Knotts Berry Farm History

There's more to Knotts Berry Farm history than just roller coasters and funnel cake.

Today Knott's Berry Farm is two different businesses: a theme park in Buena Vista, California, owned by Cedar Fair Entertainment and a specialty food manufacturing company based in Placentia, California owned by Smuckers. It wasn't that way in the beginning. In fact, in the beginning Knott's Berry Farm wasn't even a farm but a little wooden roadside stand by which Walter and Cordelia Knotts sold berries they grew on their rented ten acre farm.

The berry stand began in the 1920's where the Knotts worked hard to make a few extra dollars selling berries to people driving through the Buena Vista countryside. In the early 1930's Walter Knotts introduced to his stand a new berry that came from a hybrid berry plant that was a combination of red raspberries, blackberries and Logan berries. He named the berries Boysenberries after the man who began the plants. These berries were quite popular.

In 1934 the Knott's felt they needed something more to make ends meet so Cordelia began making chicken dinners and boysenberry pie that they served to those who passed by on their way to the Orange County beaches and were looking for somewhere to eat. So good were these chicken dinners that more and more people began coming to eat at the Knotts farm. Eventually, they had a daily long line of customers waiting to be served.

To entertain those who were waiting to eat, Walter built an Old West ghost town by relocating actual buildings from California and Prescott, Arizona. They added a narrow gauge train ride, Calico mine rides and an area where diners could pan for gold.

As Knott's Berry Farm became more and more popular, even more attractions were added. Kids could enjoy seeing the organ grinder and a chicken who played a miniature piano. There were burro rides, a general store and even a volcano that would hiss and smoke when a button was pushed, a gift shop and a general store.

By the 1970's, what started simply in the interesting tale of Knotts Berry Farm history had grown into three themed areas: Old West Ghost town, the Fiesta Village which was modeled on Spanish villas and The Roaring 20's, which was an area where there were numerous rides. 1970 was also the first year that the Knott's began charging admission for the park. In 1975 Knott's debuted the first modern day roller coaster named the Corkscrew.

In 1995, Knott's sold his food specialty company to ConAgra, who in turned sold it to the Smucker's company in 2008. In 1997 Cedar Fair Entertainment bought the amusement portion of the farm. While both the factory and the amusement park still bear the Knotts name, unfortunately, there is no Knott's in Knott's Berry Farm anymore.

The amusement park has continued to grow adding more and more new and modern rides, changes have been made and little remains of the original amusement park that Walter started back in the 1940's.

To those who remember the Knotts Family and watched the Berry Farm grow, they will always cherish the memories of that young farm couple who went from those humble beginnings in a small berry stand to one of this countries greatest success stories and the fascination tale behind the Knotts Berry Farm history.

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