The History of Knott's Berry Farm - "Roaring"

After a string of early successes in the first several years after she took over Knott's Berry Farm for her aging father, Marion Knott found herself in a spot of trouble. The newest land she'd spearheaded development on flopped hard. It was obvious even within the first year that the area would need to be redeveloped.

That redevelopment would shift the park's theme from California of the 1800s, to California history in general. It also marked a bit of a renaissance for the Farm. But it wouldn't last forever. The following two decades brought some modern classics to Knott's, but it also saw the Farm become just another in a growing industry of theme parks.

We owe an enormous thanks to the Orange County Archives, holders of the Knott's Berry Farm historical collection. Without their generosity and friendly assistance, we would not have access to many of the incredible historic images and videos in this series. In particular, Chris Jepsen was of vital importance. He selected many of the images in this series based on our storytelling needs, and his keen eye for quality, yet-to-be-published images made this series infinitely better. All the images he selected - more than we could fit in these episodes - are freely available to the public on the OCA Flickr account. He also runs a delightful and insightful local history blog, which we highly recommend. Tell him Theme Parchive sent ya! You can find it here: https://ochistorical.blogspot.com/

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Thumbnail image credit: Orange County Archives