THE KNOTT'S BERRY FARM MUSEUM

1. Knott's Collectibles

Welcome to the Knott's Berry Farm Museum, where you'll find over 40 years of Knott's history on display in six exhibits (Collectibles, Menus, Maps, Souvenir Books, Tickets, and Postcards) from the 1930's up until the 1970's. Unfortunately, the old farm we all grew up with is now sadly gone. To keep those cherished years and memories alive, a small sample of the museum's inventory will be on display, presenting a variety of rare objects, items and relics that were available at Knott's Berry Farm back in the "good old days."

(CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE)

This online museum is dedicated to Knott's Berry Farm founder, Walter Knott.

(Photo Courtesy of The Orange County Archives)

Here is the curator of the Knott's Berry Farm Museum (yours truly), dusting off old relics of the past and putting them on display for all to see.
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COIN BANK (1950's), MUSIC BOX (1950's), TIE RACK (1950's),
LIBERTY BELL (1970's), TABLE MAT (1950's)

WOODEN WAGON (1950's), JELLY JAR AND BOX (1950's),
OIL LAMP (1960's), JAM JAR (1940's), WALTER KNOTT LP (1970's)
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MUGS, GLASSES AND JARS (1950's-70's), Part 1
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MUGS, GLASSES AND JARS (1950's-70's), Part 2
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MUGS, GLASSES AND JARS (1950's-70's), Part 3
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MUGS, GLASSES AND JARS (1950's-70's), Part 4 /
MATCHBOOKS (1939-78)
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PIE TINS (1940's), JUG (1970's), BOTTLE (1960's),
SHAKERS (1950's), SPOON TRAY (1950's) /
ASHTRAYS (1940's-70's), Part 1
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ASHTRAYS (1940's-70's), Part 2
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ASHTRAYS (1940's-70's), Part 3
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ASHTRAYS (1940's-70's), Part 4 / LITTLE CHAPEL BELL (1940's)
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SERVING TRAYS (1970's), PLATE (1950's),
DECORATIVE TILE (1970's)
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45 RECORD (1940's), SUPER-8 MOVIE (1960's),
CARDS (1940's), PAPER WEIGHT (1950's)
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KEYCHAINS (1940's-50's), SPOONS (1940's-50's), GOLD (1970's),
BADGE (1970's), CHARM (1950's), NEEDLE THREADER (1940's),
HORSE (1950's), ERASER (1950's)
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JAY JENNINGS WITH DAVE BOURNE OF
"THE WAGONMASTERS" AT THE
GRAND OPENING OF THE KNOTT'S MUSEUM
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2. Knott's Menus

Knott's Berry Farm menus are a neat relic of days gone by. Beginning with a one-page menu in 1928 and continuing throughout the years with different incarnations of The Chicken Dinner Restaurant menu, each version is a colorful reminder of how Knott's used to be. The early, color menus featured a Rockwellian, slice of life on the cover; a boysenberry field, a group of boysenberries, the restaurant, trees and old automobiles. Later editions kept the same scenery on the cover with minor changes. By the late 1960's, the menu cover changed drastically, featuring a montage of Old West items, including a rifle and an old framed picture of the restaurant's interior. Other interesting menus came from The Steakhouse and The Ghost Town Grill. The Steakhouse menu featured Indian Chief's and Squaws in their magnificent head dresses on the cover during the late-1940's and early 50's. One edition of The Steakhouse menu was even in the shape of a buffalo (see display). But the one thing about all these menus that stands out, was not only did you get a list of food, drinks and desserts, but each one had extra pages filled with brief, Knott's family biographies and photographs of the latest attractions of the day. One of my personal favorite sections of each menu were the two adjoining pages that showed how many of Mrs. Knott's chicken dinners were served on an annual basis at the farm. The fact is, Knott's Berry Farm menus are a very important collectible, not only because they show how inexpensive the food on the menu was, but because each one serves as a time capsule of what the farm was like during the early years.

