Olney, Illinois
Imagine you are a white squirrel.
Specifically, imagine you’re an albino squirrel with pure white fur and pink eyes with blue irises. Where would you want to live?
Forget common benefits such as nuts and trees. As a white squirrel, you’re clearly entitled to preferential treatment, and you will certainly want:
-
1)Local humans who are encouraged to feed white squirrels.
-
2)A city clerk who bottle-feeds baby squirrels that fall out of trees.
-
3)Drivers who are required to yield the right of way to white squirrels.
-
4)A five hundred dollar fine for running over a white squirrel.
-
5)Cats and dogs that are not allowed to run free, so they can’t chomp an unwary squirrel.
-
6)Humans who are not allowed to transport white squirrels away from the local area, preventing them from tragically breaking up squirrel families.
-
7)Members of the local constabulary who are so squirrel-friendly they have pictures of white squirrels sewn on their uniforms.
-
8)A town that offers tourists white chocolate squirrel suckers.
If your town meets all eight requirements, then congratulations, you lucky white squirrel! You live in Olney, Illinois.
Olney is a town of about 8,500 human residents, located on Highway 50 in southeast Illinois. The first Europeans settled in the Olney area in 1841, living in a log cabin that served as a stop on the stagecoach route between St. Louis and Vincennes, Indiana.
The first white squirrels settled in Olney in 1902. Exactly who discovered them is in dispute, but all agree that the First Squirrels were housed in the window of a saloon, apparently as an advertising ploy. Those squirrels, or their descendants, were released in 1910 when the Illinois legislature outlawed the confinement of wildlife. In fact, the exact spot of the historic squirrel release is known — 802 North Silver Street — but, sadly for tourists, the house located at that address has since been torn down.
To see an Olney white squirrel, it’s best to head for Olney’s City Park. I did, and when I got there a passing power-walker, noting my California license plates, said, “You’re here for the white squirrels, right?” Before long, I saw one. Used to celebrity, the squirrel obligingly posed for the picture at the top of this page.
If you can’t make it to City Park, you can still order a DVD of white squirrel photos and a song, “The White Squirrels of Olney.” Google it. But if you’re determined to see a real white squirrel, you should be aware that there are alleged impostors out there — impostors, at least, from Olney’s point of view. Kenton, TN, Marionville, MO, Brevard, NC, and Exeter, Ontario, all claim to be the true home of white squirrels. Each town lays out its case on the Internet. Google them.
Meanwhile, keep your focus on the end of October. That’s when Olney conducts its annual white-squirrel census. Results are awaited with some anxiety, because the color of white squirrels makes them all too visible to predators, which is why Olney’s cats and dogs are not free to roam. Lately, census takers have found about 150 white squirrels. There’s no word on the number of other squirrels in town, or how they feel about Olney’s preferential policies toward their more famous relations.
