Mysterious monolith in northern Colorado removed due to 'overwhelming' influx of tourists

As mysteriously as a monolith appeared on a hill near a dairy northwest of Fort Collins, its removal left much less to the imagination.

Day tripper and amateur photographer Richard Kersch was there to capture the image as a forklift drove up to the reflective, rectangular sculpture, unbolted it from a concrete pad, and cabled it away. He said the process took about 15 minutes early Wednesday morning.

“I just feel bad for all the people who planned to go see it,” said Kersch.

The monolith had become an overnight tourist attraction to curiosity-seekers like Kersch when it appeared in June in the small community of Bellvue. The monolith is among several discovered in places as diverse as a remote mountain range near Las Vegas, a hiking trail in California and the Utah desert.

Unfortunately, the popularity of the Bellvue monolith was too much for the landowners. The dairy and cafe operation Morning Fresh Dairy Farm said in a post Wednesday that the monolith had been removed “due to the overwhelming influx of people to the farm.”

Kersch said he was not surprised, since from where he was on a road he could see a path already worn into the private land leading up to the monolith.

“A lot of people trespassed and went up that,” he said.

For those still enjoying the mystery, the question of who placed the monolith in the first place is still unanswered. Morning Fresh Dairy Farm said they were “keeping it safe” and that the creator could email the dairy if they wanted the monolith back.