The curious case of the moving monolith has a new wrinkle as yet another mysterious silver structure has appeared in Southern California, this time in the Los Padres National Forest. The latest installation is the second shiny statue to pop up in San Luis Obispo County after one appeared -- and quickly vanished -- from the top of a hiking trail in Atascadero last week. San Luis Obispo resident Matt Carver was among a group who made the most recent discovery Saturday morning. He and several friends were camping at a site near Arroyo Grande when they came across the gleaming gargantuan structure while shooting drone footage. "When we realized it was a monolith, we started freaking out and flew the drone back, jumped in the truck, drove ASAP to the spot," Carver said Monday, "and then danced around it like idiots for a few minutes." The three-sided structure appears to be made of stainless steel and is about 2 feet wide and 10 feet tall, Carver said, noting that it would have taken "a bit of work" to get it up there.

Los Angeles – A mysterious metal monolith found in the remote desert of the western United States, sparking a national guessing game over how it got there, has apparently disappeared, officials said. The Bureau of Land Management in Utah said Saturday it had received "credible reports" that the object had been removed "by an unknown party" on Friday evening. The bureau "did not remove the structure which is considered private property," it said in a statement. "We do not investigate crimes involving private property which are handled by the local sheriff's office." The shiny, triangular pillar which protruded some 12 feet from the red rocks of southern Utah, was spotted on Nov. 18 by baffled local officials counting bighorn sheep from the air.

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. A mysterious monolith, which is believed to be some kind of metal, was discovered in the remote parts of Utah on Wednesday, fueling speculation on what the object was or how it got there, according to reports. The structure, estimated at between 10 feet and 12 feet high, was found by state wildlife employees counting sheep from a helicopter. Utah's highway patrol shared a picture of the finding on Instagram, along with the caption: "Counting big horn sheep with DWR this week. During the counts we came across this, in the middle of nowhere, buried deep in the rock. Inquiring minds want to know, what the heck is it? Bret Hutchings, the helicopter pilot, said it was "about the strangest thing that I've come across out there in all my years of flying," according to Salt Lake City's KSL-TV. Hutchings was flying for the Utah department of public safety, which was assiting wildlife resource officers in the count in the southeastern edge of the state. "We were kind of joking around that if one of us suddenly disappears, then the rest of us make a run for it," he told the station. The object drew comparisons to Stanley Kubrick's famed 1968 film "2001: A Space Odyssey," which saw a group of apes encounter a similar-looking giant slab. "I'm assuming it's some new wave artist or something or, you know, somebody that was a big 2001: A Space Odyssey fan," Hutchings said. Authorities said the mysterious object was installed in the ground in a remote area of red rock with "no obvious indication" of who might have put it there, according to a press release from the Utah Department of Public Safety. The agency added that if people decide to venture to the undisclosed and remote location they "may become stranded and require rescue." A mysterious monolith was discovered in the remote parts of Utah on Wednesday. Users on social media were quick to speculate what the object was. "It's the on-off button for the planet," one user wrote. I imagine it's an art piece, but what if it isn't..." another replied.