Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Knott's, June 1960

The more I see photos of Knott's in its present-day form (via blogs such as "Outside The Berm"), the more I appreciate what a special place it was back in its glory days. The pre-Snoopy days!

I love this shot of the beautiful Ol' number 41, the "Red Cliff", a real antique full-sized locomotive with a nice southwest color scheme. Can you imagine a time when old steam engines were being scrapped, basically considered worthless trash? Luckily for anyone who wanted one, they could be had for a song...I've pointed it out before, but I'm sure that nearly all of the surviving steam engines are still around due to the existance of amusement parks and a few die-hard enthusiasts (like Ward Kimball). Anyway, this is one of those pictures that just makes me happy.


This one is interesting to me...I've seen endless photos of the cement (fiberglass? plaster? play-doh?) saloon gals and cowboys that you could pose with, and of course there's old "Sad-eyed Joe", and the prospector with his mule. But I've never seen this fella, eternally panning for gold. I am assuming that he is next to the creek that led to the area where mere mortals could pan for gold themselves?

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5 comments:

  1. Chris Merritt7:10 AM

    Hiya David -

    This old miner was located adjacent to Boot Hill, and was sculpted by Ross Yost, who assisted Claude Bell (who sculpted a majority of the figures on the Farm - as well as the dinosaurs out at Cabazon). He was also a sand sculptor, just like Bell - that is likely how they met!

    I think he is long gone, since they removed that whole "mountain" to the left of Boot Hill...

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  2. outsidetheberm9:19 AM

    Great shots. To add a little to Chris' response... This great Yost creation was replaced some time back by a 'less worthy' sculpture that was quite similar. That newer version, last time we saw, was still sitting in that ravine - semi broken and lost amid new construction.

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  3. outsidetheberm10:00 AM

    Oh, what the heck - we went ahead and posted a shot of the later version of that statue. Click away.

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  4. The Viewliner Limited5:45 PM

    Not taking anything away from the Disneyland Railroad, but this locomotive was absolutely awesome. I can smell it now. To be able to walk around it while it was waiting at the station ... This was a GIANT! Great picture!

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  5. melissac.3:27 PM

    This miner was back behind things, by the graveyard. Visited Knott's during Christmas Crafts, and found that he's since been removed. :/

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