How a Groundhog Became America’s Most Famous Meteorologist

Groundhog Club handler A.J. Dereume holds Punxsutawney Phil, the weather prognosticating groundhog, during the 136th celebration of Groundhog Day on Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pa., Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022. AP Photo/Barry Reeger

When Clark Wilson began his newspaper, the  Mahoning Register, in 1848, he did so to promote the idea of founding a new county with Punxsutawney as the county seat. The business venture did not last long. When his county-formation idea failed, he closed the publication. The town of Punxsutawney would have to wait until 1868 to have another newspaper.

Two newspapermen from the Brookville Republican came to Punxsutawney to start the Punxsutawney Plaindealer, a venture that would last until 1871 when they sold the paper. The new owners changed the name to Mahoning Argus. The Argus maintained its position as the town’s only newspaper, until the founding of Mahoning Valley Spirit in the summer of 1873 by Frank Smith, from Indiana. After six months, Smith sold the paper to William Hastings and G.M. Keck, both of whom had previously and briefly owned the Plaindealer. After three years, Hastings bought out Keck, changed the name of the publication, and, after a decade of hard work, turned the newspaper into a profitable business. The name of the paper has remained for nearly 150 years: The Punxsutawney Spirit.

Certainly The Punxsutawney Spirit, whether as a weekly or daily, or under different ownership, has been a staple of the Punxsutawney community. But on a grander national, and even international scale, this small town newspaper soon established one of the most interesting and popular American traditions.

Candlemas Meets Groundhog

"Candlemas Day," circa 1901, by Marianne Stokes. The Christmas tradition of Candlemas involved the blessing of candles on Feb. 2. Public Domain

Before the arrival of newspapers in Punxsutawney, there was a long Christian tradition called Candlemas, which fell on Feb. 2. This tradition can be traced back to the 4th century where Christians visited their churches to have their candles blessed. The day falls at the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. Put more religiously, it is “a purification holiday and a celebration of the return of light after winter’s darkness.”

Of course, “winter’s darkness” can’t last forever, so the “celebration of the return of light,” or spring, was hardly a gamble. Given that, there was a chance “winter’s darkness” could last a little longer than desired. Figuring out whether spring would come sooner rather than later was strangely the result of Feb. 2’s weather conditions.

John Ray, who is considered Britain’s father of natural history, poetically explained the weather prognostication this way:

If Candlemas be fair and bright, Winter has another flight. If Candlemas brings clouds and rain, Winter will not come again.

Sure, one could peer at the sky to see whether it was “fair and bright” or full of “clouds and rain,” but where’s the fun in that? In Germany, they relied on the badger to inform them when spring would arrive. According to Don Yoder, the late American folklorist, “if the badger encountered sunshine on Candlemas and therefore saw his shadow, he crawled back into his hole to stay for four more weeks, which would be a continuation of winter weather.”

When Germans, who immigrated to America, assembled in Pennsylvania, they were forced to alter their badger bias for another rodent: the groundhog.

In 1840, one Pennsylvania shop owner noted in his diary that interesting German-American belief. “Today the Germans say the groundhog comes out of his winter quarters and if he sees his shadow he returns in and remains there 40 days.”

Creating the Groundhog Day

The groundhog may have had a sacred duty, but this didn’t mean it was sacred. German Americans in Pennsylvania conducted annual hunts and picnics, feasting on the groundhog, which apparently tastes like a cross between pork and chicken.

Having heard about the interesting German tradition, Clymer Freas, city editor of The Punxsutawney Spirit, wrote on Feb. 2, 1886, “Today is groundhog day and up to the time of going to press the beast has not seen its shadow.”

Freas believed he had hit on something—the possibility of bringing some kind of fame to his small town. He decided to establish an American tradition for Feb. 2. He also called the groundhog hunting party the Groundhog Club (though there is no official record of this name until 1899). Freas planned to cobble together the members of the newly established club to meet at Gobbler’s Knob, just southeast of Punxsutawney, where the groundhog hunters would gather for their picnic.

The members, which included Freas, were Dr. Frank “Boney” Lorenzo, James Brewer, Col. C.C. Chambers, Capt. L.E. Chambers, Dave and Court Hoover, Will Jordan, and J.W. Wilson.

Groundhog Punxsutawney Phil climbs on the top hat of his handler after Phil did not see his shadow and predicted an early spring during the 127th Groundhog Day Celebration at Gobbler's Knob on Feb. 2, 2013 in Punxsutawney, Pa. Alex Wong/Getty Images

It was during this week in history, on Feb. 2, 1887, that the first Groundhog Day was held. Adding to the seriousness of this new holiday, Freas “claimed for the native groundhog copyrights, patent rights and all other rights concerned with long-distance weather prognostication each Feb. 2.” He also bestowed a name upon the local groundhog prognosticator: Punxsutawney Phil.

Popularizing the New Tradition

That year, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, therefore predicting six more weeks of winter. He saw his shadow again in 1888. Over the course of the next decade, however, this meteorological publicity stunt began to wane. Either the Groundhog Club only rumbled up to Gobbler’s Knob twice, or they only mustered enough interest to record Punxsutawney Phil’s prediction twice, in 1890 and 1898.

In 1899, perhaps in hopes of reviving the relatively new tradition, the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club was officially established. Three years later, Pittsburgh Gazette journalist John Cowan and cartoonist C.M. Payne met with the Club, which Cowan called “an ancient and respected organization”—obviously tongue-in-cheek, but nonetheless making it clear that the group had been around for some time. At the time, the Club’s annual tradition was still nothing more than a local event. Payne, however, would change that on Feb. 1, 1903, when The Pittsburgh Gazette published his “Coon Hollow Folks” comic strip, which he titled “Groundhog Day in Coon Hollow: Will Brudder Groundhog See His Shadow?”

The Pittsburgh Gazette continued to elevate the status of the small-town tradition. In September 1904, Cowan wrote that “all the apostles of good weather look upon Punxsutawney as their capital and mecca toward which they turn their faces in annual pilgrimages. Here is the official residence of the Groundhog.”

The tradition of Groundhog Day and the legend of Punxsutawney Phil began to grow. In 1906, The Punxsutawney Spirit called Punxsutawney Phil the “patron saint of a happy people.” In 1908, Groundhog Day received front page coverage in The Punxsutawney Spirit. In 1913, the first newspaper photo was taken of Punxsutawney Phil. Three years later, the event was filmed for the first time.

An American Tradition

Coverage of the event continued to expand over the following decades, from local radio stations in 1928 to local TV channels in 1955 to the “Today” show in 1960, with crowds eventually growing into the tens of thousands. The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club received the distinct honor of being invited to the White House in March 1986 to meet with President Ronald Reagan to commemorate Punxsutawney Phil’s 100th birthday.

Despite the fact that Punxsutawney Phil’s meteorological predictions are correct around 40 percent of the time, the groundhog from Punxsutawney has become known by its many titles: “The Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognosticators, and Weather Prophet Extraordinary.”

As if this tradition couldn’t get any larger, the 1993 movie “Groundhog Day” starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell, launched the holiday and Punxsutawney Phil into the stratosphere.

Entering the town of Punxsutawney, Pa, where woodchucks predict the weather, in "Groundhog Day." Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

On the day before Groundhog Day 2023, Punxsutawney Phil was inducted into the Weather Discovery Center’s Hall of Fame in Punxsutawney, now known as “The Weather Capital of the World.”

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