Joel Orozco

10/22/14
History 301
Knotts Berry Farm
Americas first amusement is Knotts Berry Farm with one hundred and sixty acres of
land.1 In 1920, twenty acres of land was for farming where Walter and Cordelia Knott worked.
Their first winter on the farm was horrible because a their crops got ruined by frost. This did not
stop Walter in making money. He practiced selling directly to grocers that lead him in making
some good profit. In 1927, they bought ten acres of land. A year later, the depression would hit
and the land prices had decreased. This helped the Knott a lot because they maintained paying
the original payments so they would get done paying their land sooner. Walter had the
opportunity to buy ten more acres of land at the lower cost and built an adobe structure that
became the farms first building. This building was eighty feet long and had a tea room, berry
market and nursery where berry plants were sold.2 During this time, the Knotts had four children;
their son Russell and the daughters Virginia, Toni, and Marion. 1 In 1930, Walter became
associated with boysenberry, which became the family trademark. This happened because there
was a new experiment with a new strain of berry, but the plants kept dying on the vine. Walter
took over of the plants, nurtured them to health and named the new berry, boysenberry. All the
boysenberries in the world can trace their roots to Knotts Berry Farm. The first of the six themed
areas was Ghost Town. The second would be Fiesta Village for a tribute to Californias
1 "Knott'sBerryFarmHistory."ParkHistory.AccessedOctober21,2014.2 "The

HistoryofKnott'sBerryFarm."Knott'sBerryFarms.August17,2010.Accessed
October22,2014.