A location in Florida - Let us Cheer the Lowly Possum

There's a put set up Florida that built a twelve-foot-high monument in the middle of town to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would any person want to do that?
Nicely, to start with, heroes are tricky to exploration on this area in Florida - the Panhandle town of Wausau, house of underneath five hundred people in the center of Washington County about ten miles south of Chipley.
Why not the possum, an unlikely hero to convey the least? Nobody else puts the possum that has a pedestal. Why don't you Wausau?
Secondly, again 1982, Wausau received fed up with staying disregarded of your Florida lists of pleasurable, fairs and festivals. Each commit Florida would like a Competition. And never one particular commit Florida carries a Possum Competition. Why not Wausau?
If you have not long gone to Washington County, you almost certainly will Feel I'm producing this up. Should you have gone to Washington County, you will have an understanding of - and know it is a legitimate story.
Wausau, it turned out, had some rather highly effective possum politicians in early '80s. Here i will discuss some things they completed:


They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the very first Saturday in August as Possum Day in Florida. That led to the building in the monument along State Highway 77 in Wausau.

They even received the United States Congress in selling the possum. Congress joined more info the enjoyment by giving the resources for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau might have a location to hold its yearly Exciting Day and Possum Competition. Showcasing a queen contest and possum auction, amid other things, the Pageant draws in A large number of people today yearly, and In addition they find it irresistible.
Time out for some educating of Northerners below. The South's possum is similar lowly animal you simply call opossum, (Why use 7 letters when six is going to do?) It is a smallish marsupial that lives in trees and reveals its unpleasant system only during the night time. This is why, when you're within the right area in Florida, you'll be able to listen to possum hunters' canines baying and barking. Treed by canine, the possum 'freezes', for that reason it is actually simple sufficient to entice (or shoot) a person.
An inscription throughout the monument in the middle of Wausau cites the possum's function in furnishing 'both of those fur and food items' from the total hundreds of years. It goes to say: 'Their presence here has supplied a resource of nutritious and flavorful food stuff in standard moments and possesses been a big assist to human survival a great deal more distress and significant have to have.'
Chuckle if you'd want. The folks of Wausau will chuckle in conjunction with you - while downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.