Hobo Joe

Buckeye, Arizona, United States

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Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

A 25-foot fibreglass statue of Hobo Joe, mascot of a Phoenix-area coffee-shop chain, stands on 5th Street in historic downtown Buckeye, Arizona. According to Buckeye Main Street, it returned as the downtown mascot in 2020 after a restoration of nearly four years.

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Hobo Joe

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Site-level location · 33.3703° N, 112.5838° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

Hobo Joe stands about 25 feet tall, a scruffy fibreglass vagabond in patched clothes who started life as the mascot of a Phoenix coffee-shop chain and now serves as the mascot of downtown Buckeye.

Buckeye Main Street says Hobo Joe's Coffee Shops opened in Arizona in 1965 and grew to eight Phoenix-area locations before closing in the late 1980s. It credits former Walt Disney animator Jim Casey with the design, Marvin Ransdell with the casting molds and two large statues, and Elaine Polley with the painting. InBuckeye Magazine (November/December 2025) says this statue was made for a restaurant but never installed; it sat in Ransdell's fabrication yard until 1989, when he gave it to a friend who put it up in front of a Monroe Avenue business just west of downtown.

When that property was sold, the statue was moved in 2016 for storage and repair. Buckeye Main Street says restoration took nearly four years, with sandblasting starting in the summer of 2018 and the figure hand-painted afterwards. InBuckeye adds that a local studio reinforced the internal structure and the base was rebuilt. Both give 2020 as the year Hobo Joe returned to public view, on land donated for the purpose, on 5th Street south of Monroe Avenue.

Buckeye Main Street and InBuckeye give 25 feet; ABC15 reported 22 feet. Phoenix New Times, writing in 2011 about the statue's earlier site, described it as 25 feet tall and as crafted in 1989.

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WHAT TO EXPECT

A large, painted figure of a hobo in patched clothes, outdoors in historic downtown Buckeye. Buckeye Main Street describes him as the downtown mascot. He is outdoors in the downtown area.

ACCESS

5th Street, south of Monroe Avenue, in Historic Downtown Buckeye, Arizona. The statue is outdoors in the downtown area and can be seen from the street.

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Find another Big Thing nearby

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47 km away

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