KNOTT what it seems

This post is a companion piece to this week’s Sepia Saturday post at Tattered and Lost Vernacular Photography.

The following images are all from Knott’s Berry Farm located in Buena Park, California.

I first went to Knott’s Berry Farm in the early 1950s, before Disneyland was even open. I have two vivid memories; one involved the train, the second involved the jail.

This lovely old train was one of the few rides in the park. I don’t remember why only my mother and I went on it, but I can tell you I was screaming at the top of my lungs before it was over. Everything seemed to be fine and dandy as the train moved around the park grounds. And then THEY came aboard with guns drawn, kerchief masks over the faces. They were train robbers and I thought it was all very real. I was terrified as they came down the aisle demanding our valuables. I don’t know how my mother got me calmed down, but we forever remembered that ride.

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The second memory involves my grandfather and the trick he played on me. Behind some old buildings on the main street is the old jail. You walk up a wooden sidewalk and look inside to see the poor fellow below. Again, I was a little girl, probably around 4 or 5. Imagine my surprise when I looked through the jail house door window and the prisoner, Sad Eye Joe, started talking to me, using my name. How could he possibly know who I was? My folks stood by laughing. I was creeped out. And for some reason my grandfather was no where to be found. It wasn’t until I was older that my folks let me in on the “secret.” Anyone could go to the building in front of the jail and give a man the name of someone who was approaching the jail door. Then this fellow would start talking into a microphone as you looked in the door. I got to finally do it to a friend in the early ‘70s. She was old enough to know the dummy was not talking, but it took her awhile to figure out how it had happened. I have a photo of her peeking through the door. I just wish I had a photo of the look on her face when she turned around.

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I haven’t been to Knott’s Berry Farm in a very long time. I have such good memories of how it used to be before it became just another park with rides. It was a gem when life was slower. Chickens roamed around the parking lot, long lines of people waited to eat in the chicken restaurant (not to go on rides), and just walking up and down the dirt covered streets with the old buildings was an adventure. As to the parking lot chickens…I have no idea if the lot was searched each night for road kill to serve the next day at the chicken restaurant.

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ROYAL GORGE RAILROAD

I'm in a mood for trains, riding the rails, hearing the far off steam engine whistle. This happens every so often and I just have to let it slide because I don't live anywhere near trains. I have to just shut my eyes and imagine it.

The reason this cropped up again is because of my post yesterday at my vernacular photography blog about the Pennsylvania Railroads steam locomotive the S1. I found a photo of it at the 1939 World's Fair within a box at an estate sale.

The train below is not as stunning as the S1, but it has a fine history.

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In the late 1870s miners descended on the upper Arkansas River valley of Colorado in search of carbonate ores rich in lead and silver. The feverish mining activity in what would become the Leadville district attracted the attention of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad and the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway, each already having tracks in the Arkansas valley. The Santa Fe was at Pueblo and the D&RGW near Canon City, Colorado, some 35 miles west. Leadville was over 100 miles away. For two railroads to occupy a river valley ordinarily was not a problem, however, west of Canon City the Arkansas River cuts through a high plateau of igneous rocks forming a spectacular steep-walled gorge over a thousand feet deep. At its narrowest point sheer walls on both sides plunge into the river, creating an impassible barrier. Sharing is not an option along this route.

On April 19, 1878, a hastily assembled construction crew from the Santa Fe began grading for a railroad line just west of Canon City in the mouth of the gorge. The D&RGW, whose track ended only ¾ of a mile from Canon City, raced crews to the same area, but they were blocked by the Santa Fe graders in the narrow canyon. By a few hours they had lost the first round in what became a two-year struggle between the two railroads that would be known as the Royal Gorge War.

The D&RG crews tried leapfrogging the Santa Fe grading crews, but were met with court injunctions from the Santa Fe in the contest for the right-of-way. The D&RG built several stone "forts" (such as Fort DeRemer at Texas Creek) upstream in an attempt to block the Santa Fe. Grading crews were harassed by rocks rolled down on them, tools thrown in the river and other acts of sabotage. Both sides hired armed guards for their crews. The railroads went to court, each trying to establish its primacy to the right of way. After a long legal battle that ended in the U.S. Supreme Court, on April 21, 1879, the D&RG was granted the primary right to build through the gorge that in places was wide enough for only one railroad at most. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

And here is an image of the hanging bridge the train traversed.

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An interesting part of the Santa Fe construction through the gorge is the hanging bridge at a point where the gorge narrows to 30 feet. Here the railroad had to be suspended over the river along the north side of the gorge as sheer rock walls go right down into the river on both sides. C. Shallor Smith, a Kansas engineer, designed a 175-ft plate girder suspended on one side by "A" frame girders spanning the river and anchored to the rock walls. The bridge cost $11,759 in 1879, a princely sum in those days. Although it has been strengthened over the years, this unique structure has served on a main rail line for over 118 years. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

Want to ride through the Gorge on a train? You still can. Click here for the Royal Gorge Route Railroad. Looks like it would be a lot of fun.

These post cards were published by the HH Tammen Company and show the same copy on the back of each. Click here to go to a previous post where near the midway point I tell you everything I found out about Harry Heye Tammen and his rather interesting life.