{"id":840532,"date":"2026-06-03T03:02:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T03:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/840532\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T03:02:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T03:02:20","slug":"cow-statue-on-the-moove-at-perry-farm-in-bourbonnais-shaw-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/840532\/","title":{"rendered":"Cow statue on the \u2018moove\u2019 at Perry Farm in Bourbonnais \u2013 Shaw Local"},"content":{"rendered":"

A familiar animal fixture at Perry Farm has moved to greener pastures.<\/p>\n

Those pastures happen to be a few hundred feet away, next to the park\u2019s welcome sign at the corner of Kennedy Drive and Perry Street.<\/p>\n

To the possible surprise of some motorists passing by the busy location, a real cow has not jumped over any fencing and made a break for it.<\/p>\n

The black-and-white spotted animal is, in fact, a life-size cow statue that stood for years beside the Exploration Station.<\/p>\n

The statue was recently given new life with a fresh coat of paint and relocated into prominent view.<\/p>\n

Cherie Smolkovich, director of recreation and marketing for the Bourbonnais Township Park District, said she was unsure of the cow\u2019s exact origins.<\/p>\n

The cow has stood outside the Exploration Station for at least 10 years, overlooking park visitors from the fenced-in area around the building\u2019s air conditioning units.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just felt like it was hidden too much behind the fence, so we just decided, and one of our maintenance team members, Percy Dean, gave it kind of a new, fresh bath and repainted it,\u201d Smolkovich said.<\/p>\n

\"Perry<\/p>\n

Perry Farm Park’s cow statue now greets parkgoers at the park’s entrance on the corner of Kennedy Drive and Perry Street. (Tiffany Blanchette)<\/p>\n

The maintenance team then moved the cow to its new grazing spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just kind of a hidden gem, and we wanted to showcase it,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

While the cow does not currently have a name, the park district is considering a future naming contest to help pick one.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just know he\u2019s been a staple of the farm for a long time, and we decided to show him a little bit more adoration,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The cow has not only been spruced up and given a fresh view, but it also has a new animal neighbor located just down the road.<\/p>\n

The park district purchased a brightly colored, approximately 9-foot-tall rooster statue a couple of months ago.<\/p>\n

\"Joseph<\/p>\n

Joseph Moore, 5, of Watseka, checks out the new rooster statue near the entrance to Perry Farm Park on Monday, June 1, 2026. The Bourbonnais Township Park District purchased the brightly colored, 9-foot-tall statue a couple months ago to greet people near the Exploration Station. (Tiffany Blanchette)<\/p>\n

The rooster can be seen while heading into the park toward the Exploration Station.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody saw him up north and just thought he\u2019d fit perfectly in our farm to greet people,\u201d Smolkovich said. \u201cWe thought it would be a fun addition.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A familiar animal fixture at Perry Farm has moved to greener pastures. Those pastures happen to be a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":840533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[32],"tags":[648,1032,77534,7224,1033,171,77532,728,50,5312,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-840532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-bourbonnais","tag-bradley","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-kankakee-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-parks","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116683954655040654","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}