In 2020, the Longmont Leader wrote a story about Sprit Elk, a female elk who had made her home along Hwy 287. Last year, the elk went missing after the farmer, Glenn Schultz died. A Longmont resident discovered an elk along Ogallala Road and thought it was Spirit Elk. It turns out that the elk is actually a baby.
John and Joan Schlagel own a small farm just south of the Diagonal Highway. In Spring 2023, the couple’s farm was visited by a small herd of elk. A female, who had just given birth to a male baby, was hit by a truck along the highway.
The baby, affectionately named Frederick by the Schlagels, spent the spring on the farm. When his herd moved on, he stayed and quickly became friends with the Schlagel’s herd of cows, John Schlagel said.
Frederick never leaves the farm, although he has every opportunity to, John Schagel said. The cornfield where the elk calf was born is only protected by a single wire of electric fence approximately three feet off the ground.
“He could easily jump the fence,” John Schlagel said.
The Schlagels say Frederick is free to come and go as he pleases but refuses to leave his friends. When the farmers needed to vaccinate the cows they opened the gates to a fenced-in yard to draw the herd in, which also drew Frederick in. They separated the cows from the elk to make the vaccination process easier but Frederick would not have it, John Schlagel said.
“He jumped a 6’ wooden fence just to get back to his friends,” he said.
The couple said they do not keep the elk there and while elk can disrupt the crops, he is welcome to stay as long as he would like, John Schlagel said.
