PW-FEB20-35-37-Park-Update.qxp_Feature 02/03/2020 15:49 Page 36
Park Update
to amuse the crowds), Later, Marion Knott would admit that she “went too fast after the Corkscrew’s debut.” With hindsight, she should have sat tight for a year and let Magic
The 1960 Calico Mine Ride
indoor train ride, and the 1969 Timber Mountain Log Ride were both designed, built and operated as concessions by the legendary Bud Hurlbut, a mechanical engineer known for his locomotives and kiddie parks throughout California.
The Mine Ride’s mechanics matched what Disney had done up to that point for indoor dark rides, while the Log Ride is still considered to be the most fully developed, themed presentation of Arrow Development’s log flumes, which in fact Hurlbut himself had helped develop with Arrow’s Karl Bacon. The park was gated with a Pay-One-Price option, and Knott’s Berry Farm, as a major theme park, had arrived.
Ride it backwards By 1974, with Walter in his eighties Cordelia’s passing, Walter Knott (he died in 1981) handed The Farm’s reins over to his regal yet spunky daughter, Marion, who had the same
inherent gift for the amusement industry as her father. She took a brave gamble in 1975 by purchasing and moving the prototype of Arrow Development Company’s Corkscrew coaster—the first time a roller coaster went upside-down since Coney Island’s 1901 Loop-the-Loop—from Arrow’s development yard into Knott’s new Roaring Twenties themed area. The Corkscrew gave the Knott’sa 52 percent increase
in attendance, transforming Knott’s’ softer presentation into that of a major thrill ride park. It was the 1975 Corkscrew that began the exhilarating
competition between Knott’s Berry Farm and Magic Mountain, which had opened in 1971 just 60 miles to the north. Magic Mountain countered the Corkscrew in 1976 with its vertical loop coaster, the Revolution, from Intamin, boosting its attendance by 46 percent. That same year, Knott’s expanded
its Roaring Twenties section into the Roaring Twenties Airfield, its two main attractions being Arrow’s Motorcycle Chase and Intamin’s. Both rides were duds. Riders of the former complained of whiplash on the badly designed Steeplechase coaster-type ride, while riders of the latter shrugged and said “It’s just like riding an elevator. ”(Arrow produced just one other Steeplechase ride at Blackpool Pleasure Beach in England, while Intamin’s two other installations of their Parachute Jump at Six Flags Over Texas and Six Flags Over Georgia, also failed
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Mountain’s Revolution have its season in the sun for 1976. Still, the competition continued. In 1978, Magic Mountain’s
giant wood racing coaster, “Colossus” from International Amusement Devices, grabbed Southern California’s attention, although Knott’s stayed in the game that year with Intamin’s Shuttle Loop, which Knott’s named “Montezooma’s Revenge.” A billboard strategically placed on the freeway just outside of Magic Mountain declared “Next time, ride it backwards, at Knott’s Berry Farm!” as an effective jab that Magic Mountain’s Revolution only went forwards. Worse, Colossus had problems while Montezooma’s Revenge, being Intamin’s newer flywheel version, did not, so Knott’s may have edged out Magic Mountain that year. In clandestine fashion, attendance figures of the two parks were no longer released, though both parks were undeniably very busy.
Enter Cedar Fair But Marion Knott couldn’t deny the expansive acreage Magic Mountain had compared with Knott’s’ locked-in location, and decided not to participate in a coaster war she was sure to lose, so she decided to promote Knott’s Berry Farm as a “family park,” presenting milder family thrills such changing out the brutal Motorcycle Chase into the mellower Wacky Soap Box Racers in 1980, adding Intamin’s River Raft
ride, “Big Foot Rapids,” in 1988, and opening the gentle Jaguar coaster from Zierer in 1995, which was elevated above the park to conserve what had rapidly become precious space. With its continued semi-annual explosion of cutting-edge major coasters, Magic Mountain became
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