My family has been visiting the Farm since its earliest days - above is an old slide of my father (taken by my grandfather) while visiting Knott’s in the early 1950s.  For anyone growing up in Southern California, it would be difficult to be unaware of Walter’s Berry Farm and Ghost Town. I have strong childhood memories of not only the amazing Chicken Dinner Restaurant, but of all the wonderful attractions installed by the Knott family over the years.

When my brother and I were children, an inexpensive day trip for my mother was to take us for a picnic lunch by Independence Hall, which was a free exhibit. Sometimes we could talk her into a visit to Jungle Island and a few rides on Bud Hurlbut’s attractions over by the Lagoon. Just as I was

As part of an assignment at school, I decided to write a paper - which heavily copied the look of The “E” Ticket - on the history of Knott’s Roaring 20’s area. David Mumford was nice enough to write an introduction. Through friends and acquaintances,  I was able to get interviews with Rolly Crump, Rick Campbell, Ed Sotto, Robin Hall, and best of all, the lady who was responsible for the Roaring 20’s - Marion Knott. I only printed up about 6 or 7 of these papers. When I finished with it, I figured that was it. But then I realized that if I wanted to learn about the earlier days of the Farm, there weren’t many people still living to tell the tale. Fortunately for me, I was able to interview Steve Knott, Russell Knott, Dean Davisson, Guy Tester, Jack Schrecengost and eventually Bud Hurlbut. By the mid-90s, I had quite a lot of Knott’s history on tape, maybe even enough to write a book.

The combination of all the photos and artwork I borrowed from the folks I interviewed over the years, the scans from the basement, (and images I missed that ended up at the OC Archives) all added up to a massive amount of material to wade through. By 2003, I had decided to write the book only if I could get a firm commitment from a legitimate publisher. I knew that I couldn’t do this unless it was really going to be in print. Luckily for me, in 2007 Paddy Calistro at Angel City Press expressed an interest, and offered to

publish the book. Writing it, while juggling career and family took me two years. The first draft was almost 80,000 words. From the beginning, I had been showing the work and drafts to my friend J. Eric Lynxwiler. In short - he did a lot of work helping me to parse things down - so much so, that Paddy suggested he become co-author on the book. I’m glad he did - I couldn’t ask for a better friend and sounding board!

So, here we are at the tail end of 2009. I’m in Singapore finishing up my work on a new theme park, while everyone at ACP gets the book ready to go to the printer. I’m excited to share with everyone the end result. Keep checking back on this blog - I’ll be updating with more photos that didn’t make the cut, as well as information about the book, which should be out in March of 2010.

All best,

Chris Merritt