The shiny object appeared last week.
From a distance, it’s a tall, svelte, sparkling glint. You’ll know you’re close when you see a bunch of cars parked on the side of the road behind the Morning Fresh Dairy Farm near the community of Bellvue, and gaggles of people squinting, pointing and guessing what, exactly the rectangular curiosity is supposed to mean — or be.
Alyssa Harrison from Loveland’s guess: “A large, shiny door?”
No one knows how it got there, and who — or what — put it there. But the object, dubbed The Monolith, is stirring up a lot of buzz and attracting throngs of onlookers from across the state and region.
To get a closer look, visitors have to hop a barbed wire fence, dodge a field of spiky cacti and hike a steep hill.
The Monolith looms silently at the top, roughly 10 feet tall, reflecting clouds and the rugged foothills near the Poudre River Canyon.
“It's pretty cool,” said Colorado State University senior Harrison Frase. “More reflective than I thought. I thought it was like a mirror surface, but it's actually a metal. Very polished metal.”
The northern Colorado Monolith resembles the unsettling rectangle that haunts Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 science fiction film “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Similar objects have been discovered in recent years in California, New Mexico, Utah and Romania, which has fueled speculation that the Monolith is part of some sort of clandestine global public art project.
Lori Graves owns the land where The Monolith was placed, and she also owns the nearby Howling Cow Cafe near the bottom of the hill.
Graves said she doesn’t know how The Monolith got there. One of her employees alerted Graves about the object on June 21, but she didn’t give it a second thought until a couple of days later when a customer asked a barista, “Where is the alien structure?”
“At first it was a little more fun,” Graves said. “All the ‘what if, who did it, what might it be?’ That was kind of fun. And now I've heard so many different theories, it just makes your head swim.”
Graves said someone called the cafe office to inform employees The Monolith was made from “a composite metal that is not of this Earth.”
Graves said nobody saw or heard anything unusual in the days before The Monolith was discovered.
She’s since noticed there are unfamiliar tire tracks leading up the hill.
“I don't know what kind of cars aliens drive,” Graves asked, laughing. “Do you?”
There are other clues that at least some humanoids were involved in making The Monolith. It has a poured concrete base, which is attached to the object with the kind of nuts and bolts you’d find at the hardware store.
Frase, the college student, said the surface feels like sheet metal. “I touched it,” he said. “It doesn't have as much give, but definitely a sheet of metal.”
The Howling Cow Cafe has long been a popular stop for locals, hikers, cyclists and tourists, but the mysterious Monolith has meant even brisker business for the cafe — which is now serving a Monolith Mocha.
Graves doesn't plan to remove The Monolith like some of the others on public and private land have been. The object makes Graves think about her daughter, who died in a farm accident when she was just 13 years old. Graves imagines her perched on the hill, enjoying the spectacle and frenzy below.
“Kelsey's sitting on top of it right now, just laughing and laughing,” Graves said.
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