Peanuts Tribute

Peanuts Gang
Peanuts Gang Image From United Press Syndicate Press Kit

Peanuts cartoon creator Charles Schulz was born and raised in Saint Paul, and lived in Minneapolis before moving to northern California. He is fondly remembered in the Twin Cities. The city of Saint Paul ran a series of tributes to Schulz's characters in the early 2000s by producing several hundred fiberglass statues that were displayed across the city in a manner similar to the famous cow statues displayed in Chicago in the late 1990s. While most of those statues were auctioned off for charity, about 20% remain on public display. Here are links to photos of many of these statues from the 2010 to 2012 time frame:

Following the Peanuts on Parade series in Saint Paul, several permanent statues were erected, as well as a few other similar tributes:

Peanuts on Parade was so popular that Schulz's adopted home town, Santa Rosa, California, picked up where Saint Paul left off, with a three year run of Peanuts statues, also produced by the TivoliToo company from Mendota Heights, Minnesota. An encore featuring Lucy statues was run a few years later. The Santa Rosa tributes have included:

The Mall of America featured the Knott's Camp Snoopy theme park from its 1992 opening until 2006. The mall was unable to make a deal to continue the Peanuts theme, so the Peanuts characters were removed and the theme park became The Park At The Mall Of America. A new branding deal was concluded in 2007 for the mall theme park to become Nickelodeon Universe featuring the Sponge Bob characters. Snoopy, however, has returned to the Twin Cities in 2011 with the Planet Snoopy at Valleyfair.