Knotts Berry Farm California

Calico a step back into silver rush's heyday

In 1875, prospectors found silver in the Calico Mountains, then ore. The legendary Silver King, Calico’s richest mine, was the largest such strike in Califor-nia and was flanked by tents and adobe buildings. During its heyday, boomtown Calico produced $86 million in silver (1881 to 1896) and $45 million in borax (mined until 1929). Chunks of nearly pure silver came out of the 500 mines that dotted the hills. After 1884, many mines consolidated, and a stamp mill to crush materials and extract metallic ores near Daggett was connected to the Silver King Mine by the 10-mile narrow-gauge Calico Railroad. During the mid-1890s, the price of silver dropped from $1.31 an ounce to 64 cents, and Calico’s silver mines were no longer economically viable. The end to the silver rush came in 1896, and by 1904 Calico became a ghost town. By 1935, the town was abandoned and left to Mother Nature’s elements in the barren Mojave Desert. Historic Calico, a registered California Historic Monument, is the “official state silver rush ghost town” of California and one of the few remaining original mining towns in the western United States, thanks to the help of Walter Knott, the founder of Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park and a relative of the owner of Calico’s Silver King Mine. Knott supposedly moved some actual buildings to his amusement park to attract people to his wife’s chicken restaurant, which became the center of Knott’s Berry Farm theme park. The buildings left behind in Calico were just as important to him. Knott did a terrific job aging his buildings, and it was difficult for Lloyd and I to tell the “original” from what was “Knott.” Lloyd and I strolled Main Street and did gold panning. We saw restaurants, a school house, blacksmith shop, the bottle house, mercantile stores, the general store, the apothecary with its old-fashioned remedies, the barbershop, Maggie’s Mine, the Mystery Shack (a tilted house where you can observe water running uphill), the bath house, and a large cauldron labeled “Chinese bath tub.” In 1966, Knott’s Berry Farm donated Calico to San Bernardino County, and the town still echoes the times of its past for us to enjoy. Calico Ghost Town gave us a haunting glimpse into the stark lifestyle of the Old West, and Lloyd and I saw what it was like to live among the fiery days of the desert sun and survive the bone-chilling evenings.

Siblings of Southern California, Calico Ghost Town and Knott's ...

What in the world could a ghost town in the middle of the Mojave Desert and an amusement park in the middle of Orange County have in common?  Surprisingly, Calico Ghost Town and Knott’s Berry Farm have many things in common, Walter Knott is the common thread of both of these Southern California attractions.  Calico Ghost Town came to life in 1881 when the Silver King Mine was claimed, just eight short years later Walter Knott was born in 1889.  Both the Town and Walter were born in California in San Bernardino County.  When Walter was young he worked for a short time as a carpenter at Calico and his uncle John King was one of the founding partners in the mine that had his name and spurned the birth of Calico.

These memories must have stuck with young Walter because in the 1920’s after he began his Berry Farm and later the Chicken Dinner Restaurant with his wife Cordelia in the City of Buena Park, California, he built a mock ghost town to entertain the guests that came to their Farm and Restaurant.  In Walter’s own words, from 1942:  “Every time I have the opportunity to get away for a couple of days I like to visit the ghost towns of the west for we are continually seeking materials with which to reconstruct the ghost town here at Knott’s Berry Place. By securing a building here, part of another there, an old bar in one place or something else somewhere else we add to the picture we are attempting to portray – a composite picture of the ghost towns of the west as they appeared in ‘49 and the early ‘50′s. We are not collecting museum pieces nor is it the intention to build a museum. Our thought is to collect a town but as that is impossible we try to do the next best thing – build or reconstruct a ghost town that will be authentic and show life as it was lived in the early days”.  This concept was a total success for the Knott’s and by 1950 they had a replica of a typical ghost town in Buena Park.  It was at this point that Walter Purchased the entire ghost town of Calico in 1951.  Walter then moved some original buildings to Knott’s Berry Farm to add to his already existing ghost town and restored and re-built other buildings at the Calico site.  There are still five original buildings still standing at Calico.  It was at this time there was much going on simultaneously at Calico and Knott’s, thus there were many similarities between the two places.  In 1966 after fully restoring Calico Ghost Town, Walter deeded the whole town to the County of San Bernardino and it became the county regional park that it still is today.

Aimee Teegarden - "Knott's Scary Farm Halloween Haunt" At Knott's Berry Farm In Buena Park, California - Oct 13, 2010

RT : Knotts Berry Farm!! RT PHOTO: Rainy & Gloomy day in So. California

Knotts Berry Farm!! RT PHOTO: Rainy & Gloomy day in So. California

Frommer's California 2011

THINKFUN, NOTFRANTIC 702 Knott's Berry Farm 714 Big Bear Lake & Lake Arrowhead 691 The ... Apple Pies & a Slice of Small-Town California 857 18 FAST FACTS: ...

Knott's Berry Farm:, The Early Years

This book documents the early history of Knott's Berry Farm, featuring over 200 rarely seen images.

Fodor's California 2009

V. KNOTT'S BERRY FARM <3 25 mi south of Los Angeles, via 1-5, in Buena Park. The land where the boysenberry was invented (by crossing red raspberry, ...

Fodor's California 2010

KNOTT'S BERRY FARM (3 25 mi south of l.os Angeles, via 1-5. in Buena Park. ... A full-day pass for adults is $50; Southern California residents pay $42, ...

Fodor's 2008 California

D, DC, MC, V. KNOTT'S BERRY FARM CA" 25 mi ... (by crossing red raspberry, blackberry, and loganberry bushes) is now occupied by Knott's Berry Farm. ...