Gold Mine, Knott's Berry Farm - July 1974
Somebody thought that the Gold Mine at Knott's Berry Farm was the cat's meow. They took four pictures of it! Seems a bit much, if you ask me, even though I loved the Gold Mine as a kid; it was always one of my favorite activities.
I think it's interesting that they put the Gold Mine below ground level, digging down 8 feet or so. Was it meant to resemble an eroded creek bed, sort of like a well-worked placer mine? I appreciate that they went to the extra effort to make the area more interesting.
I have the feeling that a lot of the details on this stony hillside were not consciously noticed, but they still made an impression. Like that small forced-perspective mine tunnel. And all the splintery wooden structures, quickly built to provide minimal shelter for the hard-working miners.
A family tries its luck panning for GOLD! I like how the prospector who helps them stands on a boardwalk above a creek; the water looks milky, like glacial runoff. Be sure to buy your ticket at the Nugget Shack! Notice the lanterns, for nighttime panning.
As a kid I think I bought the fantasy of the Gold Mine completely. Look, you can see where the water comes from (an underground spring?), guided by that sluice to the water wheel. Guests paid a mere fifty cents, a bargain!
14 comments:
I wonder if there was any peek-in scene in that cabin or hut in the Pan for Gold basin. Nice Knott's pics. Thanks, Major.
Major-
Great fun - especially for a kid... I was certain to be mere steps away from becoming a millionaire-! (I still have my glass vial with my "million dollars"-worth of GOLD-!)
Thanks, Major.
I wonder if there were other places where you could "pan for gold" besides Knott's? I would imagine so, but perhaps not. It would make KBF pretty special if they were the only place. Heck, Knott's is pretty special even if there ARE other gold panning locations.
Thanks for continuing these daily posts, Major. If it was me, I would have crashed and burned ages ago! I guess that makes you a little more special than most people. :-)
There was a miners dugout / cabin that was a peek-in . He recited the “wreck of the hesperus” …. A sad and somber poem about a steamship bound for the goldfields but never made it.
I’ve mentioned here before we always panned for gold on family trips - it was exciting as a kid . But I have a strong memory of one of my uncles chatting with the gold panning employee and hearing that the gold was brought in from Canada ….. or was it Alaska … anyway I remember thinking “no …. It’s coming out of the yellow mountain behind us!!”
I also remember the temptation to open the souvenir viles filled with water and little gold flakes…
I wonder what they were supposed to be doing with all of that stacked wood? Were the miners supposed to be using it for campfires at night, so they could make s'mores?
As Mike mentioned, there was a peek-in in that cabin, and at least one peek-in inside the mine. The one I remember that was inside the mine, was of a man holding a pick, in an offshoot of the main tunnel.
Why did they get rid of this hole in the ground? Because they ruin everything, that's why!
How about going through the "mine" tunnel that built up an enormous amount of anticipation as you wandered through it down to the panning area!
And the gold! Amazing! I would go every year, and add the new gold flakes to bottles from previous years! Eventually it looked like I struck the mother load!
Sometimes (always?) the water in those little vials became cloudy and sort of disgusting, with little floaty things in them...
All it needs is Walter Huston dancing around and cackling to himself.
These pics are bliss-- the early morning summer warmth is palpable.
In the first photo the real Indian chief is seen in the background, to the left. At the upper right in the second shot, it looks like the volcano top. By the water wheel out of frame is that greeting in embossed letters on wood, from Walter Knott himself; visible only to folks staring down into this scene. If only the photographer had walked a few yards and snapped the little red devil; I would be in a heavenly hell.
There were two peekins in the mine walkthrough; in one a miner had extracted some hefty nuggets, made from crumpled gold foil and absolutely alluring. Also that thick bubbling sound effect in the darkness, which was eerie and delicious.
Major I love your gilded emphatic GOLD! lettering; now I can hear Shirley Bassey, and that bubbling too.
I loved the Gold Mine. I was sure that the hole was result of dozens, if not hundreds of grizzled miners beavering away in search of a fortune. I think I only panned for gold once as I was not a patient child, the notion of “buy and hold” didn’t take root till much later.
And I love hearing everyone’s memories about the place, the volcano, the devil, the mine tunnel, the peek-ins, the wood and rawhide (?) handrails polished to a shine by visitors hands, it all comes back in a rush.
And I still have my vials of gold, they are on my desk in a little dish from Knotts, a prize piece of my investment portfolio like my collection of Avon bottles and my 1943 steel penny. I think I shared a photo of the vial here sometime back.
I think I must have visited another similar attraction somewhere since I have two vials, only one with a Knotts sticker; Virginia City? Columbia? Calico?
Thank you, Major and everyone, I will think about this all day with good memories.
JG
K. Martinez, I think there was at least one peek-in, but I can’t remember what it was!
Nanook, I saved my glass vials of gold, I should go find them. At some point I put them all in a ziploc bag, so they are all together at least.
JB, Calico (the ghost town owned by Walter Knott for a while) had a “pan for gold” feature. And I’m sure other places did too, even ones that had no Knott connection! Thanks for the kudos, I do these posts so far in advance that I am able to take stretches of time off, which helps me stay sane.
Mike Cozart, that was a very educated miner! I would be reciting naughty limericks. I think Chris Merritt’s book tells us where the gold came from (I want to say Alaska), and that somebody got in trouble for stealing bits of gold dust every day. I’m sure it added up quickly!
TokyoMagic!, I kind of wondered about all that firewood too, was it strictly for show? Or did they use it somewhere on the property eventually? Maybe at the Wagon Camp, a cheerful bonfire would be nice to accompany some music at night. Man, I wish I could experience all of the original peek-ins again, thank you for the description of TWO of them!
Steve DeGaetano, I still remember my mom asking an old prospector if going through the tunnel would be scary, because as kids all we saw was a dark hole that we did not want to go through! I combined my gold flakes too, it still isn’t very much, but when you shake the little bottle, you can sense the mass of the gold. It sounds like your vial water became vile water.
Melissa, I’m OK with the cackling, but not the dancing. I don’t want any Footloose miners in my town.
Stefano, thank you for pointing out all of those details. I of course would be thrilled to find a good photo of the little devil; I’ve seen one black and white photo, and one color photo, neither belongs to me. I sure remember looking at the imp when I was little! Thanks for the additional descriptions of the two peek-ins, it still kills me that the park removed some of the peek-ins a few years back. WHY? I’m glad you enjoyed the GOLD lettering, it cost me extra to use real gold for it! ;-)
JG, a few years back we went up to Northern California, and were along the Trinity River. You could see that the banks of the river had been severley altered from hydraulic mining (in an attempt to free up the gold dust from the dirt). And in the nearby town, old water cannons were rusting away here and there. But I digress! I have no doubt that they pan for gold in some of those other locations, or maybe all of them. Back from when gold was $35 an ounce, you could get a LOT of vials of mostly water out of an ounce.
@ Melissa-
“Badges-?”
"We ain't got no badges! We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinking batches!
"Ok, can I see your badger, then?"
@ Melissa-
No badgers; but would you settle for a marten-?
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