Friday, June 20, 2008

Knott's Bear-y Tales, Fr Junipero Serra & OC BK

Someone asked for a post on "Knott's Bear-y Tales," so here it is! This attraction opened at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park in 1975 and was designed by Imagineer Rolly Crump. It closed in 1986 and was replaced by the (now also defunct) "Kingdom of the Dinosaurs" ride. I remember that the jungle/dinosaur scene that replaced the "Bear-y Tales" jam factory scene (2nd photo, above) continued to smell like boysenberries for at least a year or two. (For the record, the bears in the first two photos are named Boysenbeary and Girlsenbeary. I'll let you guess which is which.)
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"A letter written by Father Junipero Serra in 1776 declaring the foundation of Mission San Juan Capistrano was sold to an anonymous Southern California bidder for $310,000," according to an article in the O.C. Register. The Mission's own foundation was outbid for the letter and is hoping the buyer will allow it to be displayed at the Mission.
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Those interested in our not-so-distant past may want to watch this collection of mid-1990s national news reports about Orange County's bankruptcy. It features a number of faces we haven't seen in a while, including Robert Citron, Sheriff Brad Gates, Supervisors Tom Riley and Roger Stanton, and the L.A. Rams (of Anaheim).

2 comments:

colony rabble said...

I cannot believe the time and effort you put into this blog! Thank you so much Chris! Hope those HB breezes keep you and yours cool this weekend.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the post on Bear-y Tales! Those pictures brought back some great memories.

I'd like to make a little confession. In 8th grade we used to use that ride to make-out like, well, like teenagers. The problem was that it was pretty well lit, so you had to wait for the black light part to make your "move!"

It seems so silly now, but oh the thrill back in the day...