Black River Falls, Wisconsin - Orange Moose

The Orange Moose near the Arrow Head Lodge in Black River Falls used to be at the Moose Peterson car sales on Hy 12 north. At that time it just looked like a normal large moose.

The story I had heard was that Moose Peterson liked to go drinking with his friends and was a real joker. One night his friends decided to play a joke on him and painted his new moose orange. To get back at his friends, he left it that color. After Moose passed away, the business closed and the moose was sold to the new Arrow Head Lodge. This was sometime in the early 1970s. [kay zinn, 08/12/2009]

Here is a recent picture of the big orange moose in Black River Falls, WI. And no, I didn't dress to match the moose on purpose. [Daniel Bruhn, 08/20/2008]

I grew up in Black River Falls, and lived there until 1986. I don't know exactly when the Orange Moose(s) were "erected" but in the late 1970's I worked at Perkins -and a favorite thing to do was to pile rocks under the moose -- so it looked like it had "pooped." This was usually done after the late shift, and a few beers had been consumed. Ah youth! [Tamara Relyea, 03/09/2006]

I wrote in almost two years ago about how Black River Falls, had a big orange moose. Well, now we have two... and a restaurant called "The Orange Moose," where they give you a newspaper article explaining the origins of the moose. Besides the moose, we also have a big fiberglass deer jumping over a log, and a mouse holding a big brick of cheese. We were supposed to get the World's Largest Beer Stein, but the artist Sue Sampson owes money in La Crosse and they took down the "Coming soon..." sign. She does have a beer stein factory in town now.

Lastly, we had a movie made about our town called Wisconsin Death Trip, they showed it on HBO recently, it was about how 100 years ago people died in mysterious ways and how our town and other Wisconsin towns were full of loonies... not that much has changed. [Garrett Gilbertson, 09/20/2000]

In Black River Falls, there is a giant moose and a giant deer both made from concrete. The moose is bright orange and both can be seen from I-94. They are next to Perkins and Taco Bell, and are a popular place for drunk college students to sit on. Also Black River Falls is the future home of the World's Largest Beer Stein, hopefully coming soon so the college students will get off of the moose. [WS & Guzzle, 06/02/1998]