Adventurers locate, travel to mysterious Utah monolith despite authorities’ warnings

The Utah Department of Public Safety will not be keeping the secret to human evolution for itself.

Dozens of adventurers have descended on the mysterious, “2001: A Space Odyssey”-like monolith discovered last week in the Utah desert.

Utah’s DPS refused to release the monolith’s location, saying it was so remote that people would be in danger of getting lost looking for it.

But between Stanley Kubrick fans, internet researchers and good old-fashioned adventurers, people figured out the monolith’s exact location down to the longitude and latitude. Then, it was just a matter of getting there and taking photos for Instagram.

This Nov. 18, 2020 photo provided by the Utah Department of Public Safety shows a Utah state worker inspecting a metal monolith that was found installed in the ground in a remote area of red rock in Utah.

Using Google Earth, the online sleuths also determined that the monolith had been standing since at least October 2016.

It was discovered Nov. 18 by DPS crews counting sheep in southeast Utah. It remains unclear who put the monolith there, though DPS reminded people that “using, occupying, or developing the public lands or their resources without a required authorization is illegal, no matter what planet you are from.”