Knott's, October 1964
More vintage Knott's Berry Farm...
A prospector has washed his clothes and hung them out to dry. Notice the little cabin says "Roy's Castle". Who was Roy? The happy couple are standing in front of the entrance to the mine tunnel. I remember worrying about that dark, potentially scary tunnel! But as it turns out, you just walked through and that was that. No undead miners were in there waiting to eat your brains.
There's Calico Mountain, home of the Calico Mine Train of course. Bud Hurlbutt designed this attraction, and developed the notorious "hidden queue" that became a standard theme park trick. Sure it looks like it's a walk-on, but much of the line was not visible until you were in it. Walt Disney himself was mighty impressed!
No Knott's post would be complete without a look at Handsome Brady and Whiskey Bill. Does anybody know the significance of that "17 Miles to Sodaville" sign?
There's Calico Mountain, home of the Calico Mine Train of course. Bud Hurlbutt designed this attraction, and developed the notorious "hidden queue" that became a standard theme park trick. Sure it looks like it's a walk-on, but much of the line was not visible until you were in it. Walt Disney himself was mighty impressed!
No Knott's post would be complete without a look at Handsome Brady and Whiskey Bill. Does anybody know the significance of that "17 Miles to Sodaville" sign?
7 comments:
I always loved walking through that little mine.....ahhh, the simple things!
The Roy of "Roy's Castle" was Roy Bryant one of the early prospectors who walked around Ghost Town with his burro.
I remember feeling "tricked" when I realized that the line was longer than I thought, LOL!
And there's the Mine Train ticket booth that is now gone forever. :-( I was told that the reason they tore it down was because "someone" felt that it blocked the entrance to the queue. Hello....it WAS the entrance to the queue!!!!
"Soda" was the Victorian word for Calcium Carbonate, a mineral mined for making glass. "Sodaville" is probably a reference to a town by that name in the west Nevada desert, in the area of Bodie CA. Does Chris M have anything on it?
TM!, I still remember my mom asking the nearby prospector if the mine was scary so that her nervous kids would walk through it!
Allen P, thank you for the info!
Connie, you and a zillion other people...
TM! (again!), I thought you might comment on the little ticket booth; obviously the person you spoke to had the "official" story, even though it was BS.
Katella, I wonder if that little sign is an actual old artifact that Walter Knott picked up while he collected bits and pieces of old ghost towns?
Quite the 1964 couple aren't they?Dressed so "smartly",right out of the J.C. Penney catalog.
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