The Buena Park attraction has been scaring people for almost 50 years.
for the mouse house. In many ways the historic park was a quiet innovator in the theme park industry.By the early 1970s, Knott’s Berry Farm had evolved into much more than a bustling chicken restaurant and growing park. Entertainment was the centerpiece of everything it did — and also a driving force behind the very first theme park haunt event, which is now. This year is the park’s 49th season of scaring its guests with monsters and terrifying immersion into haunted hellscapes.
“Those people were the very first Knott’s Scary Farm Ghost Town monsters,” Dougherty said. Ghost Town remains very much a focal point of the event today; Dougherty himself once worked as a monster there in the early 2000s. “The interesting thing is that the very first Knott’s Halloween Haunt completely sold out before the event even began,” Dougherty said. “It was as if the world was waiting for an event just like this.” Knott’s immediately took action to build upon it.One of the biggest thrills would take place starting in 1976: a public hanging. The dramatic presentation — almost unfathomable in today’s climate — saw the staged execution of an outlaw in Calico Square before a captivated live audience.
Scary Farm experienced success from the beginning, and the event evolved quickly — including its name from Halloween Haunt to Knott’s Scary Farm. By 1977, they had introduced the very first maze.Courtesy of Knott's Berry Farm