PW-FEB20-35-37-Park-Update.qxp_Feature 02/03/2020 15:49 Page 37
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The popular Pan-For-Gold concession is now the
known as “where the teens go” and Knott’s Berry Farm as “where the families with kiddies go.” Meanwhile, Disneyland with its state-of-the-art animatronics like “Pirates Of The Caribbean,” “The Haunted Mansion,” and “Indiana Jones Adventure,” and its in-house sophisticated roller coasters like “Space Mountain” and “Big Thunder Railroad,” remained in its own untouchable class. When, by 1997, when Marion Knott’s involvement began
to wane as Knott’s no longer felt like “The Farm,” as she’d always called it, she and her three siblings sold to Cedar Fair. What did this mean for Knott’s Berry Farm? Besides the opening of an attached water park, Soak City, in 1999, it appeared that Knott’s had re-entered the coaster arms race with Magic Mountain—indeed within the whole industry—by presenting in short order, “GhostRider,” a major wood coaster from Custom Coasters International in 1998, “Xcelerator,” Intamin’s first hydraulically launched coaster in 2002 (replacing the three-year run of Windjammer Surf Racers, a steel racing coaster from Togo, Marion’s final ride purchase), and “Silver Bullet,” a inverted coaster from Bollinger and Mabillard in 2004, raised above the park like
the Jaguar, to conserve space. Cedar Fair purchased the Mine Ride and Log Ride from the Bud Hurlbut estate. On the site of the honorable Corkscrew, which had been removed in 1990 to make way for Vekoma’s Boomerang, now sits the 2018 “HangTime,” Gerstlauer’s Infinity coaster, the only dive coaster on the West Coast.
Hugging a waterfall With a year-round season and with its Knott’s Scary Farm heraldedas one of the best walk-through Halloween attractions, Knott’s is on top of the industry. But I had to wonder: after such a breathtakingly evolution in its 99 years, just what is Knott’s Berry Farm now? I went for a visit after being away for 20 years. My visit started off, well, badly. Driving south on Beach
Blvd in Buena Park, California, I was waiting to see the iconic statues of 1849 miners, that for decades beckoned visitors with the adventures of Old California that waited within. They were gone. Over the park’s modest (by today’s standards) 57 acres was a myriad of twisted steel, offering modern coaster thrills of every type. Now the softer, wooden GhostRider coaster was okay, blending well into what was once Knott’s Old West feel, but that didn’t allay my fear that my wonderful Ghost Town might be plummeted steel, forgotten and forlorn. But Ghost Town was there, untouched, complete with the
statues of the old miners sitting on a bench, and the, uh, “working girls” sitting on another (until political correctness police requires their removal). But the original Berry Stand that used to be on display near the entrance is, I was advised by a park employee, only used for parades and special events.
FEBRUARY 2020
queue for the GhostRider. The Church of Reflections and Pond are also gone, making way for the B&M Silver Bullet. In fact, just past the park’s entrance, towards the right, one is assaulted by the stark white columns of the Bullet. (Perhaps adding red and green bunting onto the white columns may soften the effect while adhering to the theme of the nearby Fiesta Village.) The Timber Mountain Log Ride and the Calico Mine Ride are still wonderful, although it was annoying when the latter made its brief exterior appearance on a trestle hugging a waterfall, what used to be a pleasant view of the Ghost Town and Calico Railroad station is now dominated by twisted steel, spoiling the mood. (Maybe the park should consider enclosing that exterior portion of the Mine Ride, making the waterfall an interior one.)
Wandering wistfully On the positive side, the wooden GhostRider, which was brutally exciting when it opened in 1998 (and got more brutal over the following ten years), now rides comfortably exciting after a major retracking in 2016. Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant is still superb cuisine, Independence Hall still stands proudly, and the spirit of Walter and Cordelia Knott’s wonderful enterprise can still be experienced; you just have to know where to look for it. For example, in the Ghost Town, I went to what was always my favorite spot: an isolated graveyard (with comical grave stones) beyond which is a gigantic and beautiful mural of the southwest desert, through which the Calico Railroad train still passes. What used to be a very effective visual isnow blotted out by yet another steel coaster. But in the end, and as I tell myself and anyone else who
will listen, the amusement industry is one of growth. It’s not Knott’s fault that, like its neighbor Disneyland, it is landlocked. Cedar Fair has to do whatever it can—and it’s doing it well— to keep today’s crowds coming in. And as we all know, adding roller coasters is how you do it, unless you havethe billions to spend on state-of-the-art attractions as Disney and Universal Studios do in rapid fire. So, new steel coasters are built overhead, and sentimental displays like the Church of Reflections and original Berry Stand must gracefully bow out. And that leaves my great love, the Ghost Town, still perfect,
still the best and most accurate of any theme park. But let’s face reality, the Ghost Town takes up a lot of room that could provide
increased revenue with more new coasters and rides. After all, I’m an old guy, and you don’t make money off people like me, who wander wistfully through historical amusement parks like Knott’s Berry Farm, searching for my own past. (I regret that I never asked my parents to let me try to Pan-For-Gold.) The future is here. Survival is paramount in the amusement
industry. And I am confident that Cedar Fair will do the right thing, while keeping the pioneering spirit of Walter and Cordelia Knott alive.
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