Stubbs the Cat Draws Travelers to Alaska
A cat that has made a reputation for himself after he was elected as mayor of a small Alaskan town now draws thousands of tourists a year to the small fishing village.
As rumors have it, about 15 years ago many of the towns people of Talkeetna were not impressed with the candidates and so as a joke decided to write in a new kitten that Lauri Stec, manager of Nagley's General Store, had recently adopted, according to KTUU.
Stec named him Stubbs because he didn't have a tail and he quickly became the talk of the town so much so that he actually won the mayoral election and has held the post ever since. Talkeenta is a small fishing village at the base of Mount Mckinley.
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"He was just in the Alaska Magazine, and he's been featured in a few different things," said Stec.
The cat has garnered enough notoriety that people who visit the town en route to Mount Mckinley stop by just to see Stubbs which currently has more than 3,000 "likes" on his Facebook page- more than the population of the whole town, which has around 900 registered residents, as reported by NBCNews.com
The added boost in tourism has helped the local economy, explain residents. Now people in the town say that that they are seeing more people in the town and in the store, while some are traveling to Alaska just to pet the 15-year-old cat.
"Oh my gosh, we probably have 30 to 40 people a day come in who are tourists wanting to see him," Stec said.
"Their tour guides will trick them," said Skye Farrar, who also works at Nagley's. "They'll tell them to go to Nagley's and ask for the mayor."
Farrar was optimistic that the cat will continue to be a blessing for the town.
"I'm very confident that Talkeena will be A-OK, as long as we have Stubbs around," Farrar said.
