Sunday morning started normally enough for Brooke Williams, manager of the Howling Cow Cafe in Bellvue.
She walked around the property’s tall water feature and pond as she admired the view of the foothills northwest of Fort Collins, with the ever-present scent of dairy cattle and poplar cotton floating on the gentle summer breeze.
She saw an object on top of a neighboring hill, but didn’t think much of it.
They opened the cafe around 9 a.m. and the morning silence quickly changed as the first customers of the day rushed in with a strange order.
“A woman and her husband came in and she was very excited,” Williams told The Coloradoan outside the cafe on Monday. “She was like, ‘where’s the alien structure?’ I looked at her and said, ‘What are you talking about?'”
The woman showed Williams photos and said the sighting blew up on social media.
“At first I told her I didn’t know where it was, but then it clicked in my head: this is what I saw that morning.”
Williams walked back outside to make sure what she saw matched the photos the woman showed her and told her she had a match.
“She came running out and was really excited and said, ‘It’s over there,’” Williams said.
Bellvue newest site of mysterious monoliths and first in Colorado
Mysterious monoliths have appeared in strange places around the world in recent years, including the red rock country of Utah, California, the Nevada desert and in Las Vegas, as well as Wales and Romania.
And most recently on a hill outside Bellvue, where a reflective monolith appeared apparently overnight.
The monolith is on private property owned by Rob and Lori Graves, who also own the adjacent Howling Cow Cafe and Morning Fresh Dairy Farm.
It is approximately 8 feet high and 4 feet wide and is bolted into a concrete path, the finish mirroring the sky and surrounding foothills.
The monolith can be seen from County Road 25E, just south of County Road 54E.
Lori Graves asked people not to enter the property and if viewing from the road to make sure they park completely off the side of the paved road.
Mystery surrounds the origin of the Bellvue Monolith
Speculation about who or what placed the monolith peppered local social media.
Commentators guessed it was built by a local prankster, the landowner, aliens, an artist. Some said it was intended to hide a cell phone tower or a weather station.
Williams said customers came throughout Sunday asking about the monolith and where they could see it.
“It definitely increased foot traffic,” Williams said. “People who came from further away than we normally would come here were asking questions and there were lines along the road to watch it.”
Lori Graves said she is as perplexed as others about who erected the monolith.
“I would like to know the answer to that myself,” she told the Coloradoan outside the cafe on Monday. “We saw some tracks on the hill and a large structure on top of the hill. I find it quite fascinating.
“I think they want to create a little urban legend. Maybe an artist trying to make a statement. Maybe aliens are trying to improve their communications. There have been a lot of guesses.”
Initially, Williams said the cafe did not post anything on its social media sites, but the cafe later added a photo of the monolith to its Instagram account.
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Have you seen the mysterious monolith northwest of Fort Collins?
