White squirrels abound in Transylvania County.
Vivid pumpkin patches set against glorious fall foliage, claustrophobic corn mazes, and haunted houses for various age and scare levels — rural or urban, it’s all part of the October-long Halloween revelry happening all over Western North Carolina.
In Brevard, though, the chills take a most unique form. “Revenge of the White Squirrels” at Silvermont Park is the name of this fright game — an event running Fridays and Saturdays through October 31. The grand mansion and its grounds provide the ideal tableau for a staged haunting. Expect all the usual suspects on the lighted pumpkin-patch trails — ghosts, pirates, spiders, et al. — plus an enormous white squirrel that will prowl the grounds, reminding visitors who really runs the streets around here. The Great Pumpkin’s got nothing on this territorial rodent.
For those still in the dark about the Brevard area’s white squirrels, a bit of back story: they’re rumored to have arrived in Transylvania County via an overturned circus truck (others accounts say it was a derailed train) in the 1940s. Today, they “haunt” the courthouse green and the lawns of lucky residents, and have gradually expanded their ’hood into neighboring Henderson County.
Each spring, Brevard hosts a three-day festival in its signature animal’s honor. But in October, there’s no telling where, how, or in what aggrandized form the white squirrel may appear …
6:30p–10:30pm. $5. Proceeds benefit Silvermont and The Children’s Center. www.facebook.com/pumpkinpatchrevenge, silvermont.org.
