 Chester, Illinois |
Popeye
the Sailor Man:
"I Yam What I Yam..."
Chester, Illinois
Popeye the Sailor Man was once roughed up in Chester, Illinois. Vandals lassoed the six-foot bronze statue, chained it to a pickup truck, and drove off. Popeye was ripped from his stone pedestal and landed on his face.
Happily, the statue proved as tough as its namesake; damage was minor. The AP picked up the story and soon Popeye fans from all over were calling Chester, offering money to restore the $10,000 statue. It was, and the human Blutos were apprehended and prosecuted.
Chester's Popeye was dedicated in 1977 to honor the spinach-eater's creator, Elzie Segar, who was born in Chester in 1894. Segar reportedly based his comic characters on people around town. Popeye's swollen forearms were Segar's waggish slap at the rigid "life drawing" classes he endured in his art school days.
The statue, in Segar Memorial Park next to the Mississippi River, is a centerpiece of the annual Popeye Picnic.
Address: Chester, IL [Show Map]
Directions: Along the Mississippi River, before you cross the Hwy 51 bridge, in Segar Memorial Park.
Hours: Daylight hours.
Alma, Arkansas
The company town for Popeye Brand Spinach features a Popeye statue on the town's main street, near a school. Alma, which calls itself "Spinach Capital of the World," holds a spinach festival every April. The 8-ft. tall fiberglass-over-paper mache statue, sports a distorted Todd Browning's Freaks- meets -Hellraiser head, sheltered in a wooden alcove.
Address: 627 Fayetteville Ave., Alma, AR [Show Map]
Directions: I-40 exit 12 onto US 71 south. Go through the traffic light, bear left, then turn right onto Fayetteville Ave./Hwy 162 into downtown. Kustom Kaps is just past the railroad tracks and Railroad St.
Hours: Daylight hours. (Call to verify)
Phone: 479-632-4127
Springdale, Arkansas
Arkansas is a hotbed of Popeye tributes. There is a Popeye statue in reported in Lowell, Arkansas, in front of the Allen Foods plant where they make Popeye brand spinach. We failed to locate it on a 2006 road trip.
Further south we had better luck at the Allen Canning Company in Springdale. The statue stands along the road, more of a regulation-looking Popeye.
 Crystal City, Texas |
Crystal City, Texas
This rival World Spinach Capital celebrates its local spinach industry with two Popeye statues. A painted Popeye, dedicated in 1937, stands in front of a city building behind the police station. It's not easily seen from the main part of town (especially at night).
A second Popeye lurks inside, guarding the Chamber of Commerce.
Address: Crystal City, TX [Show Map]
Directions: South side of downtown, in front of City Hall. Take US 83 to Lake St. and turn east into town. Turn left one block east of Hwy 65/Zavala St.
