Where did it go? Mysterious monolith disappears from SLO County hilltop
Just as quickly as it appeared, a monolith that popped up on a California hilltop is gone.
A day after people began to notice the strange metallic structure decorating a trail in Atascadero’s Stadium Park, the monolith disappeared in an apparent overnight raid by a band of young men from Southern California.
Now, where the towering silver structure once rested at the top of Pine Mountain, only a tangled mass of rebar remained as of Thursday.
The monolith was apparently torn down by a group who embarked on a five-hour overnight road trip to San Luis Obispo County.
The crew, decked out in camo gear, nationalist clothing and night-vision goggles, live-streamed their trip in a video shared on DLive on Thursday morning.
After arriving in Atascadero at around 4 a.m., the video shows, they tore down the structure and replaced it with a large wooden cross, while spewing nationalist and homophobic comments, as they were cheered on by a online audience that numbered above 600 at one point.
The city of Atascadero issued a news release on the monolith Thursday, saying the Police Department “is reviewing the video and looking into this incident further.”
“We are upset that these young men felt the need to drive 5 hours to come into our community and vandalize the monolith,” Mayor Heather Moreno said in the release. “The monolith was something unique and fun in an otherwise stressful time.”
Monolith was part of a worldwide phenomenon
The sudden appearance of a metal monolith on a California hillside was a cause for excitement for many.
A similar monolith captured the public’s imagination after the illegally installed structure was discovered in Utah on lands owned by the federal Bureau of Land Management in mid-November.
Officials attempted to dissuade hikers from trekking out to the mysterious structure by refusing to reveal its location, but that didn’t stop scores of people from making a pilgrimage to the monolith over the Thanksgiving holiday.
Then the Utah monolith disappeared.
The Bureau of Land Management said an “unknown party” removed the structure sometime in the evening of Nov. 27.
Ripley’s Believe it or Not is offering a $10,000 reward for information on the structure’s whereabouts.
Days later after the Utah monolith disappeared, another mysterious monolith popped up in the Romanian city of Piatra Neamt. Then it vanished as well.
Like the Utah and Romanian monoliths, the monolith seen in Atascadero was a tall, three-sided metal structure that appeared to have been welded along the seams.
It’s not clear how the monolith got to the top of a Central Coast peak.
Terrie Banish, Atascadero deputy city manager, said on Wednesday that the city was aware of the structure, which she said measured about 12 feet tall.
She directed requests for comment on the monolith to the Atascadero Land Preservation Society, which maintains Pine Mountain.
Atascadero Land Preservation Society president Mike Orvis said his organization did not have any information on the monolith, including when it appeared or who is responsible for erecting it.
“2020 continues to be an interesting year,” Orvis wrote Wednesday in an email to The Tribune.
When reached again for comment before the structure vanished, Banish couldn’t offer any insight into what might be going on.
“A mystery indeed,” she told The Tribune.
This story has been updated with details on the video and comment from the city of Atascadero.
This story was originally published December 3, 2020 at 12:02 PM.
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