Statues, Monuments Commemorate Quirks in Alabama History, Artists’ Imaginations

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By Emmett Burnett
Alabama Living

Some of Alabama’s statues inspire us by recognizing events, people and places commemorated in stone. Other markers are unique, thought-provoking head-turners shrined in unfamiliarity.

Here are six monuments of the latter, cast in quirky while marching to the beat of a different chisel.

Space monkey

On May 28, 1959, an explorer boarded a Jupiter rocket, launched into space, and returned safely to Earth. She was courageous; she was bold; she was a squirrel monkey. Miss Baker paved the way for human astronauts soon to follow.

Retirement was well-deserved. “Miss Baker and husband George (also a squirrel monkey) moved to the Huntsville Space and Rocket Center in 1971,” recalls Patricia Ammons, the Center’s director of communications. “Children loved her, and many wrote her letters.”

The cosmos explorer, obtained by NASA from a Florida pet shop, died in 1984. Her memorial stone is at the entrance of the Rocket Center’s main museum. Visitors pay respects and leave her monument adorned with bananas.

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