Theme Parks History of Knotts Berry Farm

Knott's Berry Farm is one of the most famous theme parks on the west coast, alongside Disneyland and Six Flags Magic Mountain. The theme park is located in Buena Park, CA. Unlike other theme parks on the west coast that are owned by movie studios, Knott's Berry Farm is a manufacturer of jams and preserves. Besides the Knott's Berry farm theme park in Buena Park, the Knott's company also started the famous Camp Snoopy theme park in Mall of America, in Minneapolis, MN.Knott's Berry Farm got its start in 1920, when Walter Knott and his wife sold berries from a stand on the roadside.

During the 1930s Walter created the world's first boysenberry, which is a combination of blackberry, loganberry and raspberry. Also during the 1930s, Walter's wife Cordelia began serving fried chicken dinners and within a couple years, the restaurant became a phenomenon with enormous lines outside of it, leaving customers waiting for hours.Walter put on his thinking cap and decided to create a ghost town in 1940 to entertain the people who came to get some of his wife's cooking. The ghost town was made up of buildings from old Western town such as Prescott, AZ and Calico, CA. In 1968 Walter decided to apply his entrepreneurial mind to his ghost town, so he fenced his farm and began to charge people for admission, this is when Knott's Berry Farm the amusement park was born. Since Knott's Berry Farm has a history that's traced back to the 1920s it claims to be "America's first theme park".

In 1995 the Knott's Berry jelly and preserves business was sold to ConAgra foods and in 1997 the theme park was sold to Cedar Fair L.P., which owns an amusement park in Ohio called Cedar Point.Since being under the ownership of Cedar Fair the park has added numerous thrill rides and large roller coasters. Today Knott's Berry Farm includes six different themed areas including, Ghost town, the Boardwalk, Indian Trails, Wild Water Wilderness, Fiesta Village and Camp Snoopy.

Ghost town is the oldest part of Knott's Berry Farm and it contains most of the buildings that Walter had brought from ghost towns through out the west. Fiesta Village has a Latin flavor to it because of its carnival like setting and roller coasters, such as Montezooma Revenge and the Jaguar! The Boardwalk was originally set up as a gypsy camp and a 20s settings. Today the Boardwalk contains most of the parks thrill rides like the Windjammer racing coaster, Supreme Scream, Xcelerator and Perilous Plunge.Camp Snoopy is the most advertised part of Knott's Berry Farm, it is targeted to a younger crowd with most of its rides being meant for kids and the theme is based on Charlie Brown and the peanut gang. Wild water wilderness is themed after nature, with rides including Big Foot Rapids and the mystery lodge.

Indian Trails is the newest addition to the park, it is a fairly small area and it sits between Ghost town, Camp Snoopy and Fiesta Village, this area has no rides because it is entirely devoted to Native American culture.

By: Michael Russell