It certainly wasn't Disneyland; it didn't have the billions to compete. However, the Knott's family was always innovative and made magic out of the ordinary. They used the little resources they had and provided a wonderful place for families to get away and really allow you to make believe that they were in an old western setting. It was truly the first California Adventure!
I haven't been to KBF in three years (I got into a wreck that evening, interestingly it was the night before my daughter was born). I remember thinking then that besides some of the new roller coasters; it was not as fun as I use to believe.
However, I took my family this week; mainly because it was free for all of us, but I also wanted my daughter to experience the feeling that I once had about the place. For the most part she did. Faith loved the trains, log ride, and camp snoopy; maybe even more than she likes Disneyland. She wanted to go on the log ride over and over again, I suppose because the drop at the end is like nothing she has been on before. I probably would have stayed and let her ride all day if it wouldn't have been so cold, and I kept getting wet.
From an adult perspective though, KBF has become a rundown upscale Fair; a shell of its former self. Camp Snoopy looked like rides that you would find at the annual Catholic Carnival. They were dilapidated and desperately in need of paint and some repairs. We went to the Peanuts Playhouse and were astounded by how dirty and shabby looking it was inside. The carpet looked as if it had not been cleaned for about two weeks! The other rides like the log ride and the Calico Mine train now showed their age. You could barely hear the sound system and the animatronics or mannequins looked like they have not been updated, maintained, or restored since they were originally placed some 30 years ago.
Moreover, when I think of Knott's I don't generally associate it with thrill ride roller coasters, waterslides, or even Camp snoopy. I generally think of The Old West. It's not that those other things are not part or prominent features of the park, but those attractions are/or were not the main focus. The Calico ghost town was the heart and character of Knott's. Yet, this is no longer true. The town is now filled with arts and crafts tables, and there are roller coaster tracks looming overhead that look like the tentacles of a horrible monster that is about to devour the old Ghost Town replica.
Behind some of the vendor's tables, far out of sight was the replica of the old jail. I use to love going over there and pretending like I was talking to this vagrant of the old west. Now though, there is gum all over the mannequins face and you could hardly make out what he was trying to say.
I suppose I was saddened by all of this because I couldn't get lost. When Knott's and family started they created something special and wanted to bring you into this world that they had created and toiled over. Old trains, stagecoaches, gunfights, statues of parlor girls sitting on the bench, blacksmiths, and Indian burial grounds allowed you to experience the west for yourself.
Walter Knotts was an innovator. Maybe he didn't have the funds of his local rival or the imagineering that would dream up delightful cartoon characters; nevertheless he was able to bring you into his own magical California.
Sadly, what the Knott's family created has been made into an amusement park Frankenstein by the Ohio based company that bought Knott's in the early 1990s. There is no flow or continuity to this park. Think of Disneyland. All the lands there are separate; tomorrow land is not mixed with New Orleans Square. Think of the oddity that would bring and how you could not allow yourself to get "lost" in the experience that was imagined by its creators. Picture The rocket ride on tom Sawyers Island, wouldn't that seem out of place! Well picture that and you now have what Knott's Berry Farm has become. Swinging chairs over what use to be Indian Burial grounds, and carnival games in western towns, water slides on the 50's boardwalk, are only a couple of examples that I can give to this attest to this strange design scheme.
I suppose I am not the only one that feels this way, since the place was empty. Keep in mind that this was a nice day and it was Law Enforcement Appreciation week, so it was free for them to come along with family. One would think that this place would be hoping! This was not the case KBF was a ghost town like the one it use to try and replicate.
Some pics of our day:
Log Ride
Calico Mines
Calico Mines
The Red Baron
The Board Walk
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