Unexplained Monolith Discovered in Rural Utah's Red Rock Country

[royable]

6. I suspect it's an art installation, and if not that, it was placed there by a wealthy prankster.

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.