For years as "The Iowa Traveler" I spent many a February day looking for a groundhog. It took me years to learn that it's not very likely for any Iowan to find a live groundhog or woodchuck outside their tunnel looking at their shadow. There's no use looking for Marion Mickey or Linn County Lou, or Cedar Rapids Chester.

"They're asleep. They're hibernating. It's usually well into April before they wake up and begin propagating the species anew." That's what Rich Patterson, the director of Indian Creek Nature Center, has told me over the years.

So all this hoopla about a groundhog seeing his shadow and serving as some kind of hint of how long we have to wait until spring is just so much bunk. I doubt seriously if anybody takes this groundhog bit too seriously. But this is something you can blame on the media and be absolutely correct.

For you see, the origin of Groundhog Day came into being in North America during the late 1800s, thanks to the combined effort of Clymer H. Freas, a newspaper editor, and W. Smith, an American Congressman and newspaper publisher. Imagine that! I find this curious because it's not really any measurably warmer in Pennsylvania on February 2nd than Iowa. Groundhogs there hibernate, too. And guess what, this Groundhog thing is getting out of hand, now being celebrated in Nebraska, Tennessee, Georgia, Ohio, Arkansas and California. Maybe…just maybe…you can find a groundhog in Arkansas or California in February who's out tanning himself or foraging or doing whatever they do outside.

And get this. Goundhog mania has spread north above our border. Groundhog Day has become popular in Canada with "Wiarton Willy" an ersatz Punxsutawney Phil.

According to Wikipedia the roots of a groundhog day go back even further. "The holiday, which began as a Pennsylvania German custom in southeastern and central Pennsylvania in the 18th and 19th centuries, has its origins in ancient European weather lore, wherein a badger or sacred bear is the prognosticator as opposed to a groundhog.

"The holiday also bears some similarities to the medieval Catholic holiday of Candlemas. It also bears similarities to the Pagan festival of Imbolc, the seasonal turning point of the Celtic calendar, which is celebrated on February 1 and also involves weather prognostication."

In other words, people for centuries have just wanted to get winter over with. And if the search or celebration of a furry woodland creature staring at his shadow gets us any closer to warmer temperatures that prevent your tongue from sticking to a frozen flag pole ("I triple dog dare you.") or keep us from continually dressing like Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, well, maybe it's not such a bad idea.