Sunday morning started normal enough for Brooke Williams, manager of the Howling Cow Cafe in Bellvue.

She walked around the property’s tall water feature and pond while admiring the view of the foothills northwest of Fort Collins with the ever-present scent of dairy cattle and cotton from cottonwood trees floating on the gentle summer breeze.

She noticed an object atop an adjacent hill but didn’t think much about it.

She opened the cafe around 9 a.m. and the quiet of the morning quickly changed when the day’s first customers rushed in with an odd order.

“A woman and her husband came in and she was very excited,” Williams told the Coloradoan outside of the cafe 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.

“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.”

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 comes running outside and was very excited and said, ‘It’s there,”’ Williams said.

Bellvue latest site of mysterious monoliths and first in Colorado

Mysterious monoliths have been popping up in strange places around the world in recent years, including Utah’s red rock country, California, the Nevada desert and in Las Vegas as well as Wales and Romania.

And most recently on a hill outside of Bellvue, where a popup reflective monolith apparently appeared 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 stands approximately 8 feet tall and 4 feet wide and is bolted into a concrete pad. The finish reflects 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 trespass on the property and if viewing from the road to make sure to park completely off the side of the paved road.

Mystery surrounds the origins of the Bellvue monolith

Speculation of who, or what, placed the monolith peppered local social media.

Commenters guessed it was erected by a local prankster, the landowner, aliens, an artist. Some said it was to disguise a cellphone or weather station tower.

Throughout Sunday, Williams said customers came in asking about the monolith and where they could see it.

“It definitely added more foot traffic,” Williams said. “People from farther way than we normally get coming out here were asking questions and there were lines along the road to look at it.”

Lori Graves said she is as perplexed as others as to who erected the monolith.

“I would like to know the answer to that myself,” she told the Coloradoan on Monday outside the cafe. “We noticed some tracks up the hill and a big 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 trying to enhance their communications. There’s been a lot of guesses.”

Initially, Williams said the cafe didn’t post anything on its social media sites but later the cafe 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?