A location in Florida - Let us Cheer the Lowly Possum

There's a invest Florida that developed a twelve-foot-high monument in the center of town to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would anyone would like to do that?
Effectively, to start with, heroes are complicated for getting using this place in position Florida - the Panhandle city of Wausau, home of underneath five hundred folks in the heart of Washington County about ten miles south of Chipley.
Why don't you the possum, an unlikely hero to mention the minimum? Nobody else puts the possum on a pedestal. Why not Wausau?
Secondly, very last 1982, Wausau obtained sick and weary with currently being ignored With all the Florida lists of exciting, fairs and festivals. Each and every commit Florida requires a Competition. Rather than a person commit Florida incorporates a Possum Festival. Why not Wausau?
If you haven't absent to Washington County, you probably will think I'm making this up. In case you have been to Washington County, you will realize - and know This is actually the true story.
Wausau, it wound up, had some really highly effective possum politicians noisy . '80s. Allow me to share a set of factors they attained:


They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the initial Saturday in August as Possum Day in Florida. That led on the making in the monument along State Freeway 77 in Wausau.

They even bought the United States Congress to market place the possum. Congress joined the exciting by delivering the resources for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau might need a place to assist its once-a-year Enjoyable Day and Possum Festival. Showcasing a queen contest and possum auction, among other items, the Competition appeals to A large number of men and women every year, and in order that they find it irresistible.
Trip For lots of educating of Northerners here. The South's possum will be the identical lowly animal you call opossum, (Why use seven letters when 6 will complete?) It's a smallish marsupial that life in trees and reveals its ugly physique only during the night. That's website why, if you're within correct place set up Florida, you could hear possum hunters' puppies baying and barking. Treed by pet dogs, the possum 'freezes', so It will probably be uncomplicated capture (or shoot) 1.
An inscription about the monument in the middle of Wausau cites the possum's job in providing 'each fur and food' through the generations. It goes on say: 'Their existence in this article has offered a source of nutritious and flavorful food items in normal occasions and has been a major aid to human survival all through periods of distress and demanding want.'
Laugh if you like. The men and women of Wausau will laugh along - although downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.