Don't pay any attention to the ghostly feet at the top of this photo! Fun with double-exposures, ya know. This is the interior of the school house. I found this in a box of slides, there were no other Knott's images. But I know that this is Knott's! Apparently this was an actual school room, dismantled and then rebuilt at the berry farm. The slates on the wooden desks bear the names of people who attended the school as children. I love the details! A copy of Gilbert Stuart's unfinished portrait of George Washington hangs over the blackboard. There is a cast iron stove for those cold days. Book shelves are full of McGuffey Readers, used throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. There is a school bell, and a dunce cap as well!
And finally, a family poses in front of the famous statue of a gold prospector and his mule. Were there two versions of this statue? Or did this one get moved to a more prominant position out front?
"No Whiskey Sold to Injins"... I'm not touching this one with a 10' pole.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do sadly miss the "Siamese Twin" ice cream cones in the last picture.
Oops, I did it again.. Can't say "Siamese Twins", although I don't know who's offended there is no more Siam. (so you can't send that letter to the Prussian consulate in Siam by autogyro like you were planning.)
Perhaps, we should just surrender to the Zeitgeist, and call it a "Congenitally Conjoined Ice Cream Cone," declare victory, and go home.
who said anything about anyone moving the miner and friend? Seems removing the Hotel from its original site brought the miner's ghost with it, and the statue created a bridge to this world, but now he can't find his mine... Late at night, after the place is deserted and dark, when there's a certain moon out, that miner's ghost passes from the Hotel and leads his faithful donkey around in eternal search for his mine. They return to the statue form where they were when day returns. Then people just think the Knotts peeps must've moved the statue.
ReplyDeleteokay it's bologna, and doggone I'm too late for Halloween.
Katella, funny one!
Well Major, I'm not going to comment on EVERY post of yours that I missed while I was gone (just three of them). I had to comment on this one because I worked at Knott's in the 80's. That first picture is of the Silver Dollar Saloon which was much smaller than the Calico Saloon. It sat between the Ghost Town Grill and the Barber Shop "peek-in". The last time I was there which was about a year and a half ago, they had put a tacky electronic shooting gallery inside this space.....very bastardized! When I worked there, I actually had to give breaks a few times to the bartenders. Back then, there were jars of pickles on the counter instead of pretzels, but everything else looked just the same as in your photo. In fact, it all looked pretty much the same even with the shooting gallery plopped in there. They had left all of that signage up. The sign on the right that is cut off says "BE GOOD OR BE GONE" and one sign that doesn't show in the picture...and it's still there too, says "ALL NATIONS WELCOME BUT CARRIE", which refered to Carrie Nation who was a pre-prohibition prohibitionist that would go into saloons and attack the bars with a hatchet and throw rocks at the liquor bottles.
ReplyDeleteThe miner and his mule in your third photo were smaller than the ones that were out at the street corner. This was part of a fountain. You can kind of see the water down inside that rock edge that everyone is sitting on (by the way, why is that lady eating two ice cream cones with one hand? I hope she doesn't have two more in her other hand!) This fountain was located near the entrance to the mine tunnel that led to the Pan for Gold and just inside what was the old entrance to the park. I believe this was removed when they built the new entrance to the park in the late seventies. Today, that entrance is aproximately where that sign is that says "Ghost Town" in yellow lettering with an arrow pointing the way. The exit to the park is on the other side of that building in the background which is now where the bathrooms and guest relations are (it looks like they might have been bathrooms back then as well.) Anyway, this comment is long enough and it was your DL post from Sunday that you wanted everyone to write 3 pages on, not this one!
like the old school desks...they remind me of my Catholic grade school and those nuns who never ate OR went to the bathroom!!
ReplyDeleteGhost Town must have been a pretty cool place to visit as well...
if i ever get to visit Knott's its a shame those great things wont be the same....
really enjoyed these, Major :)