Manitowoc's 'Bernice'

St. Louis may have the Gateway Arch.  Visitors travel to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.  But Manitowoc has the Big Cow.

For decades the “Big Cow”, located on South 10th Street in Manitowoc, has been a landmark for many visitors.  People gather at the cow to meet, take photos or to enjoy a scoop of Cedar Crest Ice Cream. 

The 14 foot fiberglass Guernsey cow was brought to Manitowoc in the 1960s by Rolland and Raleigh Sorge, owners of the building that currently houses Cedar Crest Ice Cream.  In 1929 the Sorge twins came to Manitowoc from La Crosse and operated the Manitowoc Farmer’s Cooperative Dairy on York Street.  The Sorge’s transported milk to homes on a horse-drawn wagon.  A special feature of the glass milk bottles was the bulb on top of the bottle’s neck where cream could be found.  The cream could be whipped or shaken into the milk.   

Twenty years after the Sorge’s settled into their space, business flourished so much that the brothers needed a larger venue to house their operation.  They built a modern, state of the art milk and ice cream factory in 1948.  The cost of the construction was approximately $100,000. 

In an article from the Two Rivers Reporter on June 15, 1954 the Sorge Dairy’s moto was described as “Quality Always.”  The article went on to note that in the 1930s the dairy was one of the first to fit their milk delivery horses with rubber shoes and put rubber wheels on the wagons.  Rubber cut down on noise during their early morning deliveries.

The Sorge brothers brought the famous cow, named Bernice, from Sparta in the early 1960s and it has served as a great landmark ever since.  Innovations in refrigeration in the late 1960s signaled the end of small dairies that specialized in home delivery.  People no longer wanted the more expensive, home-delivered milk products.

In 1965 the Sorge’s sold their business to Lake to Lake Dairy Cooperative.  After leaving the dairy, Raleigh and his wife Agnes retired.  Rolland and his wife Marian (Torrison) then bought Art’s 151 Club near Silver Lake off of Highway 151, naming it Sorge’s Charcoal House.  Today the building is Luigi’s Italian Restaurant. 

The Lake to Lake Dairy, which was founded in 1945 in Manitowoc County, operated out of the dairy building for many years until it was purchased in 1987 by Cedar Crest Specialties.  Today, President Ken Kohlwey operates the business with his three brothers: Robert, Bill, and Tim.  

Although Bernice may seem like just another structure in Wisconsin’s list of oversized cows, for over 50 years the “Big Cow” has stood as a wonderful reminder of our area’s great dairy heritage.  I can only wonder what the Sorge brothers would think of the popularity of their cow today.