Photo Essay: The Faces of Knott's Berry Farm

When people think of Knott's Berry Farm today, maybe they still can smell the chicken dinners or the boysenberry pie.



Maybe they feel the jolt of the roller coasters or the racket of an Old West gunfight reenactment.



As for me, I think of the faces.



Its ghost town wouldn't seem nearly as ghostly without those haunting, creepy figures.



It started with the "Calico Belles," Marilyn (inspired by the real Marilyn Hargrove Schuler) and Cecelia (inspired by the real Cecilia Peterson)—concrete figures sculpted and painted in 1954 by Claude Bell, Knott's resident sculptor.



They were modeled after two "Calico Saloon" dancing girls named Marilyn Schuler and Cecelia Peterson and sat on a bench at Calico Square.



Back then, getting your photos taken with their facsimiles was nearly as popular as seeing the real live girls doing the can-can in a show.



Since then, they've been replaced by Ruby and Flo, and more figural sculptures "of the period" have popped up around the park—even outside of the ghost town, as far over as Camp Snoopy.



Those saloon girls were just the beginning of Claude Bell's notoriety—having created Dinny the Dinosaur (a Brontosaurus) in 1975 and Mr. Rex (a tyrannosaurus) in 1986 out of steel and concrete (well, shotcrete) to help advertise his restaurant, the Wheel Inn (now demolished), in the town of Cabazon.



Moreover, credit can't be given entirely to Claude Bell for creating some of the most memorable faces at Knott's Berry Farm, as the animals in the menagerie merry-go-round were carved by craftsmen at the Dentzel Carousel Company nearly decades before Walter Knott opened his berry farm.



In fact, this antique Dentzel—one of only three found in Southern California (the others at Disneyland and Castle Park)—is among the oldest operating ones you can find anywhere.



Built in 1902, it resided at Hershey Park in Pennsylvania until 1936, when it moved to Brady Park in Canton, Ohio. It arrived in Buena Park in 1955.



In addition to its horses, it's got a giraffe, a deer...



...two pigs...



...a goat...



...and four ostriches.



Of the three rows on two separate platforms—for a total of 48 animals—only six of them have had to be replaced with fiberglass replicas.



This 1902 model is not to be confused with the carousel that was part of the Knott's Lagoon attraction, which had its own Dentzel carousel. The Lagoon was bulldozed and paved over for parking, and that carousel was auctioned off as part of Bud Hurlbut's collection in 1990.



Now, I go to a lot of amusement parks and county fairs and such. I'm up on all the latest trends and thrills. But no matter how much G-force the modern-day roller coasters can make me experience, and no matter how "real" virtual reality becomes, nothing will ever compare to the artistry and craftsmanship of these old, antiquated, mechanical machines with their galloping horses and snickering faces.

And nothing can haunt me quite like creations of Claude Bell and the other faces of Knott's Berry Farm.

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This 40 Year-Old Princess Has Found Her Kingdom

I grew up watching football players declaring "I'm going to Disneyland!" after winning the Super Bowl. It didn't occur to me at the time that it was an advertisement. It just seemed like Disneyland must be that good.

So when I was looking down the barrel of my 40th birthday, wondering how I would outdo the skydiving adventure of my 30th, the one thing I couldn't get out of my head was The Happiest Place on Earth. I didn't really want to do anything other than go to Disneyland—finally.

I may have had opportunities to go in the last four and a half years since moving to LA, but it's pricey, and I haven't wanted to go alone. I thought flying solo there would be really sad...and maybe just a little bit creepy. But when Edith and Michelle were up for doing whatever during their visit for my birthday, it just seemed like the perfect time to go.



Besides, I've always enjoyed my birthday at the end of September as the official kick-off of the Halloween season. And we managed to get tickets to "Mickey's Halloween Party," when Disneyland is all decked out, and taken over by the villains of their movies.



I don't know what better way to celebrate getting old(er) than visiting The Happiest Place on Earth during The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.



I didn't have lofty goals for my visit. I just wanted to be there. It's a slice of history and American culture that I had not yet experienced, and it's probably the closest thing I'll ever get to the '64/'65 World's Fair without time travel.



