Bernice the Cow

The Manitowoc County Historical Society says that where St. Louis has the Gateway Arch, Manitowoc has the Big Cow. Bernice is a 14-foot fiberglass Guernsey standing on South 10th Street outside the Cedar Crest Ice Cream plant and parlor. According to the society's 2023 account, twin brothers Rolland and Raleigh Sorge, owners of the building, brought her from Sparta in the early 1960s. They had come to Manitowoc from La Crosse in 1929 and delivered milk by horse-drawn wagon, and in 1948 they built a milk and ice cream factory there at a reported cost of about $100,000. The Sorges sold the business in 1965 to Lake to Lake Dairy Cooperative, which operated from the building until Cedar Crest Specialties bought it in 1987. The society says Bernice has stood as a reminder of the area's dairy heritage for over 50 years, and that people gather at the cow to meet, take photos or buy a scoop of Cedar Crest ice cream. Cedar Crest calls its parlor a landmark destination, asks visitors to take a picture with "Bernice, the Big Cow" and tag the company on social media, and says it has over 100 flavours. As listed by Cedar Crest in 2026, the parlor's hours are seasonal: Tuesday to Sunday 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. from April 7 to Memorial Day, daily to 9 p.m. between Memorial Day and Labor Day, Tuesday to Sunday again after Labor Day through October, and closed November to March.