Another Adventure of Sherlock Hunting by Kristen Mertz

In my last blog post back in June of this year, I told you all of my adventures hunting down Sherlock statues around the world. After some planning, a cancellation and some re-planning, I am happy to say I was back at it again earlier this month. Fortunately for me, this statue is much closer to home than the first three I visited last year.  Our destination, Chester, IL, a short 90-minute drive from St. Louis, MO.  For those unfamiliar with this small town, it is the birthplace of Elzie Crisler Segar, the creator of Popeye and, just like us, an avid Sherlock Holmes fan. 

For this trip, I was lucky enough to be joined by a lovely group of Sherlockians from this very group plus a special guest from out of town, Ms. Anastasia Klimchynskaya. We drove to Chester on a very sunny, very warm November day to meet up with some of the group at our first rendezvous point, Reid’s Harvest House. There we had a smorgasbord buffet as we waited for everyone else to arrive at our second rendezvous point, the town post office. (NOTE: It was changed to the bank only a half block away, but I do not read my e-mails whilst adventuring.  My apologies to Rob Nunn.)

After everyone arrived, we headed out on foot for a brief walk and finally arrived at our first stop, our dear Sherlock statue. Many, many photos were taken by all! What a wonderful statue, with so many things to observe! Not only our detective, but the wall behind him with the letters “RACHE” in red. But also, the circle around and behind on the wall, the inscriptions of all those who contributed to the statue itself. I particularly noted, our St. Louis groups, The Parallel Case of St. Louis and the Harpooners of the Sea Unicorn, The Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes and friends abroad as well, including the Sherlock Holmes Society of London and Sherlock Holmes Societe de France.  I would like to make a particular call out to the Japanese Sherlock Holmes Club, who I shall be seeing at the end of the year! (HINT: I am very excited about this and will take any chance I can to talk about it. HINT 2: This WILL definitely be in a future blog post.)

Speaking of hints, you can’t go to Chester without looking at other statues as well, as there are easter eggs to find along the Popeye character trail. Our group continued our walk around town to visit other statues to discover their secrets. From the school, to the firehouse and finally made our way towards a Casey’s gas station, as this day ended up being surprisingly hot and I was desperate for hydration. As we walked out of the Casey’s and were about to head back up the hill to where are cars were parked, a strange man yelled at us from his truck. What luck, it was Michael McClure, the very man who arranged to have the Sherlock statue erected! Not only did I get to meet another Sherlockian but he was kind enough to give us all a tour of his house, which held many more treasures and other collectibles. Far too many to include of the pictures, but some are included for a peak at what you might find.

Finally, we ended the day by locating the last of the easter eggs on the trail.  No spoilers here, but if you want some hints or a bit of a riddle, it is near a building that holds some mysteries, some pictures here may give you a clue, it is my favorite story in the canon and I paid a bit a cash for the full Strand version at the Minneapolis conference. Answer in the comments if you can figure it out.  No cheating to the Sherlockians who were on the adventure with me! For more history on Chester and the Popeye Character Trail, you can look here: https://www.chesterill.com/character-trail/.  

So, dear readers, I have now logged the 4th statue in my continuing Sherlock hunt. Which can only mean that I have decided to keep going. The only question left is, which statue will be next? Stay tuned for future adventures!