So it turns out that Martinez isn’t home of the first-ever beaver festival. There was one in Knowlton NJ about 7 years ago. Seems the town had some pesky beaver problems that were made harder to solve by some more pesky resident-voter problems, and wound up reaching a compromise of “if you can’t beat em’ join em'” proportions.
On a misty afternoon, Knowlton Mayor Frank Van Horn steers his SUV up to a 20-acre lake that is home to some 30 beavers.Last year, says Van Horn, the town decided, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em,” and declared the beaver its official animal. Van Horn went farther last summer and proclaimed June 21 “Beaver Day,” attracting nationwide attention. Festivities included an essay contest, a public singing of the Beaver Song, (sample lyric: “We’re gonna get along/We’re gonna be buds”) and a special beaver appearance at the elementary school. Reported by the Associated Press, TV and scores of newspapers around the country, the zany celebrations put this rural northwestern community of some 2,900 residents on the map. “People say, ‘Knowlton, that’s the one with the beaver,'” says Brian McClain, the town’s recreation director.
Hahaha. Obviously some people now say something else. Looks like the mayor wised up a little more quickly than ours seems to be doing in learning that beavers can ‘rebrand’ a city. Knowlton may have learned its civic lessons faster, but it learned its beaver lessons slower. They never figured out how to protect that culvert by installing a ‘beaver deceiver’. The mayor could outsmart the demons of obscurity, but never castor canadensis, which is surprising considering he was able to take this issue as far as the New York Times.
(To be honest, what’s really surprising to me is that the beaver story in the NYT was dated October 2007. 30 days before Martinez seminal meeting. I was completely unaware of it, and certainly there was no vast network of beaver supporters to bring it to my attention. I feel sooo ill-informed!)
Clearly the mayor of Knowlton is a media sharpshooter with more love for his name in lights than he has hatred of beavers. (Which our mayor probably will not be accused of any time soon.) Remember this is a man who seized the media opportunity when a dead body was dumped in his city, so beavers troubles were clearly in his repertoire. My very favorite part of the story was this:
Last year, Knowlton made its surrender official in a document that is equal parts peace treaty, fish story and excuse for a town-wide party. According to the resolution, the beavers are “long standing residents of the Township of Knowlton, perhaps even longer than the Taylors,” and “it has been demonstrated on numerous occasions over the past year that the Beavers of Knowlton Township are both clever and cunning, having thwarted all attempts to dislodge them from their preferred lodge.” The resolution designates the beaver as the town’s official animal and gives the mayor the authority to annually proclaim Knowlton Township Beaver Day, “at which time the Deputy Mayor shall dress in the likeness of a beaver during all official functions.“
Ohhhhh ‘make me a willow cabin at your gate’ and bring me some popcorn. Save me a seat in the very front row. I’m fairly certain that is the very best sentence I have ever read with the word ‘beaver’ in it. Nope.
Best. Sentence. Period.
Of course I took pity on the fellow readers of this blog, straining their imaginations to conjure that portrait. Photoshop offers this as help: Whadya think? I know I’d go to every civic function where I got to see this!