First stop: Space Mountain. We both came into this world in 1975, although the first one is actually at Walt Disney World in Orlando. This one in California opened two years later. Others have popped up around the world since.



I actually had no idea what I was in for, but because we were at an event that required a special ticket, we didn't have to wait in line for very long in order to find out.



Oh my God. Everywhere I turned, oh my God.



It was like I walked into a video game of my youth. Or a sci-fi movie I couldn't quite remember.



And then it got very dark, and we embarked on our wild ride through the Ghost Galaxy.



With a crick in my neck and a lurching stomach, we decided to take it easy in the Fantasyland section of the resort park and visit the King Arthur Carousel, built by Dentzel Carousel Company in 1922. Walt Disney bought it and moved it from Toronto to California, removing giraffes, deer, and other animals and replacing them all with horses. It's one of the few original rides from Disneyland's 1955 opening, 60 years ago, and it's very much a centerpiece of the park.



The story goes that Walt was inspired to create Disneyland while watching his daughters ride the Griffith Park Merry-Go-Round. He wanted to give more people a chance to experience that kind of magic. Now, everyone from preschoolers to adults clamor to ride Jingles, the lead horse, though they'll settle for any of the other white horses. Too bad they don't gallop off like they do in Mary Poppins.



There are a few other Fantasyland rides that are original to the park, including "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride," a reference to The Wind in the Willows...



...and "Snow White's Scary Ride," another "dark ride" that uses black light to illuminate various Disney characters and familiar backdrops.



Fantasyland reopened after a renovation in 1983, so most of the current iterations of the rides are from that.



The whole place is kind of spooky and weird at night. At my age, I remember Alice in Wonderland and Pinnochio and Sleeping Beauty, but the Disney movies of today are very different than what I grew up with. I was glad to see the park not totally taken over by Frozen, Tangled, or Brave...yet.



Instead, Disneyland will be closing some rides—some temporarily, some permanently—to make way for the new Star Wars Land. The Big Thunder Ranch area of Frontierland is pretty much being wiped out. Disney considers it the most underutilized and least-visited area in the park, but maybe because if you want an olde tyme Western experience, you'd just go to Knott's Berry Farm.

The only other park attraction I knew I had to hit (since Adventureland and its animatronic bird show at the Enchanted Tiki Room were closed) was The Haunted Mansion. At this point, the batteries on both my camera and phone had died, so instead of spending time trying to document everything, I just absorbed it.

This time of year, The Haunted Mansion features the extra layer of The Nightmare Before Christmas in its "holiday" iteration, which runs through Halloween and Christmas. There is so much going on in this dark ride, between the voices and the ghostly paintings and the dancing apparitions and the room that stretches and the "Doombuggies" that spin you around as you make your way through.

And just when I couldn't imagine any better way to celebrate my birthday, then came the fireworks, and the tiki drinks that followed at Trader Sam's at the Disneyland Hotel.

I'm going to try and let this experience linger with me for a while—the feeling of wonder and disbelief and, above all, belief. I'm going to try and not think about my 41st birthday, or worse yet, my 50th birthday.

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Photo Essay: Taking a Spin Into the Last Century in Balboa Park

I've always been overwhelmed by too many choices.

I don't want the world to be my oyster. If someone asks me, "What would you like?" I'll answer their question with another question: "What are my options?"

I do better working within some kind of constraint.

That's probably why I feel so overwhelmed every time I visit Balboa Park in San Diego. It's just too big. There's just too much to do there.

The first time I visited, I treated it like a hike. I just walked the pathways, took in the views, and made it back to my car when I was too tired.

This time, a specific event -- a tour of the world's largest outdoor musical instrument (photos forthcoming) -- brought me back to Balboa Park. But, instead of leaving afterwards and gallivanting around the rest of San Diego, I decided to stay and try to conquer at least a portion of the behemoth.



My first stop was an obvious choice: the carousel. I've stopped being shy about riding carousels by myself and being seen as the weird old lady. Who cares? As long as I don't surpass the weight limit and break a horse (or a seahorse), I'm good.

