Born in 1922 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Charles Schulz grew up in Saint Paul where his famous comic strip, Peanuts, was created and debuted in the local newspapers October 2, 1950.

All around the state of Minnesota, one can see statues of the Peanuts characters in honor Charles Schulz. Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, and Linus are the characters that were represented and displayed by individual artists from all over the country starting in the summer of 2000 right after Charles Schulz passed away continuing for five summers. These statues can still be seen around Minnesota today. They can be found in most of the major landmarks.

Landmark Plaza – St.Paul, Minnesota

  

In the Landmark Plaza are the permanent bronze Peanuts statues, which are maintained by the Parks and Recreation Office of St. Paul. Unfortunately, there is no map available for the other artists’ individual renditions of the Peanuts Characters. According to the City of St. Paul, “Over two million people from all fifty states flocked to this tribute to Schulz.”

Wabasha Street Caves (215 Wabasha St. South, St. Paul).

Although the first year featured only statues of Snoopy. Charlie Brown was the second to be featured, followed by Lucy, Linus, and then Snoopy with Woodstock. The Charles M. Schulz fund was established using the proceeds from the initial Peanuts statues promotion, which was then used to establish and maintain the bronze sculptures found in Landmark Plaza.

Minneapolis Star Tribune (425 Portland Avenue, Minneapolis)


Minnesota State Fair (1265 Snelling Ave, St. Paul)

Minnesota is known for having many ways of honoring Charles Shultz. From 1992 through 2006, the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota had an indoor theme park called Camp Snoopy, which is now called Nickelodeon Universe. I am originally from St. Paul and I got to witness first hand the opening of Camp Snoopy.

I remember always wishing I could buy an original Charlie Brown animation cel, but they were expensive! It is a shame that Camp Snoopy is no longer there, but today the Peanuts characters have moved over to Minnesota’s biggest theme park, Valley Fair in Shakopee, Minnesota, where they have their own section in the park called Planet Snoopy.

Images courtesy of Peanuts Statues in Minnesota (More Locations found on their Page) http://www.facebook.com/peanutscharactersculptures

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The Author

Lavalle Lee

Lavalle Lee

Lavalle Lee has been creating animated cartoons online since 1999/2000 for his website flashcartoons.org. Many cartoons on the site have gained viral video status reaching millions of viewers online. In 2009, Lavalle started learning hand drawn animation from Don Bluth in his animation classes, as well as attending his Masterclasses in Arizona. He has also personally studied animation and visual effects from Veteran Disney animators in Orlando, FL.

Lavalle is widely known in the animation industry as the creator of the TraditionalAnimation.com website. After seeing that most animation sites were about all types of animation, not any specific to classical hand drawn animation, Lavalle knew Traditional Animation needed to be represented online. TraditionalAnimation.com has become the leading website and social media account for all things 2D. The website served as inspiration for “The Traditional Animation Show” in which Lavalle was both producer and host.

His partnership with Don Bluth began when he championed the Dragon's Lair Indiegogo campaign as lead project manager, editor, voice actor and in-betweener. The campaign reached $730,000 dollars to produce a 7-minute pitch video. In 2017, Lavalle brought the idea of creating a school to Don Bluth, and Don Bluth University was born. After a decade of learning from Don Bluth and working together on multiple pitches and business ventures, Lavalle accepted the position as Vice President of Don Bluth's new company Don Bluth Studios.

3 Comments

  1. October 17, 2013 at 4:13 pm — Reply

    Nice Job 🙂

  2. David Moore
    October 17, 2013 at 4:30 pm — Reply

    Cool statues! Wish I could see them!

  3. August 7, 2020 at 5:30 pm — Reply

    I used to live in St Paul. I loved all the Peanuts statues around the city!! It was so unique! And when I had to leave St Paul I`ve been nostalgic about it ever since. St Paul is a wonderful, friendly city to live in. The Peanuts statues were just an added PLUS!

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