Certain local treasures are worth fightin' for.

Our scenic farmland.

Our historic buildings.

And our whoopie pies. Especially our whoopie pies.

The Pennsylvania Dutch Convention & Visitors Bureau finds it hard to swallow that Maine might claim whoopie pies as the official state treat.

So the Visitors Bureau has responded with a website and digital petition drive, www.SaveOurWhoopie.com.

The tongue-in-cheek effort also includes a comedic 92-second video that lampoons the "misguided moose-lovers."

But laughs aside, the whoopie pie is associated with Lancaster County, insisted Chris Barrett, Visitors Bureau president and chief executive officer.

"For a lot of our members, like Hershey Farms, Willow Valley and the Bird-in-Hand Restaurant, it's a signature item," he said Wednesday.

"It's one of the comfort foods that we're known for.

"People really appreciate our hospitality and our food, and whoopie pies are part of that," Barrett said.

The food fight between the Visitors Bureau, which represents Lancaster County's tourism industry, and Maine has drawn heavy media coverage including articles in The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, Baltimore Sun and Philadelphia Daily News.

Not a bad thing for an industry that gobbles up media attention.

Among the people to notice the coverage is Nick Martin, 21, of Willow Street.

Martin, a 15th-generation countian who feels "like I have whoopie pies in my blood," will lead a noon Saturday rally in Penn Square.

"In a good-natured way," the rally will portray the whoopie pie as the county's food — not Maine's, he said.

"This is an important part of our culture and heritage," said Martin, who gathers oral histories for a community project in West Virginia.

Whoopie pies usually are made of two hamburger-sized slices of chocolate cake, separated by a creamy filling.

They remain a beloved product, despite their negligible nutrition.

Last month, for instance, the Visitors Bureau offered free samples of four different kinds of local whoopie pies at a convention of tour-bus operators.

They went fast, Barrett said.

While their popularity is clear, their start isn't.

Different sources put the first whoopie pies in Pennsylvania, Maine and Massachusetts, anywhere between the 1920s and 1960s.

"When I was in first grade, they taught me that George Washington was our first president and that whoopie pies originated in Lancaster County," Barrett quipped.

The Visitors Bureau decided to take a bite out of Maine's move after reading news stories about the pending legislation.

Its staff chose to respond with humor, launching "Save Our Whoopie" on Feb. 11.

"Maine doesn't bear us any ill will, and we don't bear them any ill will. It's nothing like that," Barrett said.

"We're just trying to have a lot of fun with it."

The petition urges readers to speak out against the "confectionary larceny" afoot in Maine and to oppose any entity other than Lancaster County claiming the whoopie pie as its own.

"Show your support for keeping Lancaster the authentic home of the whoopie pie, not to be 'officially' appropriated by Maine, Mauritania, Mars, or anywhere else," it says.

The petition has drawn more than 500 signatures.

The video features "whoopie pie enthusiast Max Powers" (actually Brian Evans, the bureau's e-marketing manager) and "Professor Gern Blansten" (actually Joel Cliff, the bureau's media relations manager).

Developed by Evans and Sarah Long, the bureau's social media manager, it's gotten more than 1,000 views.

In addition, thousands of people have shared the bureau's campaign with their friends on Facebook and Twitter.

tmekeel@lnpnews.com

"Save Our Whoopie"