Photo Essay: A Los Angeles Carousel Has Made San Francisco's Golden Gate Park Its Home for Over 80 Years

This is just so typically me. 

I go years (or decades) without visiting a place—and then as soon as I go back once, I end up going back a bunch of times. 

Because it's so easy for me to shift my attention elsewhere. But once something gets back into the front of my mind, I realize how much I've missed out on. 

Such is the case with San Francisco. 

I was just there in January, after having not really been there since 2006—save for a couple of hours two years ago—and ever since, I've been itching to go back. 

This time, California Preservation Foundation's Doors Open California program gave me the perfect excuse to return. 

But first, I had a lot of places to cross off my list. 

 

Take Golden Gate Park, for instance. It feels very much like San Francisco's version of Central Park in New York, with meandering paths and sprawling lawns and a few historic points of interest—including its own vintage carousel. 

Photo Essay: Castle Park and The King of Theme Park Train Rides

Somehow, the concepts of amusement parks and theme parks have conflated into one.



And while theme parks are, indeed, amusing...



...not every amusement park has or even needs a theme (especially in the advent of "thrill rides," like at the themeless Six Flags).



From Santa's Village to Disneyland (whose multiple themes include "adventure," "fantasy," the "frontier," and the land of "tomorrow"), there's no better way to escape the humdrum of real life than to travel back in time or to a land that's far, far away...



...than to run off with the circus, so to speak, at least for a couple of hours.



In the case of Castle Park in Riverside, you'd be transported back to Camelot...



...to the time of Merlin and other figures of Arthurian legend.



Castle Park opened in 1976, seven years before Medieval Times would take the concept to another level with its immersive dinner theater show (and 10 years before Medieval Times would arrive in Buena Park).



And while there are still glimpses of 11th century life in England...



...the current experience at Castle Park is definitively domestic...



...with pieces of Americana, like the antique car ride...



...and the Castle Park Railroad.



The two-foot narrow gauge railroad was built by Castle Park founder Wendell "Bud" Hurlbut, who'd already made a name for himself in miniature locomotives and train-based amusement park rides designed for Knott's Berry Farm (like the Calico Mine Train).



You can credit Hurlbut's creations for Knott's with helping it expand beyond a berry farm and chicken dinner restaurant into a full-fledged amusement park.



Trained (or, rather, self-taught) as a mechanical engineer, Hurlbut is considered one of the country's first theme park creators.



Even the ultimate train fan himself, Walt Disney, used to visit him at Knott's while he was building the Calico ride. And while many may think that Disney created the "hidden" line of waiting would-be passengers (with all of those switchbacks), he actually borrowed the idea from Hurlbut.



His work was so revolutionary and groundbreaking that after his death in 2011 (when he was still operating the Hurlbut Amusement Co. in a barn across the street from Knott's, well into his 90s), his train-building business was bought by Katiland Trains, the biggest amusement park train manufacturer in the country, located nearby in Riverside County.



With no children to pass them down to, much of the contents of his workshop were sold off in 2012. (He'd already sold the park decades before.)



As much as he's associated with trains, Hurlbut actually began his amusement park career as a carousel man at Knott's in the 1950s.



That's when he operated a 1905 Dentzel Menagerie-Jester Head model that had been relocated there (to the Lagoon) from Hershey Park in Pennsylvania.



In 1985, when Hurlbut was expanding his Castle Park beyond an arcade and miniature golf course, he moved the historic carousel to Riverside and added it to what was becoming a fully developed amusement park.



Its Ruth band organ had previously been rescued from The Pike in Long Beach (1911-1979).



Among the 20 menagerie animals on the two-level platform, you'll find a tiger...



...a lion and a goat...



...two bears and two pigs...



...three deer...



....and four each rabbits, cats, and ostriches.



Among the 30 horses scattered between three rows, 18 are jumpers and 12 are standing.



And of the 50 total animal figures, 19 are made of their original carved wood and 31 of them are fiberglass reproductions. Many of the original figures that were replaced by copies were auctioned off in 1990.

Before Hurlbut died, a documentary filmmaker asked him what regrets he had in life. His answer? "That carousel auction," he said.

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