White squirrels: Texas City's new tourist attraction?

Finally, Texas City has something to talk about other than its big dike: A bunch of white squirrels have been spotted in town, and they could be a tourist draw if Texas City plays its cards right.

So first of all, you're probably wondering exactly what a white squirrel is, right? Pretty simple, actually: It's a two-toned, light cream-colored variation of the common gray or brown squirrels we see all the time. White squirrels aren't albinos — they owe their coloring to a natural mutation that leads to less pigment being produced by each hair follicle. The white squirrels are believed to have originated in the late 1940s when a carnival truck overturned near Madison, Fla., presumably releasing two white squirrels who were, in turn, given to H.H. Mull of Brevard, N.C. (although another town, Marionville, Mo., claims its white squirrels have been around ince the 1850s). The white squirrels have remained in Transylvania County, N.C., ever since, and they've also spread to a few other places as well. In one of those towns, Olney, Ill., the white squirrels have right-of-way on every city street, an ordinance we can't see being all that popular in Texas. (If you'd like to see white squirrels in action — and hear a rockin' song in the process — check out "The White Wonder Song" by Peter Snell of Exeter, Ontario. Wow.)

No one's sure how the white squirrels ended up in Texas City: They might have hitchhiked or been brought there, or they could be the result of a spontaneous mutation of regular old Texas squirrels. Either way, folks in North Carolina advise Texas Citians Texas Cityites Texas Cittonians Texas City residents to cash in on the little critters: “We have a White Squirrel Festival each year," Beth Cardin, president of the Brevard-Transylvania Chamber of Commerce, told The Galveston County Daily News. "People in Texas City need to turn this into a positive for tourism like we did with our festival, which Jay Leno mentioned on TV.”