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 World Champion Cow of the Insane
Traverse City, Michigan
Northern Michigan Asylum opened in 1885 and gradually became a sprawling complex
on the western outskirts of Traverse City. It was so vast that it had orchards
of cherries, peaches and apples, vineyards and vegetable gardens, field crops,
and livestock from beef to chickens, horses to pigs. And it had its own herd
of cows.
The most famous of these -- the most famous inhabitant, period, of the entire
Asylum -- was Traverse Colantha Walker. She was a grand champion milk cow,
producing 200,114 pounds of milk and 7,525 pounds of butterfat in her long
life. When she died in 1932 the hospital staff and patients held a banquet
in her honor. They buried her in a small, grassy knoll, under a marble tombstone,
outside of the stately brick dairy barn that had been her home.
 The Asylum closed in 1989. The cow's grave is still tucked into a tranquil corner
of the grounds, but it may not be tranquil for much longer. The hospital
complex is now known as The Grand Traverse Commons, and its buildings are
being converted into upscale restaurants and boutiques for the yuppies who
now come to this part of Michigan to golf.
World Champion Cow of the Insane:Address: Silver Drive, Traverse City, MI [ Show Map] Directions: US 31 north into town. Left at the rock pyramid onto 11th St. Cross Elmwood Ave. onto the former Asylum grounds, then keep bearing left. The road (Silver Drive) turns into a dirt road, then bends to the right. The grave is at the intersection of this dirt road and another dirt road, near the two dairy barns, under a tree.
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