Wiarton Willie
From Freepedia
Wiarton Willie is a famous Canadian groundhog who lives in the community of Wiarton in Bruce County, Ontario. Every February 2, on Groundhog Day, Willie takes part in the local Wiarton Willie Festival. His role is to determine if there will be an early spring or not.
Unlike other weather predicting groundhogs like Punxsutawney Phil (from Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania), Willie is an albino.
There has been more than one Willie over the years. The original Willie was famously found dead in his burrow three days before the scheduled appearance in 1999. That year's festival became a memorial for the rodent, though his keeper claims that Willie provided his prediction before his death. He was replaced the following year by another albino groundhog.
Wiarton is located on the Bruce Peninsula between Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. It has a population of 2,300.
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The History of Wiarton Willie
The story of Wiarton Willie dates back to 1956. Since then, many groundhogs have played the role of Willie.
The Groundhog Day celebration was first created by Mac McKenzie who in 1970 decided Wiarton needed a boost in the winter time. The original Wiarton Willie was an albino who was thought to have lived to the advanced age of twenty-two. Willie passed away during hibernation during the winter of 1998-99. Citizens of Wiarton were dismayed to learn this just before Groundhog Day, 1999. Willie's death was national and international news (see The death (and life) of Wiarton Willie, below).
Groundhogs are members of the squirrel family; also known as "woodchucks," "marmots," and "whistle-pigs." They are not noted for their intelligence. When startled or excited, they emit a high-pitched squeal. This is counter-productive, as it may alert predators who can then easily find and and dispatch the hapless groundhog.
How, then, are they renown for predicting weather? In fact, they are not very good at it. As a CBC news article notes:
- "The people of Wiarton insist their Willie was accurate 90 per cent of the time, but what do you expect them to say when the Groundhog Festival attracts 20,000 free-spending tourists to the town every February? Scientific studies show groundhogs are accurate only 37 per cent of the time."[1]
The article notes that one would do better flipping a coin. It also states that Wiarton Willie's predictive powers are attributed (by his followers) to his situation on the 45th parallel, exactly halfway between the Equator and the North Pole.
The death (and life) of Wiarton Willie
In the annals of groundhog day appearances, there are few stories that can top the scandalous tale of the demise of the first Wiarton Willie:
- One late winter day, on a Saturday afternoon, the 22 year old groundhog was found dead in his burrow. He was due to make his annual appearance on Tuesday. Now, you must understand that people all over Ontario await news of Wiarton Willy's shadow, or at least the media must think so, because the outcome is reported on the radio, on the 6 o'clock news, and in all the newspapers. Large crowds of people converge on Wiarton on this day each year, their children in tow, to be present when the four-footed oracle of the spring equinox pops out of his burrow and makes his pronouncement known.
- The organizers, with only two days left before the event and no time to find a replacement, decided to keep it a secret.
- The day arrived. Faced with the inevitable, the organizers unveiled a very dead and very stiff white rodent laid out in a tiny coffin, dressed up in a tiny tuxedo, with two shiny pennies over its eyes and a carrot between its paws. Solemn words of memorial were issued over the well-dressed carcass - glasses raised, hats doffed, and heads bowed.
- Not everyone got the humour of the situation. Mothers were shocked and children were traumatized. Some dismissed it as a tasteless publicity stunt. Then scandal broke:
- Last week the Associated Press published what may be the most bizarre caption correction to have ever moved on the wires. AP corrected the spelling of the late Wiarton Willie the Groundhog's name, but more significantly, they also had to explain that their photographer had been lied to when he took a photo that purported to show the recently departed creature in his coffin. Apparently the real late Willie had been dead so long, and was so badly decomposed when his handlers tried to roust him for Groundhog Day, that they used an older stuffed groundhog as a stand-in for their photo of Willie's wake.
- We didn't try to hide the fact that he was stuffed," said Tom Ashman of Wiarton Willie's publicity team. "If the media had been doing their job they would have seen the stitches on the belly."
- But, why fake it?
- "People needed closure," Ashman explained.
- —POLLENATRIX Botanical discipline, daily (May 27, 2004).
The new Wiarton Willie is also known as "Wee Willie," and is another albino groundhog. There are actually two Wee Willies—Wee Willie and Wee Willie-2—for good measure.
The big show
It is a major celebration, with dances, parades, hockey tournaments, curling bonspiels, pancake breakfasts, darts and snooker tournaments, sleigh rides, a Monte Carlo Night, a fish fry and a circus.
Other Groundhog Day stars
Wiarton Willie, as great as he is reputed to be, is by no means unique. Other towns throughout North American are known to have winter-predicting groundhogs. According to CBC News, the "second most famous"—after Wiarton Willie—is Punxsutawney Phil of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania (immortalized in the movie Groundhog Day). There is also "Brandon Bob" of Brandon, Manitoba, "Staten Island Chuck" in New York, "Balzac Billy" in Alberta, "Shubenacadie Sam" in Nova Scotia, and "Gary the Groundhog" in Kleinburg, Ontario.