Knott's Berry Place Tea Room Menu (1934-36)
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Knott's Berry Place Tea Room Menu (1937-47)
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Knott's Berry Farm
Chicken Dinner Restaurant Menu (1947-50)
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Knott's Berry Farm
Chicken Dinner Restaurant Menu (1951-56)
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Knott's Berry Farm
Chicken Dinner Restaurant Menu (1957-58)
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Knott's Berry Farm
Chicken Dinner Restaurant Menu (1959-66)
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Knott's Berry Farm
Chicken Dinner Restaurant Menu (1967-74)
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Steak House Menu (1948)
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Steak House Menu (1949)
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Steak House Menu (1950)
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Steak House Menu (1954-67)
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Ghost Town Grill Menu (1949)
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Ghost Town Grill Menu (1950's-60's)
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Ghost Town Grill Menu (1970's)
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3. Knott's Maps

One of the more enjoyable aspects of visiting Knott's Berry Farm was trying to cover the entire farm during one visit. To help you find the various attractions, rides, shops and eateries, Knott's handed out various guide-maps to help you find your way around the farm. Most of these maps (i.e., "Map of Knott's Berry Farm and Ghost Town and 42 Intriguing Shops") folded into four pages, with a list of attractions on the front side and a map of the grounds taking up the entire back side. Early versions of these maps (from the 1950's and 60's) mainly consisted of black and white sketches that helped pinpoint exactly where the various attractions and shops were located. In the 1970's, Knott's began distributing a larger, more colorful, map of the entire farm, down to the littlest detail. It's interesting to see how these maps changed throughout the years and what attractions were added to each new map.

1949
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1950
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1955
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1958
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1960
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1965
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1969
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1971
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1973
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1976
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1978
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1979
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1979
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4. Knott's Books

Unlike the dozens of Disneyland books and pictorial souvenir guides that have been available over the last 50 years, Knott's Berry Farm books and pictorial souvenir guides are few and far between, so they are definitely more harder to find. A few early books about Knott's Berry Farm, The Calico Railway and Calico Ghost Town were written in the late 1940's and early 50's (souvenir books mostly) and three books about Walter Knott were written in the 50's, 60's and 70's (all on display here). Outside of these books and pictorial souvenir guides (i.e.,“Ghost Town News”), there really wasn't a lot written about Knott's Berry Farm, although it must be said that the pictorial guides were very educational, with their color photos and Old West prose, each one was like a Knott's history lesson.

ARTISTS' SKETCHBOOK (1947)
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A LIVE GHOST TOWN (1950)
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GHOST TOWN & CALICO RAILWAY (1952)
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FABULOUS FARMER (1956)
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WALTER KNOTT, TWENTIETH CENTURY PIONEER (1965)
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WALTER KNOTT, KEEPER OF THE FLAME (1973)
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GHOST TOWN NEWS (1941-46)
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STORY OF KNOTT'S BERRY FARM (1948-49)
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KNOTT'S BERRY FARM AND GHOST TOWN (1950-57)
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KNOTT'S BERRY FARM & GHOST TOWN (1958-63)
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INDEPENDENCE HALL (1966)
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KNOTT'S BERRY FARM & GHOST TOWN (1974-78)
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5. Knott's Attraction Tickets

Before the days of "ticket books", circa the 1950's and 60's, whenever you went to Knott's Berry Farm, it was necessary to visit the ticket booth adjacent to the attraction itself and purchase an individual ticket for that particular ride or attraction, such as The Calico Mine Ride, Haunted Shack or Stagecoach Ride. What made an already popular attraction more appealing (at least to us kids), was how neat and detailed Knott's tickets were, with their catchy phrases, sketch drawings and Old West nostalgia adding to the fun of it all. The ride operator would turn to us and say, "Tickets, please!"

Butterfield Stageline Adult Ticket (1950's)
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Ghost Town & Calico Railway Adult Ticket (1950's)
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The Haunted Shack Adult Ticket (1950's)
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The Burro Ride Child's Ticket (1950's)
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Ghost Town Cable Car Ticket (1950's)
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Antique Auto Ride Ticket (1960's)
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Calico Mine Ride Child's Ticket (1962)
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Independence Hall Ticket (1966)
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Jungle Island Ticket (1960's)
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Calico Log Ride Ticket (1969)
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6. Knott's Postcards

Postcards have always been a favorite of collectors, as these special snapshots offered a never-ending memory of famous landmarks or people, which could be cherished and saved for many years. This fact could not be more truer when it comes to Knott's Berry Farm postcards, which were distributed in black and white from 1939 to the mid-1950's (first as Knott's Berry Place until 1947), featuring a slew of old faces and characters from the 1940's and early-50‘s. In the late-1950's up until the mid-70's, Knott's postcards continued to show all the popular attractions and shops, but mostly in color and in more detail. Alot can be learned from old Knott's Berry Farm postcards, especially from the early black and white snapshots from the 1940's and 50‘s, 10 of which are on display here.