Sylvan Christensen, an adventure tour guide who identified himself as one of the four men responsible for the removal of mysterious monolith from the Utah desert, has been subjected to a barrage of abuse on social media. Ending days of speculation behind the mysterious disappearance of the monolith, four men were photographed by Ross Bernards while removing the structure.
The 12-foot structure was spotted by the wildlife officials in a remote part of a desert in Utah during a routine helicopter flight on Nov. 18. Even before the mystery behind its origin could be found, the structure mysteriously disappeared on Nov. 27. A triangular piece of metal covering a triangular-shaped hole in the rocks was found in the spot where the structure was erected.
'We Are Disappointed Over the Removal of the Structure'
Bernards, who was present at the spot when the monolith was being removed from the site, revealed the same on social media on Monday. The photographer said that he was asked by the group, that appeared out of nowhere at 8.40pm, if he had got his pictures of the structure.
Bernards further revealed that it took almost 10 to 15 minutes for the men to remove the structure by repeatedly shoving it until it titled and fell down eventually . The mysterious structure was then dismantled and carried out with the help of a wheel barrow. While carrying out the remains of the monolith, one of the men said, 'This is why you don't leave trash in the desert', Bernards posted on Instagram.
In a post on Instagram, Christensen wrote: "Don't abandon your personal property on public land if you don't want it to be taken out.' Later, the slackliner posted a video showing Christensen and three strapping the dismantled structure to a wheelbarrow and taking it out from the canyon. One of the men is heard saying, "The safe word is run."
Speaking to Daily Mail, Christensen called the incident tragic. "If you think we're proud— we're not. We're disappointed. Furthermore, we were too late," he said.
Irked Netizens Lash Out Over the Removal of Monolith
Stating that the monolith was causing a lot of harm to the natural surroundings of the desert as the curiosity led to a lot of visitors, Christensen said that they removed the Utah Monolith because there are clear precedents for how 'we share and standardize the use of our public lands, natural wildlife, native plants, fresh water sources, and human impacts upon them.'
'The mystery was the infatuation and we want to use this time to unite people behind the real issues here— we are losing our public lands— things like this don't help. People arrived by car, by bus, by van, helicopter, planes, trains, motorcycles and E-bikes and there isn't even a parking lot. There aren't bathrooms— and yes, pooping in the desert is a misdemeanor. There was a lot of that," Christensen said in a statement to the outlet.
However, the deed of the four men were met with lot of anger on the social media. "Sylvan Christensen, you are a douche. People taking the law into their own hands isn't the way. Stick to your own job," tweeted a user.
"Sylvan Christensen and the great #monolith caper? Lol. Seems He and a group of friends took credit for demolishing it. IMO, kinda a SMUCK thing to do; yea, "litter" and "respecting the environment", but sounds like BS to me. To me, it sounds like they consider it their domain," wrote another.
"Honestly, I'm fine with it gone, but why couldn't you stay quiet about the heist? Social media is what turned this thing into such a mess in the first place! How about some discretion?" commented a user on IG.
"This from a guide company. Oh the hypocrisy. How many ridiculous anchors has Moab Canyon Tours placed in canyons? I'm so carrying a wrench and will be removing random anchors from Moab canyons. Better start packing a bolt kit or at least a sandtrap," wrote another.
