Saturday, January 23, 2010

Knott's Berry Farm, January 1967

Day Six, homies!

These slides from Knott's Berry Farm are dated "January 1967", but of course they could have been taken before that. Note the low-key Christmas decoration on the old Saloon; a simple garland of spruce branches. I like it! No need to make it look like Las Vegas. The place is very busy, perhaps the kids were still out of school... I assume that the saloon was really a place to get a quick bite to eat, and maybe some kid-friendly beverages. I'll have some boysenberry juice - and put it in a dirty glass. No, I mean it.


This picturesque old wall must have something to do with the displays of California Missions that used to be a Knott's. El Camino Real (also known as "The King's Highway") refers to the 600 mile California Mission Trail. A large part of that trail is now Highway 101. If any of you Knott's experts know more about this feature, I'd love to hear it.

7 comments:

Michelle said...

I believe it was the part of a real mission wall....when you walked through it, you had the tiny mission diorama's one by one in a wall on the left hand side. On the right you would walk past the church and Lake of Reflection.....ah, sure it's all torn down for another cheap roller coaster now! :(

Let's Talk Knott's said...

Great Pics and good timing for a Knott's post what with it being Cordelia's birthday and all. That was the Southern set of Camino Real arches that were once at the edge of Calico Square. If you proceded through those arches you would go under the stagecoach bridge and on the other side the mission diramas were all along the left wall and the Church of the Reflections and the lake were on the right. There is a second set of arches which used to stand at the north end of the mission trail which are actually still there and visible from La Palma Ave. they are now behind the dragon swing. Thanks for the great post!

Major Pepperidge said...

Thanks for the all of the great info, "Let's Talk Knott's"!

Nancy said...

Knott's is always knice... :D

remember when simple things like looking at a wall and reading the plaque was a good enuf reason to visit? its still good enuf for me, but sadly not for all

Chiana_Chat said...

Maybe Knot for all, but for me too, Knancy. A display like that would still be a nice touch IMHO, fwiw, iykwim, ymmv, lol.

Thanks Let's Talk Knotts for the description :)

Early Amusement Parks Of Orange County said...

The arches were made by the knott's Family the were not from the missions or mission these were hand made for the park,If you go around the park and look and you see the any adobe bricks they were done by family members like Steve Knott D Anderson Marion's son Ken Knott Steve's brother and so on.

Richard HARRIS

walterworld said...

The arch pictured was still in place as of May 2002, I have a picture. The Church of Reflections was still on the right back then as well.

The arches were the entrance to 'Fiesta Village', featuring shops, food & rides.

Has it really been removed since? Not that I would be surprised...