History of Knott's Berry Farm
The Knott's Berry Farm amusement park in Orange County, California
In 1932, on a visit to Rudolph Boysen's farm in nearby Anaheim, Walter Knott was introduced to a new hybrid berry of a blackberry, a red raspberry, and a loganberry cross-bred by Boysen, who gave Walter his last six wilted berry-hybrid plants. Walter planted and cultivated them, then the family sold the berries at their roadside stand. When people asked what kind they were, he called them "boysenberries".
In 1934, to make ends meet during the Great Depression, Knott's wife Cordelia began serving fried chicken dinners on their wedding china. For dessert, Knott's signature Boysenberry Pie was also served to guests dining in the small tea room. As Southern California developed, Highway 39 became the major north-south connection between Los Angeles County and the beaches of Orange County, and the restaurant's location was a popular stopping point for drivers making the two-hour trip in those days before freeways. Until Interstate 605 and State Route 57 were built in the late 1960s, Highway 39 continued to carry the bulk of the traffic between eastern Los Angeles and Orange County. Great location and good value were the restaurant's conditions of success which attracted long lines of diners.
Amusements
As time went on, more shops and interactive displays were opened to entertain patrons waiting for a seat at the Chicken Dinner Restaurant. The Berry Market expanded South from Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant along Grand Avenue with the addition of wishing wells, rock gardens with miniature waterfalls, water wheels and a grindstone "Down by the Old Mill Stream", near a replica of George Washington's Mount Vernon fireplace which the Knotts had seen while on vacation and admired it so much that they replicated it behind Jams & Jellies; Lost and Found, Nursery, Preserving Kitchen and Administration Offices. Before long, the Knotts had added Virginia's Gift Shop and several more shops and attractions such as a 15-million-year-old petrified log, a thirteen-foot diameter cross section of coastal redwood cut at age 750 years, a visible bee-hive and an oxcart, with several wagons provided additional photo opportunities. The entire operation would soon be renamed Knott's Berry Place.Active Volcano
Walt built a 12-foot-tall volcano of lava rock trucked in from the Pisgah Crater in the Mojave Desert and equipped it with a boiler that rumbled, hissed, and spit steam at the push of a button. Two signs posted nearby read: "Danger, keep out" and "Only active volcano in Southern California moved in from the Mojave Desert complete—and has been erupting faithfully ever since.""It's not half as fool a thing as it seems," Knott told Farm Journal. "When the customers pile up so we can't seat them, the girls send them out to... play with the volcano. They get so interested that I've had to install a loud speaker system to call them to their meals when the tables are ready." The volcano cost $600, and Knott figured it paid for itself the first month. At some point in the late '50s or early '60s, a fanciful mechanical contraption displayed within a 2'x2' box replaced the manual push button. A small red devil with fiery wings cranked a chain behind the glass driving a larger black drum fitted with bent sheet metal acting as cams around its edge, several turns of the demon would cause the cams to strike switches and the active volcano would illuminate, rumble, hiss and/or steam – simulating vulcan activity. The caption sign above the enclosure read "This is the apparatus that controls the volcano. It was made by Henry Legano, and is operated by the gentleman turning the crank. ". The volcano became the "Cornerstone" for a real gold mine, both figuratively and literally.
The most popular genre of motion picture at the time was 'The Western,' and western theming was quick and easy to make: slap some concrete over chicken wire and carve it into rockwork before it sets, known today as shotcrete. This construction technique became the basis for fabricating much of what was to become Knott's – from stairways to mountains and tunnels, even the drinking fountains shaped like tree-stumps. Using techniques like those on the Watts Towers one could set decoration in it, like the sheet of quartz containing a dark sandy vein indicating gold – as was the entrance to the gold mine/pan for gold.
