Miss Baker’s Grave: Honor America’s Most Beloved Squirrel Monkey

If you visit the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama and you see the tombstone of what appears to be a squirrel monkey out of the corner of your eye as you’re walking the grounds of the facility—your eyes are not deceiving you.

Miss Baker—the first American monkey to ever travel to space and return alive—is buried at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. Miss Baker and fellow squirrel monkey Miss Able traveled to space in a Jupiter rocket in 1959. Miss Baker and Miss Able were in space for less than 20 minutes, but they still made history. Sadly, Miss Able died shortly after the space voyage, but Miss Baker lived until 1984. After her return to Earth, Miss Baker took two primate husbands and ate copious amounts of bananas. To this day, Miss Baker has a devoted fan base who leave piles of bananas on her grave.

Address:
One Tranquility Base, Huntsville, AL

Photos by Flickr, Wikipedia.