Mystery of the wandering cow solved

The mystery surrounding the bull that wandered the property of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame has been solved. Perhaps the most interesting discovery is that it was not a bull, but a cow with horns.

Ishpeming City Police Chief Dan Willey said the owner of the cow, a Calumet man, contacted Ishpeming City Police later in the morning of the cow’s discovery. The owner said he had been transporting the cow, and one other, downstate.

While passing through Ishpeming, he said believes the side door on his trailer popped open and one of the cows fell out. He thinks the side door then closed itself. It wasn’t until he reached St. Ignace that he discovered one of his cows was missing.

The Ishpeming City Police Department responded to a call just before 11 p.m. Friday of what was then thought to be a bull on the loose outside the Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame. Willey knew right away that this wasn’t a situation that comes up too often.

“It’s kind of odd. I’ve never seen a farm animal like this before,” said Willey. “It was skiddish. The guys were able to touch it a little bit, but it wouldn’t let us really get a rope around it.”

While officers from Ishpeming, the Negaunee City Police Department and Michigan State Police kept the cow on the premises a local veterinarian was called in to help corral the cow into a trailer.

The cow was loaded safely onto the trailer at about 1:30 a.m. Saturday and taken to a veterinarian’s clinic west of Ishpeming. Chief Willey said the cow’s owner picked it up Sunday.

The owner was cited for losing his load, which is a misdemeanor.