By World War II, the Knott family had been running their berry farm for more than twenty years. The chicken dinner restaurant drew crowds of thousands, and in a attempt to divert the attention of waiting guests, Walter Knott began building a ghost town. What started as a handful of facades quickly grew, adding attractions, stores, another restaurant, and eventually into the Knott's Berry Farm theme park.

We owe an enormous thanks to the Orange County Archives, holders of the Knott's Berry Farm historical collection. Without their generosity and friendly assistance, we would not have access to many of the incredible historic images and videos in this series. In particular, Chris Jepsen was of vital importance. He selected many of the images in this series based on our storytelling needs, and his keen eye for quality, yettobepublished images made this series infinitely better. All the images he selected more than we could fit in these episodes are freely available to the public on the OCA Flickr account. He also runs a delightful and insightful local history blog, which we highly recommend. You can find it here: https://ochistorical.blogspot.com/

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Thumbnail image courtesy Orange County Archives (original b&w)