Another strange monolith – this one more reminiscent of the one in the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" – appeared earlier this week in Colorado northwest of Fort Collins.

Nearly 250 mysterious monoliths, many of them three-sided and prism-shaped, have been discovered around the world since 2020. Another was found last week near Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said it was removed June 20 "due to public safety and environmental concerns," in a statement on its official Facebook page.

This Colorado specimen, which is rectangular and reflective, was found on a hill outside Bellvue, Colo. It stands about 8 feet tall and 4 feet wide and is bolted into a concrete pad.

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. Locals began spotting it on Sunday after pictures of the monolith were posted on Reddit.

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Monolith appears in northern Colorado: 'Where is the alien structure?'

When the cafe's manager Brooke Williams opened the restaurant at 9 a.m. on Sunday, she began getting weird questions from customers.

"A woman and her husband came in and she was very excited," Williams told the Coloradoan, part of the USA TODAY Network, on Monday. "She was like, 'where is the alien structure?' I looked at her, like, 'what are you talking about?'"

The woman showed Williams photos and said the sighting was blowing up on social media. Williams realized she had noticed the object on an early morning walk but didn't think much about it.

“At first, I told her I didn’t know where it was, then it clicked in my head that’s what I saw that morning," she said.

Lori Graves said she is as perplexed as others as to the monolith's origins. "I would like to know the answer to that myself," she told the Coloradoan. "We noticed some tracks up the hill and a big structure on top of the hill. I find it quite fascinating."

Whoever did it might "want to create a little urban legend," Graves said. "Maybe an artist trying to make a statement. Maybe aliens trying to enhance their communications. There’s been a lot of guesses."

Mysterious monoliths keep popping up

The first unexplained metal monolith appeared in November 2020 in Utah's remote Red Rock Country. Apparently, the 10-to-12-foot tall monolith had been placed there sometime in 2016, based on Google Earth images, according to Monolith Tracker.

After it was removed, another monolith appeared in Romania and multiple monoliths appeared in California before year's end. Also in December 2020, a sculpture similar to the one found in Utah was found on the Isle of Wight off the southern coast of England.

Then, in March 2024, another monolith appeared in Wales. Craig Muir, who found the object, which stood about 10-feet-tall, on a hike, said, "It almost looks like a UFO."

Contributing: Sara M Moniuszko, George Petras, Saman Shafiq and Javier Zarracina.Follow Mike Snider on X and Threads: @mikesnider & mikegsnider.

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