WALTER KNOTT OF KNOTT'S BERRY FARM GREW UP IN POMONA

 Walter Marvin Knott (December 11, 1889 – December 3, 1981) was an American farmer who created the Knott's Berry Farm amusement park in California, introduced the Boysenberry, and made Knott's Berry Farm boysenberry preserves.

Knott was born in San Bernardino, California,[1] and grew up in Pomona, California. In the 1920s, Knott was a somewhat unsuccessful farmer whose fortunes changed when he nursed several abandoned berry plants back to health. The hybrid boysenberry, named after its creator, Rudolph Boysen, was a cross between a blackberry, red raspberry and loganberry. The huge berries were a hit, and the Knott family sold berries, preserves and pies from a Buena Park, California roadside stand. In 1934, Knott's wife Cordelia (née Hornaday, January 23, 1890 – April 12, 1974) began serving fried chicken dinners, and within a few years, lines outside the restaurant were often several hours long.[2]

To entertain the waiting crowds, Walter built a Ghost Town in 1940, using buildings relocated from Old West towns. Even after Disneyland opened in 1955 only 8 miles (13 km) away, Knott's Berry Farm continued to thrive. Walt Disney and Walter Knott are rumored to have had a cordial relationship; it is known that they each visited the other's park, and they were both members of the original planning council for Children's Hospital of Orange County. Early additions to the farm included the Ghost Town & Calico Railroad, a narrow gauge railroad in the Ghost Town area, a San Francisco cable car, a Pan-for-Gold attraction, the Calico Mine Train dark ride and the Timber Mountain Log Ride log flume ride. In 1968, the Knott family fenced the farm, charged admission for the first time, and Knott's Berry Farm officially became an amusement park.[3]

Ronald Reagan speaking at the Knotts' 60th wedding anniversary in 1971
Because of his interest in American pioneer history, Knott purchased and restored the real silver mining ghost town of Calico, California in 1951. As a child, Walter spent a lot of time in Calico living with his uncle. During World War I he helped to build a silver mill in Calico. This period in his life influenced his decision to buy the town and restore it. In 1966, he deeded Calico to San Bernardino County, California.[4]

Walter and Cordelia Knott with their four children at Knott's Berry Farm.
Walter remained active in the operation of Knott's Berry Farm until the death of Cordelia in 1974, at which point he turned his attention toward political causes,[5][6] leaving day-to-day park operations to his children. He supported conservative Republican causes. He was also a member of the John Birch Society and sponsored its Orange County chapter.[7] He died in Buena Park, CA, and was buried with his wife Cordelia at Loma Vista Cemetery in Fullerton, California. He was survived by his son, Russell, and by three daughters, Marion Knott, Virginia Bender and Toni Oliphant.[8]

Walter Knott appeared on the December 23, 1954 episode of You Bet Your Life, hosted by Groucho Marx [9]

The Knott family no longer owns the theme park; it was sold to the Cedar Fair Entertainment Company. Additionally, The J.M. Smucker Co. now owns the "Knott's Berry Farm" brand of jam and jelly (purchased from ConAgra Foods in 2008).[10]Long before thrill rides and Halloween Haunts; long before Independence Hall and Camp Snoopy; even long before Ghost Town and the Chicken Dinner Restaurant, Knott’s Berry Farm was an actual berry farm. The story of the transformation of a roadside fruit stand into an internationally known tourist attraction is a long one. In the early years, the little farm grew largely out of necessity—and the boundless energy of Walter Knott.

Walter Knott was born in San Bernardino in 1889. His father, Rev. Elgin Knott, was a Methodist minister, who owned an orange grove in Lordsburg (now La Verne). Walter’s mother, Margaret Virginia Knott (1866-1954), came from pioneer stock. She had come to California in 1868 in a covered wagon over the Southern Emigrant Trail.

But young Walter’s life was turned upside down in 1896, when his father died. Times were hard for Mrs. Knott, six-year-old Walter, and his four-year-old brother, Elgin. The orange grove was sold, and the family moved to Pomona shortly before 1900.

Even as a boy, Walter Knott knew what he wanted to be. By the time he was ten years old, Walter was renting vacant lots around the neighborhood to grow vegetables, which he sold from door to door. A few years later, at Pomona High School, he met the other great love of his life— Cordelia Hornaday (1890-1974).

In 1908, after just two years of high school, Walter set off for the Imperial Valley to find work in the rich farmlands there. A year later, he and a cousin leased 20 acres in the Coachella Valley to grow vegetables. Through the dint of hard work, Walter made the farm pay.

Back in Pomona in 1910, Walter took a job with a local contractor. He was supposed to keep the books (I was “the poorest bookkeeper in the world,” he would say in later years), but ended up as a construction foreman. It paid well. Walter built a house in Pomona (which still stands at 1040 West Fourth Street), and in 1911, he and Cordelia were married. Two years later, they welcomed their first child, Virginia.

A Desert Homestead

But Walter was restless. Looking for new opportunities, in 1914 he moved his young family to a homestead near Newberry Springs, out on the Mojave Desert. Farming proved almost impossible in the dry desert valley, so while Cordelia stayed behind in their little adobe home to look after their growing family—son Russell, born in 1916, and daughter Rachel (Toni) born a year later— Walter was forced to find other work.

In 1916 he took a job at the famous old desert mining town of Calico, where a group of promoters hoped to work through the old tailings and extract the remaining silver. Then in 1917, he managed to get on with a county road crew, building a new highway across the desert that would eventually become Route 66. It took three and a half years of struggle before Walter could prove up his homestead, receiving 160 acres from the government. He owned the land for the rest of his life.

Still itching to be a farmer, Walter turned down a chance to return to his old contracting job in Pomona. Instead, he started off on a new venture. One of his cousins sometimes bought cattle from the Sacramento ranch, near the little town of Shandon in northern San Luis Obispo County. The owners were looking for someone to grow crops on the ranch to feed the ranch hands. They’d provide the land, if someone would do the farming. So Walter Knott became a tenant farmer.

The land was not considered all that productive, but Walter went to work and soon was not only feeding all the ranch hands, but had excess crops to sell in town. Cordelia also supplemented the family income by making and selling homemade candy. After three years of hard work, they had $2,500 in the bank. The children were getting older by then, so Walter started looking for a new opportunity near a bigger town, with better schools.

Once again, it was a cousin who pointed the way. Jim Preston (1874-1958) was the son of one of his mother’s older sisters. As a boy, Walter had sometimes worked for him on his ranch in Glendora. Now Preston proposed a partnership—the two of them would grow berries together at a place called Buena Park.