Knott's Question? Way Back When

[Redsix]

MANY, many, many years ago I went to Knotts in the fourth grade for California History. They used to have these Mission models there. Our teacher lead us into into a room where they dimmed the lights and we watched a story about a little girl in wagon. There was like this little covered wagon going arcoss the desert. It wasnt a movie but more like a model.
I have talked to a lot of people at knotts but I can find any one that remembers that. I have talked to some people that do remember it. No one remembers what it was called. Does any one else remember this Attraction???

[pixywingz]

hmm don't remember that one hun...when were there it was this awsome indian thing..

[Leviathan]

i remember it from when i worked there. it was in the hotel shop across from the bottle house. give me time to think about it and i will see if i can find the name of what it was called. as far as i know it was removed my last year working there. i dont know if it went back in or not. i will get back to you when i think of it

[Redsix]

Thanks alot. It been driving me crazy...Could it had been where they take those old photo's?

[Leviathan]

no it was not in the old time photo shop it was in the end of the same building area
under the rocking chair that rocked all by its self. i think better when i am not so sleepy. i will remember tomarrow or the next day i bet after some sleep.

[melmel]

I remember the little mission displays. I used to love those things. My and my sister would count all the spiders in each case, and all the cobwebs.. and my sis was deathly scared of spiders, so I would tickle her on the back of the neck like one had escaped! haha

And yeah, in fourth grade, I remember going on the same field trip, bucko!

We also went into an Indian church and learned about their traditions.

[Not Afraid]

I remember the modesl but I thought they were somewhere in the City Hall with the rest of the "history" stuff. But, man, it's been a while.

[Redsix]

I think the mission models were placed all over ghost town and they were in these white boxes...It has been a long time. I could be wrong. I dont remember when they took them out either.

I have a season pass for Knotts. My girlfriend and I like to walk ghost town and talk about how things used to be at knott's. One thing that really bothers me on how they get the Calico Mine Train wrong. The CMT is a great themed dark ride at Knotts. They still have this guide that drives the train through the Mine. Kinda like the Jungle Cruise. He or she sits there and points out all the sites in the Mine. One thing they always like to say "they pulled out more than 80 million dollars in gold in that there mine". The real calico ghost town (way out off the 15) never found any gold. They mined more than 80 million dollars in Silver. I guess gold sounds a lot better than silver. Walter Knott did once work in the real mines in Calico. My dad used to take me to the Calico Hills and the old west town. Pretty cool place. Many times we would drive into the hills and get out of the truck then hike up to the old mines. Those were so fun times.
Knotts was a really cool place once. The other guy named Walt always seemed to have a better park though.

[jomo]

I remember the Mission Trails, it used to be located along that path that runs between GT and FV by Timber Mtn., and under the overpass for the stagecoach. From what I can remember, they were in white boxes and there were at least one or two left remaining, but when they excavated the whole area to install Silver Bullet, that trail was completely redone and no trace of them can be found now.

I did a search and this is all I could come up with:

The "Mission Trails" as they were called were installed in the late 50s & sculpted by a renowned Italian artist named Leon DeVolo in 1956. It was part of an area originally called "El Camino Real" or "The King's Highway". It was meant to represent all the missions of California. Painstakingly recreated in miniature - De Volo recreated them all, and were on display behind glass from the other side of the G.T.R.R. Train Station all the way to the end of what became Fiesta Village, eventually. The idea was to take you on a miniature journey to all the missions in California...

During the expansion ofthe 1980s, the missions began to slowly dissappear - by the end of the 90s, only one or two remained, on the other side of the Tunnel leading to Fiesta Village... Most of them are now sitting with the reminants of the Covered Wagon Show, and the Marion Speer collection in the attic of the Old Trails Hotel. Some have been occasionally been taken home by employees for "school projects"...

Fifth post down: http://www.lottaliving.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=1065

[Redsix]

The Covered Wagon show!!! THATS IT!!! THANKS

[socal05]

Nice to see someone else misses that type of stuff from Knott's. It's really what made it different and special.

I had not been there in 5-6 years, and then took the family last summer. I couldn't believe what I found. It had almost no soul left. As soon as you walk in now and walk under a huge coster, you know it's not the same place. The bottle shop seems like it was dropped from the sky. The "roaring 20's area", which was always a packed and energetic, WAS a ghost town. The far corner was now just a parkinglot of huge coasters/slingshots.

I did also notice that the walkway on the nearest side of the Log Ride was now gone. You would go under ground for a small section, and all along they had these cool displays you are talking about. They were all along the Log Ride side, and I think on both sides of the tunnel.

And they opened a TGI Friday's across for Mrs Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant! Disgusting...

If it had half the charm it use to, we would get season passes. Still tempted, but I think I'd get too mad everytime I visited.

[Redsix]

I dont think I will renew my season pass this year either. Its really sad all the charm the park had was flushed out after Walter died. Back in early 80's as kids we used to love to go at night. I think it was $8.00 after four then. It was one place we all could afford. I sure miss all that old stuff.

[socal05]

Yeah, the after dark price was great, as was the park.

A place to dance
The Spanish area had a cool vibe
Ghost Town was dark
Log Ride got you close to your girl
Good variety of food
Candy and Magic Shop
Berry Tales
lots more...

[Redsix]

Dont forget those wacky soap box racers!! Those were so cool. In fact I do remember Kids could get married at knotts...they had a justice of the peace. I notice that has been locked up now. At least they still have knotts Scary Farm....

[socal05]

Yeah - the soapbox racers! I have a great memory of being there one night about 20 minutes before closing. There was no line, and my friends and I must have rode soapbox racers 8 times.

They have almost no rides anymore that the entire family can enjoy together.