By the middle of the Great Depression, the Knott family had been on their land for a decade and a half. They'd built a successful berry business and chicken dinner restaurant. Over the next five years, the restaurant continued to grow, but the berry farming was slowly replaced with diversions to entertain the guests waiting in line for dinner. These were the first attractions of the emerging Knott's Berry Farm theme park.
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. You can find it here: ochistorical.blogspot.com/
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Thumbnail image courtesy Orange County Archives (original b&w)