Janesville, WI: On Sunday evening, November 26, a bolt of lightening struck and killed Miracle's Second Chance, The Sacred White Buffalo. "Chance" was discovered in a field after his caretaker, David Heider, saw Chance's mother walking alone and grunting. Dave followed the white calf's mother up a hill where he found Chance lying dead near a tree.
Valerie Heider, Dave's wife, had been at home when the lightening struck. She said it was like "flashbulbs" going off in all the windows. Seconds later, a huge orchestra of thunder rolled across the sky. The storm itself began about ten minutes later. It was after the storm when Chance was found.
Miracle's Second Chance is the third white buffalo calf to be born at the Heider ranch. The first was still-born. The second, a female named Miracle, was born on August 20,1994 and died in 2004. Chance, a male, was born August 25, 2006, the same day another lightening storm hit the Janesville area. "He was born in lightening and taken by lightening" said Stephanie Schwartz, webmaster for Miracle and Miracle's Second Chance and close friends with the Heiders.
White buffalo, which are extremely rare, are sacred to many Native American tribes. The animals fulfill the legend of the White Buffalo Calf Woman and her message that foretells peace. Part of the legend includes a white buffalo calf changing colors: from white, to black, to red, then brown. After Chance was killed, Dave Heider clipped off part of the buffalo's coat. The fur near the skin was growing in jet black.
Chance was buried next to Miracle, the Sacred White Buffalo. It is expected his grave will be visited by many people, including those who now consider the Heiders' farm as sacred ground.
Four other buffalo, including two calves, were also killed during the storm and buried in a separate area. Heider thinks the same lightening strike killed all five.
Lightning on Sunday night struck and killed two buffalo cows and three buffalo calves, including a white buffalo-Miracle's Second Chance-on the Heider farm south of Janesville, Dave Heider said this morning.
Heider discovered the five dead buffalo when he went to check on the animals this morning before going to work.
The white calf's mother was walking around and grunting, so Heider followed her up the hill where he found the five dead buffalo with burn marks laying near a tree.
He thinks it was one lightning strike that hit all five and the nearby tree.
The farm became a destination for thousands of visitors after Miracle, a female white buffalo, was born there on Aug. 20, 1994. In 1995, visitors to the Heider farm increased tourism to Rock County by 22 percent.
White buffalo are extremely rare and are said to fulfill a Native American legend foretelling peace.
Miracle died in 2004 and is now stuffed in the Heider gift shop.
A male white buffalo was born on the farm Aug. 25 this year.
"How many times in a lifetime does lighting strike?" Heider said to The Janesville Gazette after the second birth.
Sunday's storm answered his question, again.
Earlier this year, lightning struck a couple of his Scottish Highlander cows, Heider said, but it had never happened to any of his buffalo.
He said they figured they'd better "call it in and get it on the news wire" so people wanting to visit the white buffalo wouldn't be surprised.
"I suppose it's going to be a great loss to a lot of people," he said.
Since the August birth, "a lot of people" have called about visiting the farm, including people from Canada, he said.
Sunday night's thunderstorm brought 0.24 inches of rain to the area.
"It's just coincidence, I guess, that lightning struck twice," he said. "He (Miracle's Second Chance) was born in a storm and died in a storm."
'Chance' was third in farm's series of rare births since '94
BY DAVID HAWLEY, Pioneer Press
The rare white buffalo was named Miracle Second Chance when it was born on a Wisconsin farm in August during a massive thunderstorm.
On Monday, "Chance" was buried after being killed by lightning. And buffalo farmers Dave and Val Heider of rural Janesville were trying, as mourners often do, to find something meaningful in the loss.
"It's so ironic," Val Heider said Tuesday. "There was a crack of lightning that lit up the sky on the day he was born, and the same thing happened on the night he died."
The short life Chance lived three months and one day had renewed interest in the Heider farm, home for a decade to Miracle, a white buffalo born there in 1994.
During Miracle's 10-year life, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims visited the 45-acre farm in southern Wisconsin. The visitors included Indians from North America, Inuit from northern Canada, Aborigines from Australia and even Tibetan monks.
For American Indians, in particular, Miracle was seen as the living embodiment of an ancient legend about the origins of sacred rites and the promise of a dawning era of peace and harmony.
The Heiders, then and now, never charged an admission fee, though they eventually converted a metal shed into a museum to accommodate crowds that sometimes numbered 2,500 a day.
Another white calf, born in 1998, lived just four days before dying in a farm accident.
After Miracle's death in 2004, life began to return to normal at the farm. When Miracle Second Chance was born Aug. 25, Val Heider sighed and exclaimed, "Here we go again."
But on Sunday night, the white calf was with a herd of buffalo cows and calves in an upper pasture when a lightning storm swept across the farm.
"It wasn't even raining, but it was like daylight outside," Val Heider said. "The thunder cracked all the way across the sky."
The next morning, Dave Heider discovered the bodies of two cows and two calves, including Chance, all lying together near a tree. Burn marks indicated the cause of death.
Chance's mother was not one of the cows that died.
Val Heider said the white calf has been buried next to Miracle, though the two animals are not related. Insurance did not cover the loss because it's considered "an act of God," she said.
"I didn't stay on the farm yesterday because I didn't want to answer the phone," Val Heider said. "It's still gloomy around here today. But life goes on."
David Hawley can be reached at dhawley@pioneerpress.com . or 651-228-5257.
WKOW 27 News
www.wkowtv.com/index.php/news/story/p/pkid/25412
White Buffalo Dies in Janesville
Wed 11/29/2006
Dave Heider says he was doing chores Sunday night when he heard a lightning strike followed by thunder.
The next morning, he noticed the mother of his 3 month old white buffalo calf acting strange. ''Chance's Mother was in the feed lot up here and she was just having a fit - grunting and running around and looking.'' Heider said. ''At that point I knew that something was wrong.''
He says he walked into the field and found Chance, two calves and two other buffalo all dead from an apparent lightning strike.
Chance was the third white buffalo Heider says was born on the farm. ''Miracle'' was born in 1994 and caused a media frenzy, attracting people from all over the world. Another white buffalo born on the farm lived only a few days. Many Native Americans believe white buffalo are a sacred sign of peace, especially females. ''Miracle'' died of natural causes in 2004.
Heider says he was stunned to see a newborn, ''Chance'' in August. Chance was not related to Miracle. Heider says Chance died during a storm 3 months and one day after he was born during a storm.
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