Driftless Spirits: Ghosts of Southwest Wisconsin
by Dennis Boyer
Copyright ©1996 Dennis Boyer

Lime Ridge’s Cows

Animal ghosts make their presence felt in many areas of Wisconsin. Ghosts of big game animals are often seen in the northern part of the state. Dog, coyote, and wolf ghosts occupy specific niches in Wisconsin lore. Even ghosts of prehistoric and extinct beasts find their way into local legends.

Wisconsin being the dairy state, it should probably come as no surprise that we also boast one bovine-related ghost story. One might suspect that such a story would center on some beloved "Bossy" tragically burned in a barn fire or some prized purebred murdered by cutthroat competitors.

Instead we find at Lime Ridge an entire herd of mysterious origin.

The Lime Ridge Cows seem to be of recent vintage. No one recalls hearing of them before Nineteen Fifty Seven. Bits and pieces of the story can be heard from Hill Point to Ironton. But the focus is generally Lime Ridge.

Oddly enough it is hard to find anyone in the Lime Ridge neighborhood who can report much more than hearsay. To secure details it is necessary to scour the feedmills of Plain and Loganville and the cheese factories of Carr Valley and Cedar Grove.

Even a pile of details does not a ghost story make. It often takes an interpreter to make sense of random finds. A stop in Loganville in search of fabled raspberry pie produced an interpreter in the form of a coffee-sipping café regular.

Almost every truck stop and greasy spoon has someone who fills this slot. They nurse cups of lukewarm java for hours. They provide running commentary on community affairs. They afford less humor than town drunks but are often accorded far more dignity.

But they are rarely good sources for ghosts stories. In their world of informal coffee talk, reference to spirits falls in with the impolite topics of sex, politics, and religion.

Our Loganville coffee drinker was an exception. He clearly felt the need to be a booster of all northwestern Sauk County has to offer, from Amish quilts to hidden fishing holes.

"Some say the Lime Ridge Cows are a dairy heretic’s story," he laughed. "That’s because the whole herd is Brown Swiss. You can imagine how that drives these Holstein fanatics crazy.

"Now there are old fellows who claim that the cow ghosts are kind of a protest against Holsteins. I don’t think I’d go that far. But it could be that those cow ghosts do stand as a reminder of a certain way of life. Before everything got big and the corporations ran it all.

"You know, most people don’t even remember anything other than black-and-white cows. We forgot that dozens and dozens of different breeds of livestock, pigs, sheep, horses, and poultry made the countryside a colorful place. Made for safer genetics. Not all the eggs in one basket as it were.

"The Lime Ridge Cows are from a special time in Wisconsin. It’s a herd of about two dozen. That’s the size most farmers had in the forties and fifties. Those were the days when you could milk and make a living without a lot of machinery or debt. So these particular cows are a symbol of something we’ve lost.

"No one knows whose herd it was or if it is a group that came together from different places. They often walk single file along the roads at night. Don’t think that doesn’t throw off some drivers.

"The drunks are lucky. They just rive through the cow ghosts and just blink their eyes. The sober drivers often swerve and damage their cars. One old fellow tried to put their wanderings to an end. He tried to lead them to an abandoned barn in the area. But the cows balked at the door.

"My theory is that those cows are waiting for things to get straightened out. When we get back to a country life that works, then those cows will go home."