Symbols of Blue Moon Ice Cream Smashed and Stolen in Small Town Michigan

The Summer of 2020 has seen a number of iconic properties looted and burned, federal properties destroyed and many statues vandalized and taken apart, most of them symbols of American civil liberties, and now is a story of a beloved iconic blue cow statue, at a 102-year-old,  small-town ice cream parlor in s small town in Michigan, vandalized and part is stolen, after 21 years in a place without being disturbed at all.

Managers at South Haven’s Sherman’s Dairy Bar were in shock after what they call a piece of history was vandalized in the middle of the night.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Marty O’Connor, part of the leadership team at Sherman’s, told News 8 Monday. “You can see the remains of the baby. I mean, they broke it literally right out of the concrete. It’s personal,” O’Connor said.

The manager reported that townspeople and tourists stopped to check on the workers and offer moral support, “it feels like an attack, in a weird way,” said one local Mom. 

Toured Sherman's Ice Cream in South Haven, great ice cream and local landmark for generations now.

— Aric Nesbitt (@aricnesbitt) July 11, 2011

They were opened for the Summer:

Sherman's Dairy Bar opens with coronavirus precautions and Hudsonville Ice Cream: https://t.co/8slavg13ib pic.twitter.com/YPhdk0Jv56

— WOOD TV8 (@WOODTV) May 1, 2020

Was it a simple teenage prank, or an attempt to stab at Americans once more, over the things that came bring a little comfort? After a Pandemic has many beloved Summer places closed, and weather conditions that have errored the shoreline of Lake Michigan do the people who frequent South Haven to visit childhood memories deserve this next jab at their heartstrings, do any Americans anywhere deserve that?

Just a Small Town Spot.

My 1st cousin married the original owners daughter. So I’ve been eating Sherman’s ice cream there over 45 yrs. and just started picking blueberries at DeGranchamps last 10 yrs with my 2nd wife. And we’d pack. 120 qt cooler of that ice cream and bring home

— @roadddriver815 (@Mark72757184) April 27, 2020

We are told constantly how horrible we are, and what concessions we need to make to be better..there seems to be no escape from that message,  and here at this small town creamery that has served tens of thousands of hard-working Michigan farming families and rural workers and torists for 102 years without a racial issue or protest- we have to ask, what could they have possibly done to deserve this?  Is it no big deal, something to just be laughed off, or could it be something alarming in this day and age- to be just another representation, in a long line of assaults that our property is not safe, our traditions are not safe, our feelings do not matter- we can’t let our guard down anywhere, in this new “America’, where everyone must be on edge at all times? 

Blue Moo in happier days:

#puremichiganchat Ice cream! Sherman's Dairy is THE place for the hugest portions of locally made ice cream! #SouthHaven pride and joy! pic.twitter.com/cF4vvMgstd

— KeepOnBelieveInn (@🏡) (@YMBBastepaway) March 15, 2017

“Someone tipped over the blue cow, nicknamed Blue Moo, and stole the baby cow, nicknamed Baby Blue, from the roof of Sherman’s Dairy Bar in South Haven. The ice cream shop quickly took to social media to get the word out that Blue Moo was tipped over and her ears broken. Baby Blue was missing from the stand with a leg still in position,” WWMT local news reported.

almost nothing a pretty sunset and Sherman's ice cream can't fix

— Mara Johnson (@maraajohnson) June 22, 2017

Not even the small rural tourist town was safe from the domestic uprising of Black Lives Matters in early June, is this a coincidence?  Were kids just dehumanized to think that assaulting property was positive?  There has not been a civil uprising or protest in the area for decades. 

South Haven Mi peaceful march Black lives Matter pic.twitter.com/2dakhSXunv

— Carol Rice (@CarolRice25314) June 7, 2020

South Haven is a small rural town on Lake Michigan that hosts numerous tourists from all over the country, who come to the area to enjoy the Lake life.  Sherman’s Ice Cream Parlor, the place famous for Blue Moon ice cream, is a favorite tourist spot for decades. 

Their property was vandalized and their statue, which draws people, and makes kids happy was pulled down off the top of a building, vandalized and left lying as if dead,  near a busy road. A smaller cow was stolen outright.

Blue Moo came from the 1999 Chicago parade of cows and was placed on the roof in 2004. Baby Blue joined in 2014, according to Marilyn O’Conner, a Sherman’s Dairy Bar leadership member.

The ears and the small cow were found and returned. 

Sherman’s Dairy Bar said it would take some time to repair the iconic duo and they would be back on the roof in spring 2021. The suspects were found in Grand Rapids, over an hour and half north, on the Lake. 

Sherman’s Ice Cream Parlor in Michigan is just like everyone’s favorite resort ice cream stop.

Hopefully someday America can get back to enjoying some ice cream in a beach town, taking our kids to see their favorite vacation spots with their family, and we can all enjoy our lives again with our simple American pleasures.

If we ever get back there again, we won’t be so fast to to take small pleasures for granted ever again.

Kari Donovan

Kari is an ex-Community Organizer who writes about Voter Engagement, Cultural Marxism and Campaigns. She has been a grassroots volunteer with the GOP, on and off for 18 years. She is a Homeschool Mom in North Carolina and loves Photojournalism and Citizen Journalism. @Saorsa1776