A photographer who made the trek into the wilderness to view the Utah statue says he witnessed four men taking down the “monolith” and carrying it off.
Ross Bernard was present when men appeared and toppled the statue before disassembling it and carrying it away. His Instagram photos memorialized the moment. It’s unknown why the men took the statue away or who they were.
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I had just finished taking some photos of the monolith under the moonlight and was taking a break, thinking about settings I needed to change for my last battery of drone flight when we heard some voices coming up the canyon. We were contemplating packing up our things as they walked up, so they could enjoy it for themselves like we did. At this point I looked down at my watch and it was 8:40 PM.
4 guys rounded the corner and 2 of them walked forward. They gave a couple of pushes on the monolith and one of them said “You better have got your pictures.” He then gave it a big push, and it went over, leaning to one side. He yelled back to his other friends that they didn’t need the tools. The other guy with him at the monolith then said “this is why you don’t leave trash in the desert.” Then all four of them came up and pushed it almost to the ground on one side, before they decided push it back the other when it then popped out and landed on the ground with a loud bang. They quickly broke it apart and as they were carrying to the wheelbarrow that they had brought one of them looked back at us all and said “Leave no trace.” That was at 8:48.
Why they took it seems fairly obvious.
“We stayed the night and the next day hiked to a hill top overlooking the area where we saw at least 70 different cars (and a plane) in and out. Cars parking everywhere in the delicate desert landscape. Nobody following a path or each other. We could literally see people trying to approach it from every direction to try and reach it, permanently altering the untouched landscape.”
He concluded: “Mother Nature is an artist, it’s best to leave the art in the wild to her.”
Bernard showing up at nearly the exact moment that those who removed the statue arrived — and sharing a concern about the immediate desert environment — is a little too suspicious for my tastes.
But he and the men who removed the statue are right. Whoever put it there didn’t want a bunch of greenhorns tearing up the desert. If it had been there much longer, damage to the surrounding landscape would have been severe.
You don’t have to be a fanatical green to appreciate the wilderness in which the statue was placed. Best to allow nature to heal and to recall this incident for what it was: a wonderful mystery.
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