A location in Florida - Let us Cheer the Lowly Possum

There's a place in Florida that developed a twelve-foot-superior monument in the center of town to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would anyone choose to do that?
Nicely, to get started with, heroes are tough to have Within this commit Florida - the Panhandle city of Wausau, house of fewer than five hundred persons in the course of Washington County about 10 miles south of Chipley.
Why don't you the possum, an unlikely hero understandably? No one else places the possum on the pedestal. Why not Wausau?
Next, again in 1982, Wausau got Unwell and Sick and tired of staying overlooked inside the Florida lists of enjoyment, fairs and festivals. Each area in Florida requirements a festival. And not 1 location in Florida features a Possum Competition. Why don't you Wausau?
If you have never frequented Washington County, you almost certainly will Assume I'm causeing this to generally be up. In case you have visited Washington County, you can expect to understand - and know this is the correct Tale.
Wausau, it wound up, experienced some pretty effective possum politicians throughout the early '80s. Listed here are two or three points they accomplished:


They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the pretty initially Saturday in August as Possum Working day in Florida. That led to the setting up of your monument together Point out Freeway seventy seven in Wausau.

They even acquired America Congress in promoting the possum. Congress joined the entertaining via offering the cash for Wausau's Possum Palace so website Wausau might need a location to carry its once-a-year Pleasurable Day and Possum Competition. Featuring a queen contest and possum auction, among the other factors, the festival appeals to Countless men and women Each individual and yearly, and they also love it.
Outing for a few educating of Northerners right here. The South's possum is similar lowly animal you connect with opossum, (Why use seven letters when 6 will do?) It is a smallish marsupial that life in trees and demonstrates its unsightly physique only during the night time. This is exactly why, In case you are inside the correct put in place Florida, you can hear possum hunters' canines baying and barking. Treed by puppies, the possum 'freezes', for that reason it is actually not so complicated to hook (or shoot) one particular.
An inscription to the monument in the center of Wausau cites the possum's purpose in delivering 'each fur and food' through the overall centuries. It goes on say: 'Their presence listed here has delivered an origin of nutritious and flavorful foodstuff in ordinary occasions and possesses been a crucial assist to human survival considerably more distress and demanding need.'
Snicker if you're keen on. The men and women of Wausau will laugh along - when downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.