The beautiful mountain town of Brevard, North Carolina is famous for its white squirrels, which are the town mascot. They are not albinos, but a rare breed found in very few places in the United States. Although the white squirrel was originally an immigrant, it is now a native of Brevard.
Visitors often think that the white squirrels are a hoax, but they are authentic. The squirrels were given to Barbara Ann Mull by her Uncle H.H. Mull in 1949. They were eventually turned loose in Brevard and multiplied rapidly. According to Mrs. Mary Mull, the white squirrels originally came from islands off Hawaii. A carnival man brought the squirrels from the islands and was traveling with them through North Florida where she and her husband, H.H. Mull, lived when the caravan turned over in a ditch and two squirrels escaped. That was in 1940.
M.M. Black, a railroad man and a friend of H.H. Mull, also a railroad man with the Florida East Coast Railroad, lived nearby with his son in a pecan grove. The white squirrels headed for the pecans and began to thrive. They multiplied rapidly and the men soon began to catch them and sell them by the pairs.
In 1945, Black gave his friend Mull a pair of the white squirrels and in 1949 Mull brought a pair of white squirrels to his niece, Barbara, in Brevard. In 1951, Barbara got tired of the squirrels and gave them to her grandfather, W.P. Mull, who lived on Johnston Street. One of the squirrels escaped while grandpa was feeding them so he turned the other one loose. White squirrels began popping up all over Brevard. 'We didn't know they wouldn't mate while they were caged,' Mrs. W.E. Mull, Barbara's mother said. 'Now, they are all over the place.'"
Source: White Squirrel Shoppe--Brevard, North Carolina