Discovery Babe wrote in this weekend to ask:
In Friday’s Tony Baxter story, you touched on the Timber
Mountain Log Ride at Knott’s Berry Farm. Since this is my favorite non-Disney
theme park attraction, I was wondering if you had any information about what is
currently being done to this flume ride. What enhancements and upgrades does
Knott’s have planned?
Your timing couldn’t be better, Discovery Babe. Late last
month, I actually got Kent Maulsby (i.e. the Vice President of Maintenance for
Knott’s Berry Farm) and Jennifer Blazey (i.e. the senior publicist for that
theme park) on the phone. And these two was
kind enough to walk me through what’s now being done to this Buena
Park favorite.
Visitors to Knott’s Berry Farm look on as construction continues on the Calico
Log Ride in the late Fall of 1968. Copyright 2013 CFEC / Cedar Fair Parks
First and foremost, what Kent & Jennifer tried to get
across to me was — even though the animatronic experts at Garner Holt Productions
will be helping the folks at Knott’s with this nearly 5 month-long redo — this
isn’t going to be a folding-an-Audio-Animatronic-Captain-Jack-Sparrow-into-the-“Pirates-of-the-Caribbean“
type upgrade. Nor does Knott’s have any plans to turn Timber
Mountain into some sort of cutting
edge, state-of-the-art thrill ride. According to Kent,
this is more about making sure this historically significant flume tide gets
the time, attention and long-overdue TLC that it deserves.
“For a lot of folks who grew up in and around Southern
California, zooming down the flume on the Timber Mountain Log Ride
was one of the high points of a trip to Knott’s Berry Farm. It’s one of those
attractions that people closely associated with this park. An essential Knott’s
experience, if you will. Like riding aboard the Calico Mine Ride or dining at
Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant,” Maulsby explained. “So when
it comes to the work that’s now being done on Timber
Mountain, we’re not trying to turn
the Log Ride into something it was never was. We’re just trying to make sure
that this ride is always what it should be. Which is a themed thrill ride that
the whole family can enjoy.”
Of course, if Bud Hurlbut — the theme park pioneer who actually
designed & built the Calico Mine Ride as well as Knott’s log flume (which,
back in the day, was originally called the Calico Log Ride) — had his way back
in the early 1960s, this Ghost Town attraction might have been an entirely
different ride experience. As theme park historian Christopher Merritt was
putting “Knott’s Preserved: From Boysenberry to Theme Park, the History of
Knott’s Berry Farm” (Angel City Press, June 2010), Hurlbut revealed to
Merritt that …
Bud Hurlbut (left) shows Walter Knott his model for the Calico Log
Ride. Copyright 2013 CFEC / Cedar Fair Parks
” … Originally,
I was going to build a roller coaster, but in a trough so that the vehicles
would look like they were floating.”
Bud turned to his friends at Arrow Development (i.e. the
Mountain View, CA-based company that built many of Disneyland
Park’s original ride system), Ed
Morgan and Karl Bacon
, to see if his
roller-coaster-that-looked-like-it-was-floating-inside-of-a-flume idea was
actually feasible. Bacon suggested that a free-floating ride vehicle which
moved along a water-filled trough might be a far easier way to achieve the
effect that Hurlbut was shooting for. Karl and Bud put together a model of this
proposed Knott’s Berry Farm attraction and then presented it to Walter Knott. Who
then — surprisingly enough — turned
this Ghost Town addition down.
“It would take Bud a number of tries before he could finally
convince Walter to allow him to go ahead with this project,” said Blazey.
“Which is why Knott’s doesn’t have the bragging rights when it comes to
being the very first theme park to build an attraction that used this log-ride
system. Six Flags Over Texas was actually the first park to use the log ride
that Arrow eventually developed. Whereas Knott’s Berry Farm was the first theme
park to build a flume ride that then took you through this completely themed
environment.”
John Wayne (to the right in the above image. Dark coat / dark
shirt) looks on as Cordelia Knott christens the first of the
ride vehicles to travel through the Calico Log Ride’s
flume. Copyright 2013 CFEC / Cedar Fair Parks
Back when the Calico Log Ride initially opened to the public
back in July of 1969 (with the Duke himself — John Wayne — taking part in
this attraction’s grand opening), there was honestly nothing else like it in
the theme park world. A twisting, turning trip along a 2,100-foot waterway that
took you — at speeds of 8 – 12 feet per second — up into this recreation of the
High Sierras. Where you then zoomed by scenes showing what life was like in a
19th century logging camp before your ride vehicle plunged down a 42 foot-tall slide
to splash down in the lagoon at the base of the mountain.
“It’s that experience that people love. That they
remember from trips that their families made to Knott’s years ago. So that’s what we’re trying
to preserve here,” Maulsby continued. “Which is why — with this
rehab — we’re making an extra big effort to stay true to the original character
of the Timber Mountain Log Ride. That’s why it’s so great to be working with
the folks at Garner Holt. They’re big fans of the original attraction too. They
understand exactly what we’re trying to do here. Which is upgrade and enhance Knott’s
flume ride without then making it unrecogizable.”
That said, given that Timber Mountain Log Ride is one of the
attractions that regularly receives seasonal overlays (witness the “Evil
Dead” retheming of this flume ride that was done for last year’s Knott’s
Scary Farm. This was followed by the “Elf Mountain Christmas”
seasonal overlay. Which then turned Timber Mountain into one of the holiday
offerings at the 2012 edition of Knott’s Merry Farm), Kent & Jennifer admitted
that some of the more out-of-sight / behind-the-scenes changes which is currently
being made at this Ghost Town classic will then make life a lot easier for those
Knott’s employees who have to climb up into this attraction on an annual basis &
install these seasonal elements.
Workmen rush to complete the lagoon at the base of Timber Mountain ahead of
the July 1969 opening of Calico Log Ride. Copyright 2013 CFEC / Cedar Fair Park
“That’s why this particular Timber Mountain Log Ride
redo is kind of a delicate balancing act,” Blazey admitted. “We’re
trying to honor this attraction’s past, preserve what has made this flume ride
so popular with our Guests for almost 44 years now. But at the same time, we
wanted to make sure that Timber Mountain
is ready for the future. Which is why we’re making all sorts of enhancements to
the log ride, improving the lighting at various points along the trough,
upgrading the animation of some of our figures. With the end result being …
Well, we’re not trying to make something new here. There’ll be no loop in the
flume when we re-open. We’re just trying to improve on a classic. Which — I’m
sure — is something that Bud Hurlbut would have approved of.”
This Timber Mountain Log Ride redo comes on the heels of all
of the “plussing” that was done in & around Ghost Town last year.
As a direct result … Well, Knott’s Berry Farm hasn’t looked this good in
years. More to the point, Southern Californians have
been responding quite favorably to the
refreshed menus at many of this theme park’s eateries as well as those new western-themed
streetmosphere characters that one encounters as you wander around Ghost Town
and Calico Square.
So will this newly enhanced version of Timber Mountain Log
Ride get a similar sort of positive response from Knott’s Berry Farm visitors? Maulsby
& Blazey certainly hopes that will be the case when this refreshed flume
ride officially re-opens for business. Which should be sometime later this
Spring.