Explore.
Discover.
Write.

The above quote is from my mother’s diary. Rex was my father. My mother, Bettie Lu, was a clerk in a Woolworth five-and-dime store in Los Angeles. My father had returned from slogging in mud, cold, and fear through England, France, Belgium, Holland, and Germany. He was taking advantage of Uncle Sam’s G.I. Bill to get a degree in Radio and Television from the University of Southern California.

They enjoyed their experience because Knott’s Berry Farm was a special place, created by a special man – Walter Marvin Knott. I was too young to make this trip, but I made others with my parents, wife and daughters, and friends. Ghost Town was Walter’s vision, expressing his passion for the Wild West.

The Wild West of Walter Knott started at the Colorado River and “expanded as far west as a man can travel without getting his boots wet.” It wasn’t Deadwood, Virginia City, and Tombstone. It was Los Angeles, Hollywood, San Bernardino, and Calico where success was defined by net worth, not by the notches on a six-shooter. As the 19th Century surrendered to the 20th the business of the Wild West changed from reality to myth, made popular by motion pictures, radio, television, and a theme park, that featured a ghost town, in Buena Park, California.

Follow me on my journey as I Explore, Discover and Write, in serialized episodes, about the historical and mythical Wild West of Walter Knott.

Gary A. White