Irvine Near Knotts
Posted by Doug in Travel at 4:36 pm One of the places you can get out and see while you have a room at one of the modern hotels located in Irvine California is Knotts Berry Farm. Some people are more familiar of Knott’s jams and preserves sold all over the country. Other people think of theme park fun when they think of Knott’s. Well they are related. One part is the major theme park in Placentia and it is not far from your Irvine hotel. It all started in the 1920 when Walter Knott began to sell fresh berries and pies on a fruit stand along State Route 39. The whole family was apart of the business. He and his family were one of the first to sell boysenberries, a new growth that was created by putting raspberry plants with those of blackberry and loganberry, by cultivator Rudolph Boysen in the 1930s.
The area began to grown as the rate of travel moved faster. There stand turned into meals in small diner for travelers along the major connection between Los Angeles and Orange County beaches. Walter started to add ways to entertain a the crowds as they stayed for a meal and started to build an old ghost town in 1940. They added a narrow-gauge train for rides, had areas to pan-for-gold and had the Calico Mine Ride. It became the summer long county fair with pie contests. Even Walt Disney visited the attraction and his own Disneyland was not seen in anyway as a direct competitor. Disney even invited the Knotts to Disneyland the day it opened.
Today, Knott’s Berry Farm is a huge theme park filled with sorts of different areas. There is Independence hall which was so well done that they used it as a set for the film National Treasure of 2004. The Ghost Town is apart of the oldest area of the park and has most of the buildings that Walter originally brought to the property. Then there is Fiesta Village with the Montezooma’s Revenge Roller Coaster. The Boardwalk is a gypsy themed camp that was renamed a few times and currently is called Knott’s Airfield. This area has the most thrill rides in the park along with the Sky Cabin Tower. But that’s not all, visitors can also have a blast in Camp Snoopy, Wild Water Wilderness and the Indian Trails.
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