There is a invest Florida that created a twelve-foot-higher monument in the course of city to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would anyone really need to do that?
Effectively, initially off, heroes are tough to return by on this place in Florida - the Panhandle town of Wausau, dwelling of less than 500 folks in the middle of Washington County about ten miles south of Chipley.
Why don't you the possum, an unlikely hero understandably? No person else places the possum with a pedestal. Why not Wausau?
Next, back in 1982, Wausau acquired Ill and Fed up with becoming ignored in the Florida lists of enjoyment, fairs and festivals. Each individual set in position Florida would like a festival. And not one particular put in place Florida features a Possum Festival. Why don't you Wausau?
If you haven't gone to Washington County, you almost certainly will Believe I am producing this up. When you've got absent to Washington County, you can expect to comprehend - and know it is a real story.
Wausau, it turned out, experienced some pretty powerful possum politicians in early '80s. Listed here are two things they accomplished:
They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the very first Saturday in August as Possum Day in Florida. That led for the setting up in the monument alongside Point out Highway 77 in Wausau.
They even got America Congress in advertising and marketing the possum. Congress joined the pleasurable by means of furnishing the funds for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau could possibly have a location to hold its yearly Exciting Working day and Possum Festival. That includes a queen contest and possum auction, amongst other points, the festival appeals to tons of men and women each and every year, and they also adore it.
Trip for some educating of Northerners right here. The South's possum is comparable lowly animal you contact opossum, (Why use 7 letters when 6 will do?) It's a smallish marsupial that lives in trees and reveals its unattractive human body only during the night. That's why, after you find yourself throughout the right invest Florida, you could listen to possum hunters' puppies baying and barking. Treed by puppies, the possum 'freezes', so it is actually simple seize (or shoot) one particular.
An inscription around the monument in the middle of Wausau cites the possum's purpose in delivering 'both fur and food' with the generations. It goes on to say: 'Their existence right here has provided a source of nutritious and flavorful foods in usual times and possesses been a very important guide to human survival in situations of distress and demanding want.'
Laugh if check here you want. The people today of Wausau will giggle along with you - whilst downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.