Knott's - Covered Wagon Show Remnant

Hey kids, let's visit Knott's Berry Farm again! I posted this photo (courtesy of Major Pepperidge of Gorillas Don't Blog) back in January in a Knott's "Then and Now" post. If you look on the far left of the pic, you will see a sign that reads, "Covered Wagon Show. FREE. Lasts 3 min."

That sign used to be attached to the Gold Trails hotel, which housed the Covered Wagon Show on it's ground floor. This was a diorama show (actually a "cyclorama" because of it's curved painted backdrop) that told the story of Walter Knott's grandmother and mother as they journeyed west across the desert in a covered wagon.

Here's the Gold Trails hotel as it appears today. Unfortunately, when the hotel was rebuilt in the nineties, the Covered Wagon Show was replaced with a gift shop.

This photo and description of the diorama is taken from a souvenir Chicken Dinner Restaurant menu and used here with permission from Connie Moreno who originally posted it on her "Life is a Journey" blog. To see the full souvenir menu, as well as some great Disneyland trip reports, click here: Life Is A Journey.

Here's the show's original concept art painted by Knott's artist, Paul von Klieben.

And here's a vintage ViewMaster shot showing the diorama after "nightfall."

If you look closely at the previous three photos, you will see a man on a horse next to the covered wagon. He was the "scout" that had gone out ahead of the wagon train in search of water (Ma, I'm thirsty!) Well, the diorama is long gone, but this figure still exists at Knott's today! He can be found inside The Pony Express Outpost/Museum, which is located in Ghost Town between the Wilderness Dance Hall (Jeffries Barn) and Boot Hill.

Incidentally, the museum building used to be the Rivera School House and is a California Registered Historical landmark.

Here are some shots of the scout and his horse on display inside the museum. The museum's curator informed me that this figure was carved by another well known Knott's artist, Claude Bell, but I'm not completely sure of that fact. I know Andy Anderson carved Sad Eye Joe and many of the other Ghost Town "peek-in" figures. Hopefully someone out there will let me know for sure.

Here's another vintage shot of the diorama for comparison.

And here are some more "today" shots of the rebuilt Gold Trails Hotel. The center doors used to always be closed and locked.....I believe that the diorama backed up against them. The doors to the right of that were the show's exit doors and the door on the far right was/is used for employee access to the building's second floor.

The show's entrance and lobby were located for many years through the doors on the far right of this next pic. In the earliest years, guests actually entered through a covered wagon that was parked alongside the hotel.

This is the view today looking out from inside the gift shop.

For five and a half years, I worked literally within yards of this structure and never went in to see the show....not even once! I can't believe it, really. I don't know what I was thinking at the time, because even as a teenager I had an appreciation for these kind of attractions. Fortunately, I had seen it several times as a child, but I do regret never seeing it during the time I was actually working there. I guess I used to think that this stuff would just always be around....like the Haunted Shack. :-(

Some of you may remember that blogger "Outsidetheberm" wrote an absolutely incredible post about the Covered Wagon Show a while back and included a word for word transcript of the show's soundtrack. Unfortunately that post is no longer available on his blog, but I'm hoping he will repost it someday (hint, hint!). He is the one that actually tipped me off about the existence of this figure (thank you, OTB!) after I asked him if any of the props from the show still existed. It just took me a little while to find a time when the museum was open so I could check it out!

Kingdom of the Dinosaurs Remnants at Knott's

I wanted to call this post "Knott's Bear-y Tales Remnants," but unfortunately there isn't much left at the Farm to remind us of that attraction....at least not around the old attraction building. There are three Bear-y Tales figures in the barn in Ghost Town that I posted about in April. Those can be seen (here.) Let's now take a look at the abandoned space that used to house two former Knott's Berry Farm dark rides. That upper deck held a large part of the queue for both attractions.

I love the neon sign on top of the building. It's kind of strange that it's still there since the area hasn't been called the Roaring 20's for many years now.

I wonder if the neon still works? I remember it being truly dazzling as the lights would "travel" around the circle and then radiate out to the "shooting stars."

If you look closely, you can still see the Hollywood Hills part of the mural that was painted behind the loading area for Kingdom of the Dinosaurs.

And some of the clouds above the hills......if you squint, you can see them.

Here's the old entrance to the queue. It now contains some sort of game of chance in which you can win.....a stuffed animal! The Laser Zone sign is for the attraction located behind it. We'll see that in just a moment.

