Peanuts on Parade
A scavenger hunt awaits you in Santa Rosa, CA!
When our family moved to Sonoma County in 2022, my children began to comment on Woodstock, Lucy, and various “Snoopys” we’d see around town as we became acquainted. Having been in the Bay Area of San Francisco for about a decade, I had never encountered the fact that Charles Schulz was a Bay Area resident.
In 2005, "Peanuts on Parade" debuted in honor of long-time Santa Rosa resident and artist Charles Schulz. Woodstock was our first find, and I noticed quickly there was a list. Then, there were those not on the list. It proved to be quite frustrating due to the scant information out there after the decades since the debut of these adorable tributes to these iconic characters. We were seeing statues all over town and began chronicling the ones we found during school breaks or in the long afternoons of summer.
The Schulz Musuem created a very helpful PDF. However, as you’ll see in our gallery below, some of the businesses are either no longer in business or the statues are no longer on display. Sonoma County Tourism offers an on-point two day itinerary for visitors to Santa Rosa and the greater Sonoma County.
After locating a few dozen statues around Santa Rosa on our own, I came across William Johnson’s book "The Complete History of Peanuts on Parade - A Tribute to Charles M. Schulz: Volume Two" (2005-2007, 2010) and his site which unlocked many unanswered questions. Johnson’s work focuses on the initial creation, auction, and installation of the statues in Santa Rosa when the statues were purchased and became either parts of private collectors or public art. Johnson’s "Volume One" book showcases his and Schulz’s hometown in MN as they debuted the original tribute to the beloved artist from 2000-2004.
Our index is more focused on those statues available to the public. So far, we have found over 100 statues across Sonoma County!
