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Mooseum open

Ruth Klossner holds up a Christmas-themed pillow that is one of the most recent additions to her collection. Staff photo by Connor Cummiskey

Ruth Klossner holds up a Christmas-themed pillow that is one of the most recent additions to her collection. Staff photo by Connor Cummiskey

BERNADOTTE — The world-record-holding Mooseum officially contains 16,900 items as of its open house Sunday.

Once a year for almost two decades, Ruth Klossner has hosted an open house of her massive collection of cow items. In 2015 Klossner earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest collection of cow-related items. At the time Guinness recorded 15,144 items.

“Half of the fun of having the collection is sharing it,” Klossner said. “If I just had the stuff here and nobody saw it, it would not be any fun. The fun is watching people and their reactions to seeing this many cows.”

The collection contains everything from spoons, to clothing, to a fridge that moos when opened. Klossner has over 500 anthropomorphized bovine figurines called “Mary’s Moo Moos,” many of which are no longer available for sale. Her favorite is a cow at a computer, because she used to be an editor at a newspaper.

Klossner thinks anywhere between one-third and one-half of the collection is gifts. April Atzenhoefer, one of the students who act as tour guides for the Mooseum, said that many of the gifts were made specifically for Klossner. The rest of the collection consists of items she either found or purchased.

“The other half of the fun of the collection is the hunt of going to an auction, a flee market, a garage sale, a craft show, a department store, going anywhere and finding something I do not have,” Klossner said.

What is not fun, according to Klossner, is dusting. While she will do light dusting throughout the year, a deep cleaning happens only once a year, just before the open house. It takes three to four people three days to dust everything.

When asked about duplicated items, Klossner replied that she will get them fairly often. Either she purchases an item she forgot she had or she will get them as gifts. After each open house she gives the duplicates to the tour guides.

One of Klossner’s favorite pieces is a sterling silver creamer shaped like a cow that she received from actress Tippi Hedren. The creamer dates back to the 1890s, and Hedren received it as a gift for one of her marriages.

Hedren and Klossner met when the actress returned to Lafayette to be grand marshall in the centennial parade in 2000.

“At that time she and her family stayed here at my house with me, because her sister’s family was going to stay here,” Klossner said. “We though we would put Tippi up at a hotel thinking that is what you do with movie stars. She said ‘I would rather stay with my sister,’ I said ‘Ok, if you can stand my cows you can stay here.”

The first item Klossner purchased is a white figurine of a cow and calf. At the time she had not planned on it becoming one piece in a record-holding collection.

“I bought it at a household auction somewhere later in the 1970s just because I liked it,”  Klossner said. “Not because I was collecting cows, I just bought it because I liked it and you can see what has happened since then.”

After almost 20 years of touring and 37 years of collecting, Klossner wants the collection to outlast her.

“I am hoping that I can keep the collection together, that some dairy company, perhaps, will be interested in getting it and keeping it together, because it is kind of unique to have this many pieces,” Klossner said.

In addition to the annual open house, Klossner also provides tours year-round by appointment. She can be contacted by phone at 507-240-0048 or via email at cowlady@centurylink.net.

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