Wikieup
Arizona
June 2018
It is 103°. We are driving US-93 in Arizona, 23 minutes south of Wikieup, the self-proclaimed rattlesnake capital of Arizona.
At last count, 350 people live in Wikieup. Or maybe it is 133 people. Another source lists the population as 108. Or it might be 190. One source counts 6363 residents, but I think this is a typo. Why is it so hard to say? Dunno.
Wikieup supposedly is a Mohave word meaning “shelter.” Shelter from what? Dunno, but a semi-reliable source says that in the old days, a grass and branch shelter was erected near a post office. When you have a post office, you have to put the name of the town on the front. Apparently the residents preferred Wikieup to the boring suggestions of Owens, Neal and Sandy.
If you approach Wikieup from the north on the main highway (the only highway,) you will behold a famous critter of Wikieup, along with some associates.
Snoopy!
Snoopy and his brother Spike and Woodstock and a mini-Snoopy, all on a rocket. As this tableau has been here for 30 years or so, it’s a rocket that doesn’t go anywhere.
Wait a minute, that’s not Spike. It’s easy to see that the mustache on this hound is not the same as Spike’s. The mini-Snoopy? Perhaps a friend or cousin. Might be a bit of time distortion and it’s a puppy version of the Snoopster himself. Unlikely.
What is this missile doing here, among the saguaros and Joshua tree, the cliffs and canyons and granite boulders of these two deserts, the Sonoran and Mojave? Why was this “rocket ship” erected with unrelated comic strip characters aboard? What does this sculpture have to do with Wikieup? Dunno.
There are some rumors. One story has to do with a Wikieup resident reporting that the rocket and friends were built by a foreign couple. By “foreign” she said, “…it means they ain’t from around here.” The foreigners may have been a couple from Michigan in the early 1990s but they pulled up their shallow roots and took off, leaving the rocket behind.
Currently a “for sale” sign is posted. The listing goes…
ONE OF A KIND – COMMERCIAL RECREATIONAL 4.78 ACRES. COMPLETELY FENCED WITH ITS OWN WELL, 2 ELECTRIC METERS WITH 2 FULL RV HOOKUPS, SEPTIC AND TWO BUILDINGS THAT HAVE ELECTRIC & WATER. BEAUTIFUL NATURAL DESERT VEGETATION. ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES! (WIKIEUP MISSILE WITH SNOOPY FAMILY AND WOODSTOCK ON THE PROPERTY)
I like that. Here’s this property with all these amenities and oh yeah, we’ll throw in the Snoopy family rocket.
Something’s going on here. Twenty-nine miles beyond the Spaceship Snoopy crew is another formation, this one natural. Once again…
Snoopy!