Is Nine Lactations a Lot?
By MIKE NORTON
OK, I had other plans for today’s post, but I just couldn’t resist this one. As my wife will tell you, I’m one of those guys who’s always forgetting birthdays and other significant events. But when I logged on this morning, I saw this wonderful post on the “Michigan in Pictures” blog headlined “Happy Birthday to you, Traverse Colantha Walker.” Here’s the link – it’s a great blog, too:
http://michpics.wordpress.com/2009/04/29/happy-birthday-to-you-traverse-colantha-walker/
Not everybody knows about TCW, but as an inveterate (lower-case) walker and a snoop, I’ve made it my business to know about this famous Traverse City resident ever since I stumbled across her gravestone on the grounds of the Grand Traverse Commons, which used to be the old Northern Michigan Asylum. So far as I know, she’s the only asylum resident who’s actually buried there – and that’s because she’s a cow.
Nope, I’m not being rude. She was a cow. A lovely, hard-working, world-champion cow who belonged to the asylum’s extensive herd. When she died in 1932, staff and patients held a banquet in her honor and erected a large granite tombstone over her grave. In the course of her long and impressive career – from 1916 to 1932 – she produced 200,114 lbs. of milk and 7,525 lbs. of butterfat.
Today, the old asylum with its creamy brick buildings and barns is being transformed into an entire town of shops, restaurants, galleries, apartments and condominiums. And its 500-acre campus serves as a vast urban park where the spires of the old hospital buildings soar like the turrets of romantic castles above its miles of walking paths and trails.
Few historic sites are so well-suited to such a second life. The buildings of the former mental asylum were purposely designed to be brighter and more spacious than other 19th century structures – thanks to a Victorian visionary named James Kirkbride, who believed that the sufferings of the mentally ill could be eased by fresh air, hard work, abundant natural lighting and beautifully landscaped surroundings. The Traverse City facility, established in 1885, became a huge park, filled with Victorian-Italianate buildings of golden brick and planted with exotic trees collected from around the world.
It was also a small, self-sufficient city in its own right, with its own farms, gardens, fire department and power plant. At one point it boasted 3,500 residents — which was more than Traverse City’s population at the time. And of all its extensive herds of farm animals, Traverse Colantha Walker was the queen.
It’s nice to know they haven’t forgotten her. In fact, “Michigan in Pictures” says that there’s going to be a Traverse Colantha Walker Dairy Festival held in her honor on Saturday, Sept. 12. I’m going to see if I can’t find out more!
The Commons Today (As Traverse Colantha Walker Would See It)
Tags: Grand Traverse, Grand Traverse Commons, Michigan, Traverse City
Cool post Mike and thanks for linking over to Michigan in Pictures!
I have some stuff about Kirkbride and his architecture on Michigan in Pictures:
http://michpics.wordpress.com/2008/08/09/heidi-johnson-and-the-angels-in-the-architecture/
Dear Mike,
I thoroughly enjoyed your peice on TCW and your glowing description of The Village redevelopment project. As one of the event planners for The Village, we have collectively elected to postpone the Colantha Walker Dairy Festival until June 12, 2010. We now have more time to develop a world-class festival that befits such a world champion bovine. Thank you, in advance, for getting the word out.
Mini Minervini
The Minervini Group, LLC
Redevelopers of
The Village at Grand Traverse Commons