Utah Film Commission said that to their knowledge the monolith was not part of any film production.
As of March 2025, it remains unknown who installed the monolith. The New York Times said its unknown origin "provides a pleasant sensation of uncertainty" and that it might "lose its aura and power if we knew who had created it".
The monolith became the subject of international media attention following its discovery, leading to intense speculation online on its origins. Hundreds of people visited the remote site after its location was discovered. Local residents feared that a surge in foot traffic could damage local Native American sites and artifacts, including petroglyphs. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which manages the land, reported that tourists "left behind a mess of human waste, cars parked on vegetation and other debris" and warned that the site could not handle the sudden influx of visitors.
On November 23, 2020, the Bureau of Land Management issued a statement that it is illegal to install structures, including art, on public lands without permission "no matter what planet you're from". The Utah Department of Heritage & Arts expressed concern that the monolith's installation could have damaged archeological artifacts in the region, writing in a statement on Facebook: "[W]hile the monolith has better craftsmanship than graffiti, this is still vandalism. It irreversibly altered the natural environment on public lands."