Mysterious 10-foot piece of metal found in Utah, officials say. What is it?

Officials were flying over the desert when they found a huge object buried “in the middle of nowhere.”

Each year, the Utah Highway Patrol helps count bighorn sheep. This year, they saw a mysterious object that looks like a sheet of metal.

“During the count they came across this (sheet of metal?), buried in the middle of nowhere,” Utah Highway Patrol said Friday. “What do you think it is?”

Officials told KSL that the discovery was made Wednesday, and the metal piece is between 10 and 12 feet high.

The guesses for what it could be were endless. Many joked that the object came from another world or even a different dimension.

“I think on a certain day at a certain time it lights up the slot canyon behind it,” one Facebook commenter said. “There you will find treasure or a wormhole to another dimension.”

Others joked that the officials definitely shouldn’t mess with the mystery object.

“I dunno but if I were y’all I’d wait until at least 2021, maybe 2022 for good measure, before touching it,” another commenter said.

Many made references to “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

“It looks like the monolith scene on the moon from ‘2001: A Space Odyssey,’ ” a person commented.

There still aren’t any answers as to why the object was dropped in the middle of nowhere.

“That’s been about the strangest thing that I’ve come across out there in all my years of flying,” pilot Bret Hutchings told KSL.

This story was originally published November 23, 2020 at 2:49 PM with the headline "Mysterious 10-foot piece of metal found in Utah, officials say. What is it?."