{"id":50125,"date":"2020-11-30T13:49:05","date_gmt":"2020-11-30T20:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-photographer-one-of-last-to-view-mysterious-monolith-in-utah\/"},"modified":"2020-11-30T20:49:05","modified_gmt":"2020-11-30T20:49:05","slug":"durango-photographer-one-of-last-to-view-mysterious-monolith-in-utah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-photographer-one-of-last-to-view-mysterious-monolith-in-utah\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango photographer one of last to view mysterious monolith in Utah"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Local
Local Utah authorities have said they do not have the resources to investigate the disappearance of a mysterious monolith in the Utah desert.<\/span>Terrance Siemon\/Special to the Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

As mysteriously as it arrived, it was gone.<\/p>\n

A silver monolith was discovered Nov. 18 in the Utah desert, about 11 feet tall and apparently made of stainless steel, which has garnered national and international attention.<\/p>\n

This weekend, however, the monolith mysteriously disappeared, according to public land management agencies, which said they did not remove the illegally installed structure.<\/p>\n

Durango photographer and videographer Terrance Siemon, who works with Ballantine Communications Inc., which owns The Durango Herald<\/em>, said he went to view the monolith Friday and was likely one of the last people to see it before it disappeared.<\/p>\n

Siemon said he and another friend who is also a photographer arrived at the monolith around 1 p.m. Friday to a packed crowd. So, the two waited until nightfall to take photos once people left.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had it to ourselves,\u201d Siemon said.<\/p>\n

\"A
A mysterious monolith was found Nov. 18 in the Utah desert, only to disappear about 10 days later.<\/span>Terrance Siemon\/Special to the Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Siemon left around 7 p.m. By 11:30 p.m. that same night, another group that went to visit the monolith reported it was gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiterally, right after we left, some people came in and hauled it out,\u201d Siemon said.<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/em> reported Tuesday that four men removed the monolith about 8:40 p.m. Friday. Professional sportsman Andy L. Lewis of Moab took credit Tuesday for the sculpture\u2019s disappearance with his group, posting a video on his Facebook page, the Times story<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

Public land agencies have been vague about where the monolith was located, though reports have said it was somewhere in the Canyonlands National Park area.<\/p>\n

Siemon said he found the location online.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s literally in the middle of nowhere,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Durango
Durango photographer Terrance Siemon said he was likely one of the last people to view the monolith placed in the backcountry of the Utah desert.<\/span>Terrance Siemon\/Special to the Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office in Utah said on social media it would not investigate further.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we take all reports of crime seriously, we do not have the proper resources to devote much time to the appearance and subsequent disappearance\/theft of the structure that was discovered in a remote area of public lands within our county,\u201d the Sheriff\u2019s Office posted. \u201cHowever, with hundreds visiting the area during the last few days, perhaps someone saw something suspicious.\u201d<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Illegally installed structure gained international attention<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,4259,195,121],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-50125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter-sign-up","tag-u-s-bureau-of-land-management","tag-utah"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50125"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=50125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}