Published January 3, 2023, for State 48 A2Z
Anyone who has spent any time in Arizona knows that there are a ton of destination attractions and historical towns to visit, as well as an equal number of drive-by attractions to hit along the way. While the city of Buckeye, Arizona may not rank very high on the list of places and attractions to visit, they do boast a historical section with a very odd find just a couple of miles east of State Route 85 that is worth the drop-in on your way through the area. It also comes shrouded in a bit of a secreted past.
The story starts back in 1964 when Herb Applegate, a recent Phoenician transplant from Detroit, opened his first coffee shop/restaurant in the phoenix area called Hobo Joe’s. Applegate enlisted the assistance of an artist friend, former Walt Disney Company animater Jim Casey, to help design and bring Applegate’s vision of its mascot to reality.
“I said he needed to be a man of character,” Applegate said in a 1970 interview with the Arizona Republic’s Dan Boles. Applegate further told Boles that he saw Hobo Joe as a businessman who had enough of the rat race and decided to see the world and eat good food. “He decided to convert to hobo-ism,” Applegate said. “He was a happy-go-lucky guy.”
Applegate was very adamant about Joe being a hobo and not a tramp, which he saw a difference between. To help further enhance the storyline that Joe was a businessman converted to hoboism, they even placed a rolled-up Wall Street Journal in his left coat pocket. Joe was definitely a “man of means, by no means.”
The mascot and restaurant were near immediate hits and Applegate soon started expanding his operation to add additional locations around the valley, with each location sporting a life-sized statue of that iconic vagabond, Hobo Joe, in front of their restaurants. The chain was doing so well that, by 1970, Applegate was living in Scottsdale with an artificial waterfall flowing down a backyard cliff. This was when the controversy surrounding his growing chain began.
It seems that in 1970 Applegate and his chain of coffee shops/restaurants had become the focus of local law enforcement investigation into potential organized crime ties. Boles was interviewing Applegate as part of an October 1970 story on the investigation, specifically focusing on Applegate and his alleged to the organized crime world. While Applegate would eventually be cleared in the local authority’s investigation, Boles was killed a few months later in a car bomb explosion.
By 1971, Applegate, who had a history of heart problems, sold his shares of the business to a restaurant group from Newport Beach, California. Applegate died a few years later in 1974.
Under the new ownership, the chain continued to expand and flourish as it spread its operations throughout Arizona and into other western states. But, by the mid-to-late-1980s, the chain was no more.
At some point in time, a 25-foot statue of Hobo Joe was created by Venice, California artist Jim Casey. Applegate’s wife, May, told the Arizona Republic in a 2014 article that this statue was placed somewhere off Central Avenue in Phoenix where it stood until it was set on fire by a group of “angry union members”. The statue was not destroyed though and, according to May Applegate, it was taken down following the attempted burning and shipped back to its creator in California.
So, how did a gigantic statue of Hobo Joe end up in Buckeye, Arizona? This is where the secret history comes in. Despite no documentation existing on whether the statue was truly shipped back to Casey or not, and what happened to it after it was removed from its home in Phoenix, May Applegate insists that the statue in Buckeye is not the original 25-foot Hobo Joe statue. Online resources also corroborate May’s story that this is not the original Hobo Joe statue but a nearly exact replica. The one thing that everyone seems to agree on is that no one left alive today seems to know the real and complete story behind it and how it found its way to Buckeye.
Several news sources across the county have said that three statues were built by Casey, with one being placed at Hobo Joe’s in Las Vegas, Nevada. This claim is disputed by Applegate’s wife and others close to the chain. Even the deceased artist’s niece has stated that her uncle’s records, which she claims were impeccably kept, give no indication that more than one statue was built. So, what do we really know about Buckeye’s Hobo Joe statue?
By accounts of the Arizona Republic in its October 2014 article, the Hobo Joe statue that is currently standing in a vacant lot in Buckeye was built by Marvin Ransdell, a fiberglass pool builder. This seems to be a factual finding on their part, but one without very little additional history. In fact, the Buckeye Mainstreet organization’s web page states that Randell built two of these replicas. Yet, no one seems to know what happened to the second statue if he did build it.
On his death bed in 1988, Ransdell reportedly told his wife that Hobo Joe was to be given to Buckeye meat packer Ramon Gillum. Gillum then built a cement pedestal for the statue to stand on and placed it at his plant in Buckeye where it stood until 2016 when Gillum’s business property was sold. It now resides in a vacant lot on 5th Street just a few feet south of Monroe Avenue.
While we will probably never know what happened to the original 25-foot Hobo Joe statue and the full history behind the replica statue. But one thing we do know is that this is a cool photo opt locale and a nice break from the monotony of a long drive. Located just a few miles east of State Route 85 and south of Interstate 10, makes this a very easy pitstop the next time you are driving through.
You can find out more about the Hobo Joe statue on its Facebook page and on the Buckeye Mainstreet Organizations web page.
That’ll wrap things up for this week. As always, thanks for reading, stay safe, and happy travels. Be sure to like and follow us on social media (links below), share our blog posts, and feel free to give us your feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Peace!
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