The Black Hills Stock Show is in town, opening with some horse events today out at the fairgrounds and springing to life Friday at Rushmore Plaza Civic Center. In honor of what we at the Journal call the "Cowboy Rally," I dedicate today's column to the stock show and it's lifeblood, cows.
Cows get a bad rap. So do bulls, for that matter.
The images that stay with us longest are of some incredibly ornery bull sending a cowboy into orbit and then taking a run at him as intrepid rodeo clowns speed to the rescue, distracting the beast from his mission of maim.
Or the image of a twitching cow collapsing to the ground into a ball of quivering bovine from a video that was taken more than a decade ago in Great Britain. Mad cow: oh, yeah, it's out there. But that Reese's Peanut Butter Cup you popped in your mouth to get you from lunch to supper is far more likely to knock you off than any steak you've had over your entire lifetime.
Living out here in cattle country, though, folks tend to take a kinder view of cattle. Cattle are a way of life, a common thread that have been at the core of West River existence since the pioneers moved west into the expanse of the high plains. With the mining of gold nearly non-existent in the high hills today, the cattle industry is the link for many a South Dakotan to our forefathers.
Now all that is talk of cattle in general. Over time, there have been a few select few that have risen above the herd, so to speak, and have attained near celebrity status. And not always for the good.
Here's a quick cattle call for some of the most famous cows and bulls over the past 150 years or so.
History is not kind to Daisy, or Madeline, or Gwendolyn, or whatever the name of the cow was that has long been blamed for igniting the Great Chicago Fire on Oct. 9, 1871.
No cow in American history has achieved such attention as Mrs. O'Leary's cow. Immortalized in school text books and folk songs, THE cow was one of five that Kate O'Leary kept in the crowded family barn at 137 DeKoven in the heart of the planning and zoning disaster known as late 19th century Chicago.
However, inspection of the events that led to the fire that razed a huge swath of the city - but remarkably, left the O'Leary home standing - indicate that O'Leary, and more specifically, her cow, were not responsible for the great fire.
Instead, it is just as likely that anti-Catholic sentiment and a distaste for the lower class and their huddled, somewhat stinky masses were the reason that Mrs. O'Leary's cow has been convicted by the media of song and history book of the crime of burning down America's Second City.
Once again, the cow gets a bad rap.
Buck for buck, the toughest and gentlest bull wrapped into one
Not all big, tough rodeo bulls are bad actors. Oh, yeah, the snot may bubble and the cowboys may fly, but would you react any differently if someone tied a rope around your neck, sat on your back and dug in their heels?
One of the greatest rodeo bulls in history was actually pretty gentle. That is, when there wasn't a cowboy on his back.
Red Rock, who was immortalized in the move "8 Seconds" about the life and untimely death of pro rodeo bull rider Lane Frost, is considered one of the greatest bulls to ever appear on the pro rodeo tour.
To a cowboy, those that rode him said that Red Rock used more brains than brawn to put cowboys into the dirt. One cowboy was quoted in Red Rock's obituary as saying, "Every bullrider wanted a chance to try Red Rock - because he was a great bucking bull and because they knew he wouldn't come after them. He won't step on bull riders or hook them once they're off, unlike most other bulls."
It was that later part that made Red Rock immensely popular.
That, and the Challenge of Champions that pitted the toughest ride - Red Rock - against the toughest rider - Frost. The challenge consisted of seven matches at seven rodeos, and in the end, Frost came out the victor by a 4-3 margin. But the legend had been established for both.
Frost died tragically from injuries sustained riding a different bull at the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo in 1989, but both he and Red Rock were inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs in 1990. Red Rock died in 1994 at the age of 18.
Computer generated cow
Red Rock isn't the only cow to make it big on the big screen.
There have been real-life cows in movies such as City Slickers and Back to the Future. There have been cow props in such movies as Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Mars Attacks.
But perhaps the most famous cows in modern day cinema wasn't a real cow at all. Instead, it was a computer-animated bovine seen flying not once, but twice, by a pickup truck driven by actor Bill Paxton in the special-effects disaster movie "Twister."
It is actually actress Helen Hunt who utters perhaps the most memorable line from the movie when she says, "Look. Cow." But the cow gets a few lines in, throwing out a moo or two of distress as it is catapulted in the air like a feather as a pair of water spouts approach the truck.
My movie-snob friend Scott Waltman likes to use "Twister" to gauge people's tastes in movies, saying if they like the epic disaster flick, they simply have poor taste in movies.
I'm not big fan of the film, but I do like this scene. Luckily, YouTube has given us a way to get rid of the dross and leaves us just with the good parts - flying cows!
The Twister cow is not the most famous cow. That distinction likely goes Elsie the Cow.
Now, Elsie, the corporate face of Borden Dairy, wasn't always imaginary. The real Elsie was born in 1932 at Elmhill Farm in Brookfield, Mass. She became the face of Broden in 1938 and became a national celebrity shortly thereafter.
Her exploits included appearing in magazines, newspapers, billboards, attending the 1939 World Fair in New York, film roles, touring to promote War Bonds and more.
According to Borden, the cow with a smile on her face also helped Borden celebrate 150 years of Borden Brand products in 2007. That would make her about 75 years old.
Holy cow! That's old.
Chilli or Spanish cow - who's the biggest
So whose the most famous bovine currently? That likely goes to Chilli, an enormous bovine in Great Britain that stands 6-feet-6 tall and weighs more than a ton. And he's still growing.
But there's some that would contest the title. A farmer in Spain has petitioned the Guiness Book of World Records for the claiming the record for world's heaviest cow. His cow weighed more than 2,850 pounds.
Unlike Chilli, though, this cow won't get to revel in the record - she's already been taken to the slaughter house.
Bonus cow
