Knott So Bad

Although we do have a real gripe with the pirates at Knott's Berry Farm, I can't help but love their authentic (though shabby at times) attempts at recreating a Ghost Town of the 1800s. This man, the Marshall of Ghost Town, has done everything in his power to keep Ghost Town authentic and appealing to pioneers of all ages since 1982. In fact, in recent years he campaigned to open up the famed gambling hall ("Me think someone cheat") to visitors. It now doubles as his Marshall's office where he keeps a cool collection of period guns, lawman badges and wanted posters.


He even reopened up the long shuttered schoolhouse, a real pioneer schoolhouse moved to California from Kansas, where kids can sit in the desks and experience a few moments of schooling from an authentic school marm. TallGirl probably could have been expelled for the length of her skirts, but they let her off with a warning.


This path behind Ghost Town to Boot Hill still remains as it was when I was a boy. And yes, there is still one grave that you can feel the heart of it's resident corpse beating eternally.


Of all the "Old Time Adventures" at Knott's, my favorite is still the first and greatest log flume in the world, The Timber Mountain Log Ride. The taxidermal animals and pitch black first drop make this the only thing I never miss. It's wonderful to see my little adventurers enjoying it as much as I did.