A spot in Florida - Let us Cheer the Lowly Possum

There's a put in Florida that built a 12-foot-higher monument in the guts of town to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would anybody want to perform that?
Properly, to begin, heroes are complicated to acquire with this particular set in place Florida - the Panhandle town of Wausau, household of underneath 500 individuals in the heart of Washington County about ten miles south of Chipley.
Why not the possum, an unlikely hero to convey the minimum? No one else puts the possum with a pedestal. Why don't you Wausau?
Next, final 1982, Wausau got Ill and drained with getting left out Using the Florida lists of entertaining, fairs and festivals. Each individual commit Florida demands a Pageant. Instead of one particular area in Florida carries a Possum Pageant. Why not Wausau?
If you haven't visited Washington County, you most likely will Consider I am building this up. In case you have attended Washington County, you may realize - and know It's really a real story.
Wausau, it turned out, had some rather highly effective possum politicians noisy . '80s. Here i will discuss a few issues they accomplished:


They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the initial Saturday in August as Possum Day in Florida. That led towards the building Along with the monument together State Highway 77 in Wausau.

They even bought The us Congress to market the possum. Congress joined the exciting by the cash for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau might have a location to hold its yearly Pleasurable Day and Possum Pageant. Featuring a queen contest and possum auction, among other items, the festival appeals to plenty of individuals Every and click here every year, as well as they adore it.
Day out for a few educating of Northerners listed here. The South's possum is identical lowly animal you contact opossum, (Why use seven letters when six can do?) It's a smallish marsupial that lives in trees and displays its unattractive body only during the night. That is why, when you end up during the ideal commit Florida, it is possible to hear possum hunters' canine baying and barking. Treed by puppies, the possum 'freezes', so it is actually effortless to hook (or shoot) a single.
An inscription on the monument in the course of Wausau cites the possum's purpose in providing 'the two fur and foodstuff' through the hundreds of years. It goes onto say: 'Their existence below has presented a supply of nutritious and flavorful food in normal situations and it's got been An important aid to human survival in occasions of distress and critical need to have.'
Laugh if you like. The men and women of Wausau will snicker alongside - though downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.