In November 2020, state biologists surveying wild bighorn sheep by helicopter in San Juan County, Utah, noticed something odd in a remote sandstone canyon: a triangular metal pillar about ten feet tall.
They later visited the curiosity on foot and took photos, soon spawning international headlines and internet buzz. Comparisons to the obelisk in the science fiction classic 2001: A Space Odyssey inevitably arose, along with suggestions (most surely satirical) that it was the work of aliens. Internet sleuths comparing archive satellite images discovered that it had been placed there some time in late 2016 and had not been noticed.