SANTA ROSA, Calif. - Sparky said he would end Peanuts when he finally wore a hole in the drawing board he used for 50 years. Sadly, that day never came.

The famous piece of hardwood now resides in a re-creation of his working studio at the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center, which just kicked off its yearlong fifth-anniversary celebration. Schulz's old drawing table stands at a permanent tilt in front of his favorite leather swivel chair.

Peanuts fans who never set foot in his longtime studio down the road at One Snoopy Place can linger here and imagine. Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Pigpen, Peppermint Patty, Woodstock and the smartest beagle ever, Snoopy, came to life on this table, born of the mind of a shy, funny, bespectacled man known since age 2 as "Sparky."

Here, too, are old studio wall paneling and draperies, along with some of Schulz's favorite books and knickknacks. A 1963 documentary with rare footage of him drawing Peanuts characters plays in a continuous loop on a small TV set.

Schulz's widow, Jeannie, was surprised when the museum's staff proposed celebrating the anniversary. Her husband won his first Reuben Award, the top honor given by the National Cartoonists Society, in 1955, five years into the five-decade run of Peanuts.

"That was pretty amazing and a great vote of confidence for the comic strip," she says, "but he had to keep working at it, to keep ahead of the competition. So I'm like Sparky: When the museum is 50 years old, we'll consider it a success."

Schulz died at age 77 on Feb. 12, 2000, the day before the last original Peanuts appeared in Sunday newspapers.

Seven years later, Classic Peanuts still appears in 2,400 newspapers worldwide, including the Rocky Mountain News. United Media, the licensing and syndication agency for Peanuts, and the Rocky are both part of the E.W. Scripps Co.

"We all continue to see ourselves in the strip, in how we connect to the world and how we relate to other people," says museum director Karen Johnson. "And we see our own hopes, dreams, wishes and fears. Peanuts is decent and it's funny and it's whimsical and it's everlasting, because it's just about being human."

The museum's mission from the beginning has been to preserve, display and interpret Schulz's artwork and to support cartooning in general. Since opening on Aug. 17, 2002, a quarter-million visitors have gazed upon and pondered original Peanuts strips. Some of them spend a little extra time at Sparky's studio, where his drawing board sits, retired.

The idea for the museum originated with two friends of the Schulzes, cartoon collector Mark Cohen and longtime attorney Ed Anderson. It took the couple a while to embrace the notion, though.

"Ed began to think about Sparky's legacy and how we were going to preserve it," says Jeannie Schulz, who was married to the cartoonist for 26 years. "He and Mark said to Sparky, 'We need to do something, to have a museum.' And I thought, 'What do you mean, a museum? Sparky is here.' I don't think I ever thought (the comic strip) would end, but finally I began hearing what they were saying and thinking how it could really happen."

The Schulzes financed the $8 million museum, which operates as a nonprofit.

Peanuts licensing is a $1.2 billion international business, according to Melissa Menta, an executive with United Media. And now Snoopy is about to rock the Big Apple.

Top fashion designers, such as Betsey Johnson and Isaac Mizrahi, have created Peanuts-inspired frocks for the "Snoopy in Fashion" runway show during next month's Fashion Week in New York City.

Afterward, the clothes will be sold on eBay, with proceeds going to Dress for Success.