Ghost Town & Calico Railway’s Grand Excursion Tickets

Time for some vintage Knott’s Berry Farm Tickets. But first here’s the cover to the 1953 booklet that tells the history of Denver and Rio Grande narrow-gauge railway and how it ties into the trains at Knott’s. Come back on Bonus Sunday for the entire booklet (59 pages) there’s some great early photos of the trains at Knott’s and lots of neat facts and drawings.





The Ghost Town and Calico Railway’s Grand Excursion tickets have always been pretty cool. They really go for authenticity; I think the different shaped punch marks are a nice touch. You can see the tickets got smaller over the years, the later version isn’t even on safety paper but at least it’s still only 50¢! The larger ticket is HUGE, these are scanned on an uncropped 18" by 12" piece of construction paper.





The Child tickets did see price increase somewhere along the way. No gun play in the lounge cars!





The back cover to the booklet, see the inside on Bonus Sunday.

Knott's Free Child Admission Ticket

It’s time for a Vintage Knott’s Berry Farm Ticket. This little ticket was good for one child admission, accompanied by a “paid adult”. Knott’s started charging admission in 1968. This ticket is naturally undated. In 1969 it was 25¢ for a child admission, the 75¢ “value” on this ticket would place it from the early to mid 1970’s. Although this ticket has no expiration date, I bet Knott’s would only give you 75¢ off, not an actual child admission (a $23.99 "value") .






Looks like Hills Bros. Coffee must have sponsored this little ticket, I wonder if it came in a can of coffee? CHECK OUT WHITTLES! I’ve never seen him wear other costumes, or are those his brothers? Whittles was pretty much gone by mid 1976 so these must be from before then.






Here’s a few vintage Knott’s Photo’s. Also undated, but much older than the Hills Bros. ticket. These black & white prints are tiny (just 2” by 3”) and on curled-up paper. I’m guessing by the views that they are “souvenir” photos; you’d think they could be a little larger!

Neat Lake-Island-Bridge shot. Is that the backside of a chicken on the right side of the bridge?






Hey what do you know, it really was a farm!






Our little Chapel by the Lake looking great.






The Old Mill Stone looked like log until I scanned the photo and saw what it was!

Knott's Berry Farm Complimentary Ticket Book - 1970?

Welcome to "Knott's Berry Farm Monday's" here at the blog. This undated Knott’s ticket book is full and unused, I suppose it’s still good today, but that’s something we may never know because I’m keeping this one!

The attraction map on the inside of the back cover would place this around 1970, odd since Globe tickets were in used already at Knott’s and these are not Globe Paper, more on that later. Our 1960’s Cowboy on the admission ticket sure looks happy to be at Knott’s!






The welcome message is nice, even if the concept was blatantly stolen from the Disneyland ticket books.






The tickets in this book are all good for any attraction. Dad with his pipe, perpetually ready to have “family fun”. Is that Whittles at the controls of the train, maybe dad shouldn’t be smiling.






The typical legal messages are on the back. Check out the paper itself, it’s from “Dillingham Ticket Co., L.A.”. Hmmm, Globe’s competition maybe? I like the water marking on this paper; it reminds me of the old “insurance” currency from the “Game of Life” which of course is whole heartily endorsed by Art Linkletter.







The Map from inside of the back cover. This map looks exactly like the map in the February 1970 ticket book (Knott’s “A” ticket post link).






The back of the ticket book is an odd mix. It’s definitely the “old” style with the family and the train, but it’s called “Bonanza Fun Book” which would place this more around 1971, but the 1971-73 “Bonanza Fun Books” I have all contain Globe tickets, so this must be a “transition” piece. Yes I lose sleep on these issues....







And because this post truly does have a cadaverous pallor, here is some Color! This tri-fold brochure is from December 1968. It claims 200 acres of fun; the same brochure in June of 1972 will claim 150 acres of fun, where did the 50 acres go?










Ok, so since you asked, here is the June 1972 brochure. While the front and backs are very similar (except for the loss of 50 acres), the inside portion is very different with mostly newer photos (THE DUKE!) and a little reused text from the 1968 brochure.

Knott's Extra Tickets - May 1977

Welcome to Knott's Monday. It's May of 1977, you've spent half your day at Knott's and you have used up all the tickets in your book, what to do? How about 5 more adventures for only $2.75? That's a $4.25 value if you care to do the math.

These ticket books are actually quite rare. Just as with Disneyland ticket books of this style, these were generally only sold inside the park with the express intent of using them right away. No admission ticket was included. This book was not even used and still has all five tickets in it.






Even though you are already in the park, the Knott family is welcoming you again.






These tickets are similar to the "Adventures Club" tickets, each ticket is good on any attraction. These are printed with green ink however, denoting them as "sold in-park" tickets.






"Would you like to receive our famous Christmas Gift Catalog?" Just fill out the back of the welcome message.






Here is the cover to a map of the "Southern California Freeway System and Points of Interest" 1980. I've had this map for while, it's just a basic freeway map, however I always liked the cover. I guess I never looked closely at it, that back of the freeway map is a large heavily stylized Map of Knott's!!! I'll scan it for this coming Bonus Sunday.


