Best known for its waterfalls, Brevard is also home to one of the handful of white
squirrel populations in North America.
By Bill Weekes
The sleepy viBagr <f Brevard is made up if 5. 700 humans and some 250 uhite squirrels.
Tasmania has its devil. The Antarc¬
tic has its penguin. Scotland has
its Loch Ness Monster.
And Brevard. North Carolina?
Brevard has its white squirrel.
The gateway to Pisgah National Forest,
most noted for its music center and water¬
falls. is home — albeit adopted home —
to one of the few non-albinic white squir¬
rel populations in the country, and has
been for more than *10 years.
The Brevard Chamber of Commerce
gets about 30 calls a month during the
summer from out-of-towners wanting to
know where these blanched “bushy-tails"
can
Ы-
found.
“People come from all over the country
just to see our white squirrels, they’re such
a novelty,'* says Donna Stout, owner of the
gift-oriented White Squirrel Shoppe in
downtown Brevard. The Shoppe, which
opened in 1988. offers confirmation to
new arrivals that, indeed, this must be
North Carolina's home for white squir¬
rels.
Many visitors to the Shoppe, where
Stout houses an estimated 13,000 white
squirrels — images of them, that is — saw
the feature segment CBS News ran on
Brevard's squirrels in 1993.
"Their initial reaction is to think our
squirrels are albinos." Stout explains. “But
we always point out they're not. that
they’ve got brown eyes. They're a breed
ol their own."
The only mercantile spinoff to the
white squirrel phenomenon to date, the
Shoppe features stuffed handmade white
squirrels, and such signature items as
white squirrel pins, napkin rings, post¬
cards, concrete door stops, shirts and
plates.
The existence of these ghostly mam¬
mals is just one reason why this sleepy lit¬
tle village ol 5,700 is transformed into a
bustling parade of 40,000 souls — many
from Florida — come summer.
While squirrel numbers in town, how¬
ever, stay about the same no matter what
the season — nearly one colorless critter
for each of the 250 waterfalls tumbling
down in the Brcvard/Transylvania Coun¬
ty area.
In Brevard, popular hangouts for the
pale tree-dwellers include three small
parks: Franklin and Silvermont off East
Main, and the South Broad Street Recre¬
ation Center park. The squirrels also fre¬
quent Maple and Johnston streets.
A block behind the Brevard Inn, little
Franklin Park huddles like a co/.y nest
amidst a dense residential area. Recently.
I watched several lithe white squirrels
scamper amidst oaks and yellow poplars.
By noon the squirrels stretched out on
branches for ntiddav siestas.
You soon discover that white squirrels
arc a hit more shy than their gray conn-
terparts. faking photos ol grays is simple.
Whites, during early afternoons, will head
for higher altitudes with the approach of
a human.
“Some whites are very shy. and not its
energetic as grays," says Esther Wesley, a
veteran white squirrel-watcher and the
Brevard chamber’s executive director.
"They will often stay on the far side of a
tree away from people and will scuny away
from you if they hear you. That’s why any¬
one wanting to take their picture must be
very quiet."
You can’t train the whites to eat out of
your hand like sou can the grass. Wesley
adds.
I-Wh, Hill w«kn
The StatcMpril 1995
24