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| Photo Tours, Travelogues, And Random Topics |
Other Peanuts Statues
A Photo Tour Of Peanuts Character
Statues On Public Display Outside
Of The Twin Cities Metro Area
The Real Linus
The Real Linus statue is on display in front of the public library in
the south-central Minnesota town of Sleepy Eye. Sleepy Eye is the hometown
of Linus Maurer, a nationally known cartoon artist. Maurer attended a
Minneapolis art school where Charles Schultz was an instructor, and the
two became close friends. Schultz named his character Linus van Pelt
after Maurer.
The Linus Blankets Saint Paul series consisted of 91 statues. An
additional statue was commissioned by a group from the city of Sleepy
Eye to be a tribute to Maurer. This statue included a figure of
Snoopy sleeping on Linus's blanket. Linus had a heart on his shirt,
and was holding a large red heart that included the words I Love Sleepy
Eye. An unknown vandal stole the heart and Snoopy's nose in May, 2009.
The Sleepy Eye Police Department is offering a reward for any information
on this crime.
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Snoopy The Astronaut
NASA recruited Snoopy as a mascot for the space program in the late 1960s.
Charles Schulz was honored by the NASA request and granted NASA free use
of Snoopy. The Apollo 10 mission to the moon was named after Schulz's
characters, with the command module being named Charlie Brown and the lunar
lander named Snoopy. While Apollo 10 was flying a dress rehearsal of the
moon landing, Snoopy was atop his dog house dreaming of being an astronaut.
Since the lander descended to within 10,000 feet of the lunar surface, Snoopy
very nearly fulfilled his wish to be the first beagle to set paws on the moon.
To commemorate Charles Schulz's interest in the space program, his children
commissioned this fiberglass statue to be created showing Snoopy in a
spacesuit ready to head to the moon. This statue, called ‘Snoopy The
Astronaut’, was originally located in the rocket park at the Kennedy
Space Center Visitor Complex. It was then moved to the courtyard in front
of the gift shop, as seen in the 2010 photo above. In 2013, I found Snoopy
had been moved to the Saturn V Center, as seen in the photo below. The
gift shop location was very popular with children, and Snoopy got a lot
of attention. However, over in the Saturn V Center, he looks kind of lonely
given that everyone is focused on the huge Saturn V rocket that is housed
in this building.
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