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Topics: US News, Weather, Technology
Anish Vij
Mysterious antennas have been bizarrely appearing in Utah's mountains and officials have no idea what they are.
Although initial sightings were made a year ago, more and more devices have been appearing in the foothills around Salt Lake City.
Officials have spent hours pulling them down and as many as a dozen have been removed so far.
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The act of placing devices on public land without permission is illegal and the antennas are unmarked, so officials can't figure out what they are used for.
Tyler Fonarow, Salt Lake City’s recreational trails manager, told Motherboard that winter weather makes it difficult to remove them.
Despite speculation that the devices could be used to mine cyrpto, there still is no definitive conclusion from officials.
“I knew Matt Damon was advertising it on TV at the Superbowl,” Farrow said.
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“That’s about as far as I got with knowing anything about crypto or Bitcoin.
“As long as it’s not dangerous, we really don’t care.
“We just want people to stop doing it so we can get back to taking care of our lands… if someone wanted to put an antenna in the exact same location for scientific purposes, we’d probably allow it.”
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“It’s not a high priority for us,” he added.
“We’ll get to it when we get to it. One person could do it. But it would take two trips unless they’re really strong.
“The three main components are a suitcase sized…plastic, weatherproof case for their electric equipment for the battery and router. It was about 50 or 60 pounds.
“And then there’s two antennas, four to six feet, and the solar panel which is about three by four feet.
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“It would be a pretty tough thing to do by yourself.”
The University of Utah said: “Since Salt Lake City leaders alerted the University of Utah to the unauthorized solar panel towers in the foothills northeast of the Avenues neighborhood, University of Utah representatives have been actively coordinating with City Public Lands officials to determine whether any member of our campus community is connected to the towers.
“As far as we know, the tower located on university property is not owned or operated by the university. We appreciate Salt Lake City’s collaboration and dedicated efforts to identify the owners.”
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Salt Lake City Public Lands also said in a post on Facebook: “Our Trails team and Foothills rangers have found some unauthorized solar panel towers in the Foothills.
“If you have information about these towers or who they belong to, please call our office at (801) 972-7800 so we can return them back to their owner.”