Here's a vintage shot of the entrance. Notice the Pterodactyl on the rooftop and the dinosaurs in "relief" below the sign. The marble statue of Rocko, the baby Triceratops is now located in Camp Snoopy. I remember when the artist (John Cody), was sculpting Rocko, he did it out in the open where the public could watch.

Here are some current shots of the old queue ramps.....

I had heard a rumor that the old attraction space had been turned into "laser tag." Well, it turns out that it's just located in a space on the ground floor next to the arcade. I asked the employees about it and they said it doesn't use any of the upstairs space.

See how popular this attraction is? Oh, and you have to pay extra to go into "The Lazer Zone." It is not included in the price of admission.

Here's more of the old queue. Some of the metal railings are beginning to rust.

This close-up shows that they have cut off and removed the concrete ramp at the bottom level.

Now let's go into the arcade and take a look at the old attraction exit.

I went up the exit ramp......it was kind of creeping me out, but I did it anyway and nobody stopped me.

There's a metal gate at the top of the ramp and it's locked. The gate was kind of "fuzzy".....it had a lot of long black dust growing on it.

Here's a shot taken through the "fuzz" looking up the exit ramp. And yes, I did get some on me while taking this pic.

This is the view looking to the extreme right.

And this is the view looking to the extreme left. The mural still looks great!

And here's a shot of the mural that I took after I broke the lock, pulled back the metal gate and ran up the ramp!

Okay, even if the gate hadn't been locked.....I'm not THAT brave. This photo was actually taken about nineteen years ago after boarding one of the ride vehicles.

I wish Knott's would put some kind of dark ride back into this space! The park really needs another family type of attraction. How about a Peanuts/Snoopy dark ride since those characters are used throughout the park? Or just bring back Knott's Bear-y Tales! I'm sure Rolly and Chris Crump could recreate it perfectly!

We'll take a look inside the Kingdom of the Dinosaurs attraction in an upcoming post.

***Post Update: I've completed my post showing the interior of the attraction when it was operating. To read that post, click here: Kingdom Of The Dinosaurs - Mega Post!

A Little Bit O' Knott's (Preserved)

Well, I'm still on a Knott's "high" after Sunday's "Knott's Preserved" event. The day was truly wonderful. I would love to see Knott's do more events like this in the future. Unfortunately, after arriving at the Farm that morning, I realized I had left my camera's memory card at home, so what I was left with was just the camera's internal memory which allowed me to take only a few photos. In a way it was kind of liberating. I just gave up on the idea of being able to photograph the entire day, and relaxed and enjoyed the tours, panel discussions and most importantly...meeting and hanging out with fellow bloggers! For me, that part was almost surreal. These are the people that inspired me to start my own blog almost two years ago and now I was actually meeting them in person!

Rather than give a detailed description of the days events without photos, I am going to refer everyone to Daveland for a fantastic, multi-part photo tour of the day (and check back with him because I believe there are more parts still to come...at least I'm hoping!), and also Vintage Disneyland Tickets for a complete posting of the day's handouts and paper items. I'm going to go ahead and post the six photos that I did take that day......and here they are:


The sign above was posted outside of the Chicken Dinner Restaurant for the event's "all you can eat" buffet dinner (which actually came later in the day.)

First up on the agenda was getting to meet Chris Merritt and Eric Lynxwiler and have them sign their book! Chris Merritt is on the far right, and that's Steve Knott (Walter & Cordelia's grandson) in the middle. Tony Baxter (far left) wrote the forward to the book and he was also signing that day.


These three figures from the old Knott's Bear-y Tales attraction had recently been brought out of storage and restored. They now reside in the old barn at the end of Main St. We were told that sometimes the old Knott's Bear-y Tales theme song plays too. I didn't hear it playing that day, but I might just have to go back and check it out again. I wish they would put more of the old Bear-y Tales Figures out on display! In the late eighties, the Camp Snoopy Funhouse was actually converted into the Bear-y Tales Playhouse and used quite a few of the Bear-y Tales figures. I'm not sure how long that attraction lasted, but I may have an employee newsletter with more info and photos. I will have to go digging for that!

Here are close-up shots of each figure.

I miss Knott's Beary Tales! The panel discussion that day included Rolly Crump and his son, Chris Crump talking about the designing and building of that great little dark ride. That certainly was a treat!

.

Well, that's it for today. I may need to do another Knott's post (or two) just to get Knott's "out of my system"!