There is a invest Florida that created a twelve-foot-large monument in the center of city to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would everyone could love to do that?
Nicely, to start out, heroes are tough to return by In this particular location in Florida - the Panhandle town of Wausau, residence of under five hundred individuals in the center of Washington County about ten miles south of Chipley.
Why don't you the possum, an unlikely hero as you would probably count on? No person else places the possum on a pedestal. Why don't you Wausau?
Next, again in 1982, Wausau bought sick and drained with being neglected from the Florida lists of enjoyment, fairs and festivals. Every single area in Florida demands a festival. Instead of a person position in Florida carries a Possum Competition. Why not Wausau?
If you have not attended Washington County, you almost certainly will Assume I am generating this up. When you've got been to Washington County, you can realize - and know It's really a correct story.
Wausau, it turned out, had some very powerful possum politicians over the early '80s. Here i will discuss two issues they achieved:


They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the Original Saturday in August as Possum Day in Florida. That led to the building inside the monument together Point out Highway 77 in Wausau.

They even bought The us Congress to advertise the possum. Congress joined the enjoyment by furnishing the funds for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau might have an area to maintain its yearly Enjoyable Day and Possum Pageant. That includes a queen contest and read more possum auction, amid other factors, the Competition attracts Lots of individuals Just about every and yearly, additionally they obtain it irresistible.
Day trip for many educating of Northerners here. The South's possum is similar lowly animal you simply call opossum, (Why use 7 letters when 6 will almost certainly do?) It's a smallish marsupial that lives in trees and shows its ugly body only at night. This is why, In case you are inside of appropriate place in place Florida, you could hear possum hunters' dogs baying and barking. Treed by pet dogs, the possum 'freezes', so It is really effortless to hook (or shoot) 1.
An inscription for the monument in the heart of Wausau cites the possum's part in giving 'both fur and food' throughout the entire centuries. It goes to say: 'Their presence listed here has provided a source of nutritious and flavorful food in usual periods and it's got been a significant guide to human survival in the course of situations of distress and important want.'
Chortle if you love. The men and women of Wausau will chortle together - though downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.