Last year, I wrote a blog story about the movie locations for  Groundhog Day . I posted links to a page with photographs of the infamous location where Bill Murray stepped into the puddle, and the location where Murray's character jumped to his death (until he came back to life the following day.) There were also links to a page which has photos of the Bed & Breakfast that Murray's character stayed in, and several other interesting locations that he visited in the movie.

The movie was filmed in the town of Woodstock, Illinois. The town was used instead of the real Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. After the movie was released, the town of Woodstock created a job opening for a rodent weather forecaster.

Woodstock Willie is a distant cousin of Punxsutawney Phil. I should say - WAS a distant cousin. The blizzard that came through the Chicago area, during the evening of Feb 1, until the early morning hours of Feb 2  brought a terrible tragedy to Woodstock. Willie suffered a terrible accident during the early morning hours. NICOR gas had turned off Woodstock Willie's gas connection, and Willie had been trying to start a fire by rubbing sticks together. Unfortunately, without an opposable thumb, Willie was at a disadvantage.

Nobody thought to check on the famous weather-rodent, until it was too late.

Woodstock Willie was found in a snowdrift. Official time 6:01AM 

Visitation is limited to human visitors only. Services will be at the local landfill.










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