Knott's Berry Farm is the brand name of two separate entities: a theme park in Buena Park, California, and a manufacturer of food specialty products (primarily jams and preserves) based in Placentia, California. The theme park is owned and operated by Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, and the food specialty business is part of The J. M. Smucker Company.
History
In the 1920s, Walter Knott and his family sold berries, berry plants and pies from a roadside stand beside State Route 39, near the small town of Buena Park. In the 1930s, Walter Knott was introduced to a new berry which had been cultivated by Rudolph Boysen. The plant was a combination of the red raspberry, blackberry, and loganberry. Walter planted a few plants he had received on a visit to Boysen's farm, and later started to sell them at their roadside stand. When people asked him what they were called he said "boysenberries".
In 1934, to make ends meet, Knott's wife Cordelia (1890–1974) reluctantly began serving fried chicken dinners on their wedding china. For dessert, Knott's trademark 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 what, at the time, was a two hour trip. Before Interstate 605 and State Route 57 were built in the late 1960s, Highway 39 (now known in Orange County as Beach Boulevard) continued to carry the bulk of the traffic between eastern Los Angeles and Orange Counties.
Within a few years, lines outside the restaurant were often several hours long. To entertain the waiting crowds, Walter began to build a ghost town in 1940, using buildings relocated from real old west towns such as Calico, California and Prescott, Arizona. They added attractions such as a narrow-gauge train ride, a pan-for-gold area, and the Calico Mine Ride. Frequent activities at what Knott called a "summer-long county fair" included—naturally—boysenberry pie eating contests. When Disneyland was built in nearby Anaheim, the two attractions were not seen as direct competitors, due to the different nature of each. Walt Disney visited Knott's Berry Farm on a number of occasions, and hosted the Knotts at his own park (including inviting the Knotts to Disneyland's opening day). The two Walters had a cordial relationship, and worked together on a number of community causes.
As time went on, more shops and interactive displays were opened to entertain patrons waiting for a seat at the Chicken Dinner Restaurant. Before long, the Knotts had added a gift shop and several "attractions," including a room of rare music boxes from France, Switzerland, and Germany; son Russell's personal collection of rocks that glowed under ultraviolet light; several rock gardens with miniature waterfalls, water wheels, and wishing wells; a replica of George Washington's Mount Vernon fireplace, which the Knotts had admired while on vacation; and a 12-foot-tall volcano built of lava rock trucked in from the Pisgah Mountain and equipped with a boiler that rumbled, hissed, and spit steam at the push of a button. "It's not half as fool a thing as it seems," Knott told the 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 50’s or early 60’s, the push button was replaced by a mechanical contraption encased in a 2”x2” glass-fronted wooden box. Inside the box one would see a small winged devil turning a crank, every few turns causing the volcano to hiss and steam.
As Knott's Berry Farm continued to grow in the 1950s, new displays were added. In 1956, a miniature El Camino Real was completed, running from the train station north to the far edge of the park at La Palma Avenue. Along the way were models of the 21 California missions.
In the early to mid-1960s, the park was visited more by "locals" than tourists. Children fortunate enough to have grown up in the area should still recall the Model-T ride in the original parking lot along the corner fronted by Crescent Ave. and Grand Ave.
Walking inside the park, youngsters might be treated to a burro ride or a walk through the Haunted Shack. Young and old alike wouldn't leave before at least one visit to the General Store. Mom and dad could take a seat by the cracker barrel next to the pot belly stove while the kids spent their pocket money on penny candy. If they were visiting on a weekend, though, at least one penny would be held back. Stepping out onto the main street kids of all ages would locate the nearest painted circle on the ground and wait for the organ grinder to come along. Turning the crank on the brightly painted music box, his trained monkey would hop around the edge of the circle, taking your pennies and tipping his hat by way of thanks.
Perhaps nothing was more exciting, though, than heading towards the area which would one day be home to Fiesta Village. Park goers were delighted by the sights and sounds (and smells) of the sea lion pool Amusement Parks. For a little money, patrons could purchase a half dozen sardines in a small paper bag.
Another attraction that went the way of the burros and sea lions was Old McDonald’s Farm. There were a handful of themed areas where, for a small fee, parents could host their children’s birthday party. The coveted spot was the birdcage, an actual metal framework built up on stilts. Situated in that same area was the petting zoo. Parents cautioned their children to keep a tight hold on their shirt tails and bags of candy, for nothing was safe from the curious nibblings of the wandering goats. In a glass-fronted wooden coop, you would find Henrietta, the piano-playing chicken. Depositing a nickel would signal her to peck out a song on her miniature piano; when she’d hit enough keys, a sprinkling of corn would be released into her food tray. The petting zoo was also home to a unique riding attraction. The Knott’s had ingeniously converted a hot walker into a kiddie ride. Pairs or trios of children would sit on wooden seats attached to the end of poles radiating from a central axis where a mule patiently waited. The handler, wearing overalls and a bandana around their neck, would take his/her seat on the rig behind the mule and start the animal walking and thus the ride gliding around in circles.
In 1968, the Knott family fenced in the property and charged an admission fee for the first time. In the 1970s the park included three theme areas: Old West Ghost Town, Fiesta Village (portraying Spanish California) and the Roaring Twenties, a nostalgic traditional amusement area with a 1920s-era airfield. In 1975 the Corkscrew debuted as the first modern-day roller coaster to perform a 360-degree inverting element. It was designed by Arrow Dynamics of Utah.
In the 1980s, Knott's built the "Barn Dance" featured Bobbi & Clyde as the house band. It was during the height of the "Urban Cowboy" era. The "Barn Dance" was featured in Knott's TV Commercials. Also during the 1980s, Knott's met the competition in Southern California theme parks by building two massive attractions: Kingdom of the Dinosaurs and Bigfoot Rapids, a whitewater raft ride. In 1990 the Boomerang roller coaster was introduced.
In 1995, the Knott family sold the food specialty business to ConAgra, which later re-sold the brand to The J. M. Smucker Co. in 2008. In 1997, the Knott family sold the amusement park operations to Cedar Fair. Initially, the Knotts were given an opportunity to sell the park to The Walt Disney Company. The park would have been amalgamated into the Disneyland Resort and converted into Disney's America, which had previously failed to be built near Washington, D.C. The Knotts refused to sell the park to Disney out of fear that most of what Walter Knott had built would be eliminated.
Since being acquired by Cedar Fair, the park has seen an aggressive shift towards thrill rides, with the construction of a number of large roller coasters and the addition of a high-performance Shoot-the-Chutes ride.
The Cartoon Network TV show BrainRush, which premiered June 20, 2009, is filmed at Knott's Berry Farm.
The present
In modern times, the vicinity of the park has been heavily suburbanized, and the landscape of the park is now dominated by the roller coasters, replacing much of the original theming and atmosphere of the park. The park serves as an anchor for other tourist-oriented businesses such as Medieval Times and Pirate's Dinner Adventure, and the Movieland Wax Museum which was located nearby until it closed in 2005. Buena Park Downtown, a series of shopping centers containing Wal-Mart and Kohl's stores, is located near Knott's Berry Farm.
In 2004, the park renamed the Radisson Resort Hotel the Knott's Berry Farm Resort Hotel. The hotel was formerly the Buena Park Hotel that Cedar Fair acquired in the late 1990s.
Two of Knott's Berry Farm's most recent areas of concern are that its parking lot is landlocked and cannot be expanded, and the closest train station was several miles away in Fullerton. Both have made travel to the park something of an inconv
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