Gold Mine
From the West side of the volcano, guests could enter a mine shaft following a vein of gold down into a large open pit and the Pan-for-Gold activity where customers could buy a ticket to pan for real gold to take home in a vial. Nearby the gold mine shaft entrance, the prospectors mule would haul a stone around an Arrastra, a circular ore grinding pit, filled with gold bearing quartz to release its gold.Artist Studio
The portrait artists at Knott's have a long history there. Claude Bell was a sculptor and artist at Knott's from 1947 through 1986. He created the well-known concrete figures sitting on benches, such as those that were modeled after Calico Saloon singer Cecelia Peterson and dancer Marilyn Schuler. Bell operated the Artist Studio, from 1951 to 1986. It continues to this day, with Kaman's Art Stoppes operating the concession. Artists execute portraits of guests in pastel in about 20 minutes. They can also work from printed photographs. The portrait artists are now at the north end of Camp Snoopy, near the Ferris wheel.Ghost Town
Ghost Town is the original part of today's enclosed Knott's Berry Farm amusement park. It was built by Knott as his tribute to the pioneers, which included his own grandparents who came west on a wagon train, bringing with them their young daughter, who was Walter Knott's mother. Ghost Town includes most of the buildings he brought to the property or constructed in the 1940s and 1950s. Most of the buildings on Main Street were completed in late 1940 or early 1941. Most of the rest of Ghost Town was completed over the next decade and a half.Paul von Klieben
In 1939, Walter Knott had engaged an artist to paint the mural for the cyclorama in the Gold Trails Hotel on a weekly salary. However, nearly a year went by with little progress, and then the artist quit. Knott hired Paul von Klieben, a well-known portrait artist, to take over. Von Klieben liked what Knott was trying to accomplish, and the two of them bonded quickly. Von Klieben finished the cyclorama in just a few weeks.Knott then put him to work on the rest of Ghost Town, and it became one of the most productive relationships in Knott's history. Von Klieben planned most of Ghost Town, including producing concept art, floor plans and a three-dimensional model of the Steak House, as well as overseeing construction and the process for treating new lumber to make it look old. Von Klieben painted numerous portraits and landscapes, a number of which still hang in various buildings in Knott's Berry Farm. He was a very versatile artist, and even wielded a spray gun to paint concrete to look like rock in the Gold Mine area. When Walter Knott purchased the old ghost town of Calico, California in 1951, he put von Klieben in charge of restoring it.
Gold Trails Hotel
Little by little, Walt began building a ghost town in 1940, using buildings relocated from real old west towns such as Prescott, Arizona. Painted signs of Old Trails Hotel had a humorous scrawl of the letter 'G', as if to hastily change the name to Gold Trails Hotel. It was the first of many and re-built to house a salute to the hardship endured by early settlers.Originally the entrance was through the open end of a Conestoga Wagon The canvas covering of the wagon entrance did not last long and was converted to a wooden extension of the hotel which effectively 'built-in' the wagon. The enclosed Conestoga Wagon showcased several artifacts relating to the pioneers who endured the hardship of traveling to California in covered wagons. Pioneers were welcomed to sign a '49er's guest book, while waiting for the free Covered Wagon Show, which was a cyclorama - a 20 by 50 foot mural depicting a wagon train crossing the desert, as well as three-dimensional displays in the foreground. It included a three-minute audio presentation in tribute to those hardy 1849 pioneers. Special lighting changed the daytime scene to night, with moon and stars. It ended with the voice of a little girl saying "Mommy, I want a drink of water!"
Along the south side of Main Street where the line of waiting diners wrapped around the building, he filled themed "shops" with relics set into a scene of whimsy. Starting at the corner of Gold Mine Road and Main Street, "Deadwood Dick's" grave marker showed that he died with his boots on, near Soldado José wood carving of a Mexican Soldier. The playback in the Assayer's Office pits the owner attempting to discover, and jump, the claim location against the prospector yet to stake his claim. Hop Wing Lee the proprietor of the Chinese Laundry irons endlessly, singing western tunes in Mandarin. The Barber shaves One Eye Ike and contemplates his wanted poster hanging nearby. A piano player was hired to play outside the Silver Dollar Saloon where real cups of boysenberry drink could be purchased with snacks. The Sheriff's Office hosted a crooked poker game. To interest folks and entice them to the back of the line, Gold Dust Goldie's Hotel featured a live gentleman interested in a few details about your group about to visit Sad Eye Joe back in the Town Jail – to surprise them with personal comments. Goldie's leg in fishnet stocking and high-button shoe, covered with petticoats hung out of an upstairs window of Goldie's Place and would kick to thump the clapboarding, as if to advertise the brothel.