Call Me Stormy

Las Vegas Monolith Gone

After nearly a week on display on the Fremont Street Experience in downtown Las Vegas, the mysterious monolith has vanished. Well, sort of.

Las Vegas video blogger Para-Sara reports that five days after appearing in front of the Circa Resort & Casino on Friday, Dec. 4, it was gone on Dec. 9. Funny thing is, similar to its arrival, there’s no video of its disappearance, lending yet another eerie chapter to the invasion of monoliths around the planet.

Not so fast, says Para-Sara, who claims to have debunked the mystery. She says a young lady who worked on Fremont Street told her the monolith story was basically a publicity stunt. She said it was created by local artists and originally placed by Atomic Liquors, southwest of Fremont Street, then moved by her personal friend in front of the Circa. Her friend was also responsible for dismantling the monolith, she says.

On Day 3 of the monolith in Las Vegas, Call Me Stormy paid a visit to its Fremont Street Experience location to check it out. The object was a mirrored, three-sided slab, which drew several visitors, all with different opinions on its existence. One lady was adamant that it came from a higher power and spent several minutes praying to the structure. An elderly tourist said she heard that nobody saw it being installed, in spite of all the cameras in the mall. Then she noticed, “Look, someone already dented it.”

Erick Rogers, New York City transplant and employee with the Vegas Welcome Center, said it was just another marketing campaign, probably from Circa management. “There’s not much traffic at this end, that why they placed down here,” he said. “Plus, a lot of the homeless use it as a mirror to tidy up.”

Circa employee Craig Gerson was more befuddled. “Don’t know who put it up,” he said. “It reminds me of 2001: A Space Odyssey. But it’s great. I love it.”

Similar monoliths have appeared in southeastern Utah, Central California and Romania. And there’s been an unconfirmed report of monoliths showing up on Native American reservations around the country.

Meanwhile, Para-Sara says all the evidence surrounding the mystery points to a clever publicity stunt, at least in Vegas. There’s speculation that Fremont Street casino icon, Derek Stevens, who owns the Circa and the popular D Casino & Hotel, was behind the campaign. But the question remains, why was there no video of the monolith appearing, then vanishing out of thin air? As always, you be the judge.