There is a invest Florida that crafted a 12-foot-substantial monument in the midst of city to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would anyone must do that?
Nicely, to start, heroes are challenging to have During this devote Florida - the Panhandle town of Wausau, home of a lot less than 500 persons in the middle of Washington County about ten miles south of Chipley.
Why not the possum, an unlikely hero To place it mildly? No one else puts the possum on a pedestal. Why not Wausau?
Next, in 1982, Wausau bought Ill and fatigued with getting neglected from the Florida lists of pleasurable, fairs and festivals. Just about every devote Florida wishes a festival. And never 1 set in place Florida includes a Possum Festival. Why don't you Wausau?
If you haven't attended Washington County, you almost certainly will Assume I'm creating this up. When you've got visited Washington County, you can fully grasp - and know this can be a legitimate Tale.
Wausau, it wound up, had some fairly effective possum politicians over the early '80s. Here's certain things they attained:
They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the 1st Saturday in August as Possum Day in Florida. That led into the constructing in the monument together State Highway 77 in Wausau.
They even obtained the United States Congress to market the possum. Congress joined the enjoyable by supplying the resources for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau might need a area to keep its annual Enjoyable Day and Possum Competition. That includes a queen contest and possum auction, between other points, the Pageant attracts heaps of individuals each and every year, moreover they like it.
Trip for a few educating of Northerners in this article. The South's possum is the same lowly animal you call opossum, (Why use seven letters when six will carry out?) It's a smallish marsupial that lives in trees and displays its unappealing physique only in the evening. This is why, when you find yourself Within the appropriate commit Florida, you'll be able to hear possum hunters' canines baying and barking. Treed by dogs, the possum 'freezes', so It is quick capture (or shoot) a person.
An inscription to the monument in the guts of Wausau cites the possum's part in furnishing 'the two fur and food stuff' with the overall centuries. It goes onto say: 'Their presence right here has presented an origin of nutritious and flavorful food in typical moments and it's been an important enable to human survival way more distress and important have to have.'
Chortle in case you'd choose. The people today of Wausau will chortle with you get more info - while downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.