About Salem Sue
Drivers on Interstate 94 near New Salem can see a black-and-white cow standing on a distant hill. Perspective does not make her look large. Salem Sue actually is enormous.
The fiberglass Holstein measures about 38 feet high and 50 feet long. She was installed in 1974 as a project of the New Salem Lions Club, celebrating the area’s dairy industry while giving travelers a landmark they could not possibly confuse with anything else. North Dakota Tourism notes that Sue can be seen from as far as five miles away.
A road climbs from town toward the hilltop, where the scale becomes much clearer. Standing beneath the cow turns an ordinary farm animal into something closer to a piece of architecture. Her elevated position also provides broad views across the surrounding prairie.
Salem Sue is one of the purest examples of classic roadside gigantism in the state. There is no elaborate backstory required and no indoor attraction hiding behind the statue. New Salem simply put an enormous Holstein on a hill, and half a century later she is still watching the highway.