If you call your place Cowtown, you’ve got to have a cow.
That was the role Rosie the Cow played at Old Cowtown Museum for all 20 years of her life. On Monday, the city and museum said they were saddened to announce that the shorthorn cow — “a beloved fixture of Old Cowtown Museum” — had been euthanized.
“Rosie was one of the main highlights for field trips and families at the museum,” Cowtown Executive Director James Quint said in the news release. “She rarely hesitated to moo as the guests walked up to the fence to visit with her. Thousands of families have photos of Rosie as an entire generation grew accustomed to visiting her during their trips to the museum.”
According to the news release, Rosie “was humanely euthanized surrounded by those who loved her while the museum is closed to the public on Monday, December 9.” Her veterinarian and Cowtown staff were present.
Rosie was even an orchestral muse, according to the release, inspiring a movement entitled “Rosie Dreams of the Herd” in an orchestral piece called “Old Cowtown Suite” written by Hollywood film composer George S. Clinton and dedicated to the Wichita Symphony Orchestra. Clinton visited Old Cowtown Museum in 2019 and was inspired to write a piece about Wichita’s history as an old west town.
Clinton wrote of her section in the piece: “Rosie the cow settles down in her stall for the night. She looks around the empty old barn and remembers the other animals that used to be there: the friendly horse, the funny goats, the nosey chickens. Now it’s just her. She closes her eyes and lets her mind drift back to her younger days. Once again she is running with the herd, dancing under the stars, and heading 1000 miles north up the Chisholm Trail to Cowtown.”
Old Cowtown Museum hosts sheep, longhorn cows and chickens. The museum hopes in the future to partner with Sedgwick County Zoo to acquire a heritage cow for the pasture, “but Rosie will always hold a special place in the hearts of those who knew and loved her,” the release stated.
Many visitors to Old Cowtown had their photographs taken with Rosie the Cow.
