Special Guest Monday! Knott's Berry Farm (part two)
Here are the last four vintage Knott's photos from GDB reader Bill Youmans! See part one HERE.
There's Bill (age 9) and his sister Barb (age 5) frolicking among the tombstones on Boot Hill. The headstone that Bill is looking at reads, "Joe McGee - Died April 1 1865 - Rest In Peace Until I Come - Your Widow Anna". I can't tell if that's supposed to be kind of beautiful, or really creepy!
What a great photo of the train! There's the ticket depot to its right. The new Calico Mine Train ride would be sort of behind us.
Dino the Donkey (that's what I call him, anyway) gets more lovin' from Bill and Barb (that's their mom Marian in the white dress). In the foreground you can see a bit of the arastra, which was a thingamabob originally used to crush gold ore.
And finally, Barb has just finished a slice of boysenberry pie! Mmmm-mmm. I'm jealous! I almost want to drive all the way to Knott's just for that.
I'd like to send a big THANK YOU to Bill Youmans for sharing his family photos from Knott's Berry Farm!
What a great photo of the train! There's the ticket depot to its right. The new Calico Mine Train ride would be sort of behind us.
Dino the Donkey (that's what I call him, anyway) gets more lovin' from Bill and Barb (that's their mom Marian in the white dress). In the foreground you can see a bit of the arastra, which was a thingamabob originally used to crush gold ore.
And finally, Barb has just finished a slice of boysenberry pie! Mmmm-mmm. I'm jealous! I almost want to drive all the way to Knott's just for that.
I'd like to send a big THANK YOU to Bill Youmans for sharing his family photos from Knott's Berry Farm!
8 comments:
I'm surprised you didn't mention the strange plastic Indians in the upper-left corner of the gravestone photo. I don't seem to remember those- whatever they are.
I really enjoyed these!
"Rest in Peace until I Come" from the widow is hilarious. Sounds lovely on the surface, but a sardonic imagination reads it as an admission that she gave him no peace while he was alive. "Enjoy your little respite while it lasts, dear; I'll be there to henpeck you soon enough."
Glen, somewhere I have better pictures of those sculpted Indians, based on a painting (that used to hang in the Music Hall!) called "The Night Watch" (by an artist named Charles Nahl). Click HERE to see the painting! They were added in 1954 on a hillside above the artificial stream and (as you can see) near Boot Hill.
Connie, thanks!
HBG2, at first I thought that the sentiment on that grave marker was sweet, but I agree with you, it sounds more like a threat upon re-reading.
Does anyone know if that petting mule did anything besides just stand there? Was there a mule ride or something that gave that little animal a chance to move around??
Bill in Denver
Bill, there was a mule powered carousel (see it HERE), and sometimes there was a mule at the nearby arastra, although I think he just stood there too. The mules might have been bored, but otherwise they seemed to have had a pretty easy life!
I remember that cemetery, thinking it was real. relieved to learn it wasn't.
Then, went to Calico, where the graves look the same, but are real. Very sad indeed to read the inscriptions of the children who perished in Calico.
I wish I could find my pictures of Boot Hill there, very moving.
Thank you Major and Bill for sharing these pictures, memories much like my own.
JG
The donkey did walk around, usually with a miner. Character atmosphere. Of course they had the donkey rides across the street in the early days, and the Mule-go-round at the petting zoo. I worked at animal attractions for 15 years, shortly after the petting zoo was closed.
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