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Terry, left, and Tim
participate in a practice ride to familiarize them with
campus. The practice rides also are allowing mule drivers
from the MU College of Veterinary Medicine Mule Club to
gain experience with the new team. Photo by Randy Mertens
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New
Mascot Mules
By Randy Mertens
As public relations professionals go, they
are a bit tall — and hairy. Their four legs, hooves, and
insatiable appetite for carrots also set them apart from traditional
PR types.
Nonetheless, the mascot mules of the College
of Veterinary Medicine, University of Missouri-Columbia,
have represented the college, MU, and state of Missouri to
thousands of people at numerous events since 1982. Pulling
a dozen-passenger wagon, they’ve paraded in MU’s
homecoming and the governor’s inauguration. They were
prominent in the St. Louis Charity Horse Show and American
Royal Parade in Kansas City. The college’s mules have
also brought the governor to the Missouri State Fair’s
opening ceremonies, as well as yeoman duty at numerous city
parades, picnics, weddings, and other events. Thousands of
Missouri kids have either ridden in the mule wagon or tempted
the animals with peppermint or carrot treats. Often, the
MU mules were the first farm animals that many city kids have
ever seen in person.
After a long search for the best Missouri
Mule team, the newest pair of mascot mules was chosen in January.
Tim and Terry, found in Elkland, Mo., replace retired mascots
Jill and Shirley. The new mules will continue their predecessors’
role of helping Missourians understand the mule’s noble
part of the state’s heritage.
In Missouri’s first century, mules were
the backbone of the state’s agriculture. Mules helped grow
the state by helping produce enough cotton and tobacco to trade
overseas. Farmers relied on the animals’ ability to work
hard and eat less than a horse. Mules were uniquely qualified
to pull stumps and plow the rocky and compacted Missouri soil.
Mining companies alone used 12,000 of the animals.
Mule breeding became an important part of
Missouri’s early economy. Mules were sold to westward-bound
pioneers, toted freight, and even pulled trains and riverboats.
In the late 1800s, when the average Missouri farm had an average
income of less than $700, a mule colt sold for $100, a major boost
to a Missouri family.
Missouri mules served during wartime when
small farms provided tens of thousands of the animals. During
the Spanish-American war, the animal’s ability to pack heavy
loads across rugged terrain for long distances was highly prized.
In World War I, there were more Missouri mules in the Army than
mechanized vehicles, and they donned gasmasks and braved the terrors
of trench warfare. Mules were used in World War II in remote areas,
and were even parachuted into Burma where the terrain was too
difficult for motorized transport.
The mule passed slowly from the state’s
agriculture. Even in the late 1940s, a Missouri farmer could still
use a mule as a down payment on a John Deere tractor.
The mule’s day may be diminished, but
it is not gone. When a Springfield utility company needed to string
40 miles of fiber-optic cables through stretches of the Ozarks,
the company could find no vehicle able to traverse the hilly terrain.
Solution: Empire District Electric brought in four Missouri mules
to pull the wiring over the steep hills and rough terrain.
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Last Update:
November 15, 2007
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