(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Colorado Monolith - Do You Believe? A Colorado State Open Thread, 7/1/2024 [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-07-01 Looking for something to take my mind off last week’s upcoming debate, last Thursday I drove northwest of Fort Collins to see the “monolith” that had suddenly started making the news. Despite spending around four years (more or less) in Fort Collins during the early 90’s getting my masters degree from CSU, I had never driven up and around Horsetooth reservoir, much less some of the other very pretty areas like Masonville and Bellvue. This would be the day, and the fact that someone (and yes, I believe it was put there by a person rather than an alien) had put this close enough for me to take a morning roadtrip, well, it was meant to be. Masonville artwork — perhaps for sale? Across the street from the artwork. If you expand this, you’ll see a number of interesting signs. Horsetooth Reservoir on a calm, mostly cloudy morning. The dairy in Bellvue that owns the land where the monolith was placed The dairy has a coffee shop that was very busy. Many people were there for a stop while taking bicycle tours, but there were also several there because of the monolith. If I were truly a cynic, I would have thought the coffee shop owners put the monolith up to drive business to their shop, but I think they were just going with the flow. I chose a slice of lemon cake and an orange milkshake and set off for the allowed viewing area. There were a number of people who were stopping by the roadside with binoculars, cameras and I think I even saw a news videographer as I drove away. I paid attention to the barbed wire so I did not go up the hill. I left it to others to trespass. The weather was mostly cloudy, so I’m going to include a couple of pictures from Kosack Forester Bob who was visiting me at the time and he stopped by the monolith while continuing his cross country journey the next morning. You can see the four posts anchoring the monolith into the concrete pad. Picture by Forester Bob Also by Forester Bob The monolith, according to news accounts, is eight or nine feet tall. There wasn’t a place for people to park and ascend the mount when I went, but by the time Bob went a day later, there were some signs for where to park and people were allowed to go up, though it was discouraged because people were leaving trash and they had started wearing a path in the field. You can see the path being worn into the field after just five days. This Reddit stream gives a hint about the possible origin and purpose of the monolith. Now the owners of the land are thinking about removing it because of the trash, the damage people are doing to get to the monolith, and they’re getting rather tired of the streams of people to what once was a sleepy little area. In other news, there are 21 new laws going into effect in Colorado today, while a few more, passed in earlier years by the state legislature, are either going into effect or increasing in effectiveness. The link to the Denver Post has references to many of them, but it only goes into detail on six. The six are: Don’t forget July 20th, 4PM, for a Meetup at the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg. It isn’t strictly limited to people who are members of DKos; you’re welcome to bring any Kos-Kurious friends you might have. Until the spaceship comes for you, we look forward to reading your thoughts about the monolith, the new laws or anything else that might be on your minds this evening. The floor is yours... [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/7/1/2249459/-Colorado-Monolith-Do-You-Believe-A-Colorado-State-Open-Thread-7-1-2024?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/