Pravda reported that in the racecar contest, the Soviet entry came in second and the American entry came in next to last.

What they failed to report was that there were only two contestants in the race.

One could bring in an archaeologist and a geologist to carefully excavate the sand layers around the base. I'm sure they could reveal disturbance of the wash floor's bedding and perhaps even determine a time range for when the pillar was installed, based on sand bedding from stream flows at times that there was water in the wash. It hasn't rained there much recently.

I could well imagine some avant-garde experiential artist placing the pillar there, saying that the emotions brought up by people encountering it are part of the art experience.

In any case, someone went to quite a lot of work.