The Cable Cars Going Home

Between 1955 and 1956 Knott's bought six cable cars from San Francisco. The cable cars were refurbished and converted from cable power to battery power. They made their Knott's debut on Easter Sunday 1955. The cable cars were donated back to San Francisco in October/November 1980. Here is the Berry Vine article about the last cable car being readied to go back to San Francisco.

There are two remnants of the Knott's cable car system still visible today at Knott's, they are the two old fashioned "traffic signals" on Grand Avenue. As the cable cars approached Grand Avenue they would trip a switch that would change the signal from GO to STOP and back again after it crossed the street. I will take pictures of these signals and post them here in the next couple of days.

The Ghost Town Firehouse

Again today, I'm posting some pictures in response to another blogger's post about Knott's. The subject was the Ghost Town Firehouse and the fire wagon located inside. I have another photo of the firehouse and wagon from about 1974.

Here's a photo how the firehouse looks today.

And now here are some pictures of the fire wagon as appears in its storage location today.

Knott's Frosty the Snowman

This subject came up in the comments of another blog about Knott's. So, I thought that I would post some pictures of "Frosty". The first one shows the refrigeration crew putting Frosty together, the picture is from the 1963 November/December Knotty Post. Frosty was made of this coiled tubing that would frost over to create a snowy effect. Note how deep Frosty's eyes and nose are in this first photo compared to the next couple of pictures.

This image is a page from the 1964 November/December Knotty Post.

This next photo is from the 1970 Winter Knotty Post.

The next photo is one of my favorite pictures of Mr. and Mrs. Knott, as they walk through Ghost Town holding hands on a winter day after a rain shower. You can see Frosty in his little lean-to on the right side there in front of the Ghost Town Firehouse.

45 Years Ago on the 4th of July

I started to do this post yesterday, the 4th of July, but I didn't have my disk with the images with me. So here it is a day late.
July 4, 1966 was the dedication of Independence Hall at Knott's Berry Farm. This was the realization of Walter Knott's dream. The following are some articles about the construction and some of the promotional materials.
First up is the back cover of the July/August 1965 issue of The Knotty Post showing Walter Knott presenting the plans for Independence Hall to the Buena Park Building Department.

Next is an item is from the January/February 1966 issue of The Knotty Post with an article about the making of the bricks.

And the next article is from the March/April 1966 The Knotty Post about putting on the finishing touches.

The next items are of the dedication program.

The next two items are a couple of three panel brochures. The first one was probably made up before the Hall was finished since it has the concept drawing on the front. The second is in color, has photos and there's a date of 7/69 on it.

The last printed item is the Independence Hall souvenir booklet.

I'm going to finish up with a couple of nice photos of Independence Hall.

 

Knott's Roaring 20s Airfield 35 Years Ago (Continued)

To continue with the opening of the Roaring 20s Airfield 35 years ago, here is the employee newsletter showing some of the Grand Opening activities.

Now some pictures from the Airfield area. First some pictures of the Sky Jump or parachute ride.



Here's a picture of Gasoline Alley.

Now a shot of the Motorcycle Chase.

Here's the Loop Trainer.

Here's the airplane that was flown in for the Grand Opening then put on display.

Now here's the Pilot's Rec Area.

This last picture is of the winner of some radio contest. Here's PR release that went with the photo:

Mrs. Sofia G. Urias of Los Angeles has won the grand prize--a 1976 Dodge Colt station wagon--as winner of the Knott's Berry Farm-KWKW radio contest.

Loading her with cases of Knott's products are (l) Done Oliphant, grandson of Walter Knott and a general partner and the director of the Food Products Division at Knott's with Dick Burns Sales Manager for Knott's Food Product Division.

Molre than 4,000 entries were received in the promotion which awarded over $11,000 in prizes including radios, television sets, Knott's gift packs and tickets to the worlds third largest amusement park, Knott's Berry Farm.

Those must be the "light" variety of the jams, the way the guys are holding those boxes with just one hand.