In the s, Knott and his wife, Cordelia, sold berries, berry preserves and pies from a roadside stand beside State Route 39 , near the small town of Buena Park. In , on a visit to Rudolph Boysen 's farm in nearby Anaheim, Walter Knott was introduced to a new hybrid berry of a blackberry , a red raspberry , and a loganberry cross-bred by Boysen, who gave Walter his last six wilted berry-hybrid plants.
Walter planted and cultivated them, then the family sold the berries at their roadside stand. In , to make ends meet during the Great Depression , Knott's wife Cordelia β began serving fried chicken dinners on their wedding china.
For dessert, Knott's signature Boysenberry Pie was also served to guests dining in the small tea room. Great location and good value were the restaurant's conditions of success which attracted long lines of diners. As time went on, more shops and interactive displays were opened to entertain patrons waiting for a seat [ 6 ] at the Chicken Dinner Restaurant. Before long, the Knotts had added Virginia's Gift Shop and several more shops and attractions such as a million-year-old petrified log, [ 11 ] [ 12 ] a thirteen-foot diameter cross section of coastal redwood cut at age years, [ 13 ] a visible bee-hive and an oxcart, [ 14 ] with several wagons [ 15 ] [ 16 ] provided additional photo opportunities.
The entire operation would soon be renamed Knott's Berry Place. Walt built a foot-tall volcano [ 17 ] of lava rock trucked in from the Pisgah Crater in the Mojave Desert and equipped it with a boiler that rumbled, hissed, and spit steam at the push of a button.
Two signs posted nearby read:. They get so interested that I've had to install a loud speaker system to call them to their meals when the tables are ready. The caption sign above the enclosure read "This is the apparatus that controls the volcano.
