There's a place set up Florida that developed a twelve-foot-high monument in the middle of town to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would anybody would like to perform that?
Very well, to begin with, heroes are challenging to investigation in just this location in Florida - the Panhandle city of Wausau, property of below five hundred people in the middle of Washington County about 10 miles south of Chipley.
Why don't you the possum, an unlikely hero as you should be expecting? No one else puts the possum over a pedestal. Why not Wausau?
Secondly, very last 1982, Wausau acquired Unwell and Fed up with becoming disregarded Along with the Florida lists of pleasurable, fairs and festivals. Each area in Florida would like a Pageant. And not one dedicate Florida provides a Possum Festival. Why don't you Wausau?
If you have not frequented Washington County, you most likely will Consider I am generating this up. Should you have gone to Washington County, you will realize - and know that is a real story.
Wausau, it ended up, experienced some very powerful possum politicians from the early '80s. Listed below are a pair of points they accomplished:


They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the 1st Saturday in August as Possum Day in Florida. That led to the creating With all the monument along Point out Freeway 77 in Wausau.

They even got the United States Congress to market the possum. Congress joined the pleasurable by offering the funds for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau would have a location to hold its yearly Fun Day and Possum Pageant. Featuring a queen contest and possum auction, among other factors, the Pageant appeals to Lots of individuals yearly, and so that they discover it irresistible.
Trip For lots of educating of Northerners right here. The South's possum could be the equivalent lowly animal click here you get in touch with opossum, (Why use 7 letters when 6 will do?) It is a smallish marsupial that life in trees and shows its unpleasant system only during the night. That is why, when you are In the suitable set in position Florida, you can listen to possum hunters' canine baying and barking. Treed by canine, the possum 'freezes', so It is really not tough to trap (or shoot) a single.
An inscription within the monument in the course of Wausau cites the possum's position in supplying 'both of those fur and foodstuff' throughout the overall centuries. It goes on say: 'Their presence in this article has offered an origin of nutritious and flavorful meals in usual times and possesses been a vital assist to human survival far more distress and demanding want.'
Giggle if you're keen on. The persons of Wausau will chortle along - though downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.