White Squirrels
When you’re walking through the streets of Lanark, you might be surprised to see that some of our squirrels are white. They aren’t albinos; rather, they are leucistic, meaning they possess a genetic anomaly that leads to them having less-than-normal fur pigmentation.
Leucistic squirrels are rare, but they exist in a few pockets of the U.S., including Brevard North Carolina, Marionville Missouri, Greenwood South Carolina, and of course, Lanark Village, as well as in a few other areas. However, only Brevard honors them with a popular festival that includes artisan markets and musical performances. Perhaps we should do the same in recognition of our squirrels!
Lanark’s white squirrels migrated from nearby Sopchoppy (home of the worm grunting festival, as if they needed any further distinction). In the 1950s, they were brought to the Sopchoppy Breakaway Inn, a hunting and fishing lodge said to have welcomed General Patton and General Clark, among other notables, as guests. It’s even possible, or at least, a good story, that the generals planned the Normandy invasion as they sat on the lodge’s porch.
The squirrels were brought to Breakaway by the lodge’s original owner, Fenton Jones who procured them from a Mr. Black, possibly a pecan farmer in Madison or Gadsden County.
Although the leucistic squirrels were most likely derived from a mutation of their gray Florida brethren, a myth arose about their escape from a circus wagon that had wrecked on Mr. Black’s farm. As it makes for a more interesting telling, that is the origin story that persists.
According to the White Squirrel Institute of Brevard North Carolina, the color variation of a white coat with a black spot on the head and a dark stripe down the back is an extremely rare coloration. Yet we see them daily on our walks around the streets of the Village, just one more example of how special life at Lanark is.
