Waterhole Ike, tale of a beer guzzler

Once upon a time there was a famous resident 

of Golconda, Nevada.  His name was “Waterhole Ike.”  He lived there in the 1970s.  Mark Cowley ran the local saloon called Waterhole  #1.  There was one customer who was regular as clockwork.  Every morning about 10:30 here he’d come for his bucket of beer.  There was one thing about the customer that was mighty peculiar; he was Cowley’s pig, named appropriately “Waterhole Ike.”  Cowley learned that big money could be made putting famous animals out to stud.  So he decided to form a syndicate, sell stocks and then watch the money roll in.  He read that the very same thing had been done when the champion racehorse, Secretariat, was sold to a syndicate.  Cowley began selling shares and soon the money was mounting up, so much so that Cowley figured he needed to open a bank account in Ike’s name.  The local bankers refused, because Waterhole Ike didn’t have a social security card.  Cowley got an application, gave Ike a last name, a father and mother, and a birth date (5/1/1974).  Cowley submitted the application, having signed for Ike and in no time at all Waterhole Ike had himself a Social Security number (530-80-4623) and later a proper bank account, so Cowley could deposit money for Ike’s retirement.  The $25 stud fees soon began rolling in.  The press got hold of this and soon Ike was in the national press.  Over several years Ike fell on hard times and his bank account started to shrink.  About that time Ike fathered nine little piglets.  Crowley went to the welfare office in Winnemucca.  He told them his friend with a proper social security card was out of work with nine children to support and long story short, Ike began receiving $600 a month and food stamps.  But Cowley never cashed the checks or used the stamps.   Cowley grew tired of the saloon business, so he sold it and moved away.  And what became of Waterhole Ike, a Golconda legend, he lived to a ripe old age, as far as pig life goes.  The End.

This is mostly fact believe it or not.  Sorry about the poor quality picture of Ike.  It’s the only one I could find.