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The Joy of Pseudo Museums: Knott's Berry Farm

Krona Kruiser

Krona Kruiser

I had the opportunity to tag along to one of my son's field trips to Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, Ca. Along with the overpriced booths and shops there was a small museum with random Western memorabilia. You had your pistols, rifles, and Native American made objects. There was also the usual late 19th to early 20th century artifacts like old horse-shoes and iron gears.
However, I did spot some old straights, mug, and a nice Lather Catcher. I asked the curator, an older gentleman dressed in Wrangler jeans and rodeo shirt, if he would sell me the Lather Catcher for $20. The man said, Those things are priceless! I told him, Offer me a nice price for less......... After he realized I was joking around, we talked about some of the neat artifacts in this pseudo-museum. I couldn't shake off the feeling I was at an antique store though.

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pipskicks

I love Ghost Towns, but I feel like they turned Calico into a tourist trap and "fake."

I love finding ghost towns that Mr. Knotts hasn't tried to profit off of :)
 
rickboone1

rickboone1

You should have told him you can still buy them today. And, offer to have those rusted straights cleaned and restored.
 
cb91710

cb91710

pipskicks said:
I love Ghost Towns, but I feel like they turned Calico into a tourist trap and "fake."

I love finding ghost towns that Mr. Knotts hasn't tried to profit off of :)
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He's talking about the theme park in Buena Park... the "old west" section was styled after Calico, and a lot of the artifacts were taken (stolen is such a strong word) from Calico. A guy I grew up with runs the "roundhouse" and maintains the steam train. Doesn't pay well, but he's doing what he always wanted to do.

Calico is and has been as long as I can remember (first time I went there was late 60s, early 70s) a tourist trap and not unlike "Knott's Lite".
Not aware of any other ghost towns that the Knott's got their fingers into.
 
rxonmymind

rxonmymind

Handsome guy there in the barbershop. Certainly not Hollywood material. Lol. One day I'd like to go there just for kicks. Cool shots Krona.
 
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pipskicks

cb91710 said:
He's talking about the theme park in Buena Park... the "old west" section was styled after Calico, and a lot of the artifacts were taken (stolen is such a strong word) from Calico. A guy I grew up with runs the "roundhouse" and maintains the steam train. Doesn't pay well, but he's doing what he always wanted to do.

Calico is and has been as long as I can remember (first time I went there was late 60s, early 70s) a tourist trap and not unlike "Knott's Lite".
Not aware of any other ghost towns that the Knott's got their fingers into.
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Yes I'm not far from either.

Bodie is a good example of how to make a ghost town look nice, keeping it all original.


Stolen is kind of a strong word, I like to think of Calico as a historical piece of land, there is a lot of history there. To take it apart the way he did was a tragedy!!


I have to admit, I really like ghost towns though and to be able to find an area with some old history lying around in pieces is just really cool. Calico isn't really much like that, but I wish he hadn't pulled it apart the way he did :(
 
cb91710

cb91710

Agreed.
Bodie is pretty cool. I haven't been there in decades, and I imaging the tourists and just general pigs have taken their toll as they have with Yosemite and the rest of our natural parks, but I totally hear ya on "discovering" something.

That's the cool thing about just grabbing a trail in the desert on a dirtbike and seeing where it goes. You run across all kinds of cool things that, while not untouched by humanity, are pretty well undisturbed because they are not really "charted", aren't in a good location for target practice, and are in an area that is of little interest to the "Bro" crowd.

I once found a boxcar out in the middle of nowhere. It was miles from the nearest railroad line or spur, no other railroad artifacts that might indicate an abandoned line... just an empty boxcar, sitting on it's trucks and wheels, out in the middle of nowhere.
 
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pipskicks

cb91710 said:
Agreed.
Bodie is pretty cool. I haven't been there in decades, and I imaging the tourists and just general pigs have taken their toll as they have with Yosemite and the rest of our natural parks, but I totally hear ya on "discovering" something.

That's the cool thing about just grabbing a trail in the desert on a dirtbike and seeing where it goes. You run across all kinds of cool things that, while not untouched by humanity, are pretty well undisturbed because they are not really "charted", aren't in a good location for target practice, and are in an area that is of little interest to the "Bro" crowd.

I once found a boxcar out in the middle of nowhere. It was miles from the nearest railroad line or spur, no other railroad artifacts that might indicate an abandoned line... just an empty boxcar, sitting on it's trucks and wheels, out in the middle of nowhere.
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Since you're not all that far, up a ways is Manzanita, a Japanese internment camp. Real neat to look at, but there are ghost town sites that have ghost towns marked well and I forget the name, there was not much there, but they have a ghost town literally across the road. We walked over the ex-Manzanita airport and we checked out the ghost town, there was equipment still there, some open and some closed mine entrances. It was pretty neat if you ever go up that ways. If you're closer to Fresno I think that's a close drive....
 
cb91710

cb91710

Been through Manznar and the area behind the cinder cone (Fossil Falls)

That whole valley is really neat and a lot of history up there.
 
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pipskicks

cb91710 said:
Been through Manznar and the area behind the cinder cone (Fossil Falls)

That whole valley is really neat and a lot of history up there.
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Yeah it's completely empty right now (the Ghost Town was El Dorado? I forget) and it's pretty neat to see the stuff practically untouched for years and years...bet you could find a straight in horrible condition in the rubble.
 
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