See you on tomorrows post.

Knott's Berry Farm Ticket Sign

The last several Monday's have been dedicated to the Knott's Lettered ticket series, and while it did have to end (sob) I think we'll keep Monday's as Knott's ticket day for a while.

This great Knott's Ticket sign photo was donated to the blog by Chris Merritt. The price on the Super Bonanza Ticket Book places this around April 1979. However, as you can see, the prices were updated on this sign, therefore the sign itself is probably older. "Territory Unlimited" tickets, WOW, I've never even heard of those, I sure would like to see one, anybody?

Here are a pair of ticket books from April 1979. The prices (and the value prices) match the sign.



Front of the books, minus the gate admission ticket.



Although a couple of years older, this is what the Main Gate Admission ticket looks like.




The back of the sign has this "Special Event" sign. Chris suggested this could have been used for the Halloween Haunt and other private events. Thanks for sharing your sign with us Chris!





Here's a ticket from my last visit to Knott's. I went in July 2003. My employer gave me the tickets, which was nice and made the shock of what the place looked like not as bad. At least the Church and the lake were still there, now I am truly afraid to go and see "whats' left".

Tomorrow: What, no Fantasmic?

Today: I'm at the "Park" all day!!!!!!!!!!!!

Knott's Berry Farm - The "C" Ticket part 2

Part 2 is the final part of the Knott's Berry Farm “C” ticket series covering 1978 thru 1981. To be more specific on that date in 1981 “Knott’s Berry Farm went to an 'unlimited' park ticket on Friday December 18th 1981 - ticket books were discontinued and guests 'paid-one-price' thereafter.” This information comes from Ken at "Outside the Berm” (link), thank you Ken!

This May 1978 Adult ticket has no attraction changes from the May 1977 ticket where we left off in Part 1 (link). There is small change however, about a 5¢ worth! The “C” ticket now sports a 45¢ price tag.





For a change of color, here is a May 1978 Adventures Ticket. This is good for any attraction so we’ll pretend it’s being used as a “C” ticket.






April 1979, no changes, just posting it because I am officially obsessed with Globe Ticket paper….






I think the “Tail Spin” in this incredible concept art actually became the “Propeller Spin”. Chris Merritt was kind enough to supply this blog with the artists name; Wendy Pelzer, who worked under Art Director Rick Cambell's direction. Wendy produced some fine work for Knott’s.






December 1980, last of the larger style tickets. No changes again, just vivid Globe paper.





More of Wendy’s great concept art. Did they build the Sky Diner like this?






Last of the “C” tickets, from 1981. This is when the tickets shrunk down to the same smaller size that Disneyland had switched to in 1974! Knott’s also went to A-B-C with these smaller tickets, eliminating the “D” ticket. I would guess they knew the “pay-one-price” day was coming. The "Archery Range" and "Merry Go Round" join the "C " ticket, moved up from the old "D" ticket.






Where is the Cordelia K. these days? Is there enough water anywhere at Knott’s to float her?

Knott's Berry Farm - Calico Mine Co. Mine Tour Tickets

Today lets take a look at Knott's Berry Farm's famed "Calico Mine Co." Mine Tour tickets. Opened in 1960, this attraction is still running strong today.

These first three scans were donated by Chris Merritt. Chris got these actual tickets from Bud Hurlbut. Bud is the designer of the Calico Mine Train Ride and the Calico Log Ride at Knott's. Bud is an amusement park legend. "The Dean of Amusement Rides". If you have not read the "E-Ticket" volume 35, you should, Bud has an amazing story as interviewed by Chris. Thanks Chris and Bud for the donations!

Not dated, but it sure does look old! Chris mentioned Bud designed one of these three tickets, but I'm not sure which one?

The 75¢ price is interesting as most paper items I have show it was always 50¢ on the individual tickets. Was the price possibly lowered at some point? I'm guessing this is the one Bud designed.






From Bud's collection, a very low serial number of the more common type of ticket.






From my collection, this is basically the same as Bud's, with the exception of the word "adult" missing near the 50¢ part on this one. And now it is on Globe Ticket Paper. Oh, and it was used hence the whole punched in it.






Here is a little back story on the back.






Still no dates, but these just seem a little newer than the previous one. Also from my collection.






The backs also changed a little bit. Notice the Globe Ticket Co. reference, missing from the earlier tickets, even though they are Globe paper as well.






Similar to the one above, this is a "Child" ticket.






Chris Merritt also donated a bunch more ticket scans from Bud's collection, here are three in a row, WOW, I really like these! More to come in future posts....






I am crazy about this one! Globe paper and Independence Hall!





Sombrero Fun!





Although this post does have some color, it needed more so here are a couple of pages dedicated to the Calico Mine Train Ride from the 1976 Knott's Souvenir book. If you missed this guide, you should give it a look.

Knott’s Souvenir Edition Guide Book 1976 (93mb)

Ok, this is not the Calico Mine train, it's a runaway mine train! It could only happen at Disneyland.