Knott’s Berry Farm barn destroyed by fire was birthplace of historic attractions

A historic Buena Park barn that served as the workshop of an innovative ridemaker who designed early Knott’s Berry Farm attractions, built his own Riverside theme park and befriended Walt Disney before Disneyland debuted has been destroyed in a two-alarm fire.

Orange County Fire Authority firefighters battled a Thanksgiving evening blaze that destroyed a vacant two-story barn in the 7800 block of Western Avenue just down the street from the Buena Park theme park. The cause of the fire that broke out at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 23 is under investigation, according to OCFA Captain Sean Doran.

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The barn was used as a workshop by Southern California theme park pioneer Bud Hurlbut, who designed several early Knott’s rides and used his own Castle Park theme park in Riverside as a proving ground for new attractions.

Hurlbut used the Buena Park barn while designing and creating the 1960 Calico Mine Ride, 1969 Timber Mountain Log Ride, 1969 Hat Dance tea cup ride and 1980 Dragon Swing, according to Knott’s officials.

“A lot of the park’s early attractions were conceived and designed over there at the barn,” said Knott’s printing department manager Allen Palovik.

Bud’s Barn was filled with concept drawings, blueprints and scale models of attractions alongside lathes, drill presses and other machinery, according to Palovik, a third generation Knott’s employee who has worked at the park for 49 years.

“It’s a piece of history gone,” Palovik said during an online video interview. “It’s sad it went that way.”

Knott’s Berry Farm had nothing stored in the barn, which belongs to the city of Buena Park, according to Knott’s officials.

A Real Barn Burner

Tonight crews in Buena Park arrived on-scene of a 2 story vacant barn well involved with fire. Firefighters utilized a defensive strategy to protect exposures and provide for firefighter safety.

Ultimately, the fire went 2 alarms. >>> pic.twitter.com/EQXDklvtGi

— OCFA PIO (@OCFireAuthority) November 24, 2023

Orange County Archivist Chris Jepsen was saddened to see Hurlbut’s workshop on fire.

“I suppose it would have been torn down eventually, but it’s so sad to see this once-magical place on fire,” Jepsen wrote on the Orange County History Facebook page. “The huge workshop of his Hurlbut Amusement Equipment Co. — which I remember being stuffed full of carousel horses, ride vehicles, beautifully painted signs and ironwork, amazing scaled-down steam trains, and myriad other wonders — is located across La Palma Ave. from Knott’s.”

Hurlbut began designing custom miniature trains in 1943 and opened the Hurlbut Amusement Company a few years later in Santa Ana.

Hurlbut’s first attractions in 1945 were at Crawford’s Kiddieland in El Monte — which featured a Ferris wheel, boat ride and miniature train. Hurlbut struck up a conversation one day with a regular Kiddieland visitor named Walt Disney — who became a friend and would go on to open Disneyland a decade later.

In 1955, the year Disneyland debuted, Hurlbut partnered with Walter Knott on a gentlemen’s handshake and began operating an 1896 Dentzel carousel at what would eventually become Knott’s Berry Farm theme park. In the 1960s, Hurlbut went on to design the Calico Mine Ride and Timber Mountain Log Ride at Knott’s.

During Halloween 1973, Hurlbut donned a gorilla suit to scare riders on the Calico Mine Train, helping give birth to Knott’s Scary Farm.

In 1976, Hurlbut founded Riverside’s Castle Park while continuing his relationship as a ride concessionaire with Knott’s.

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Hurlbut quickly brought the new Knott’s haunted event concept to Castle Park, which hosted its first annual Halloween Surprise Party in 1977.

Riverside would have had a 65-foot-tall replica of the Statue of Liberty along the 91 Freeway in 1982 if Hurlbut had gotten his way — but the city denied a proposal that would have transformed Castle Park into Liberty Park.

Hurlbut continued to use the Buena Park barn as his ride-building workshop after he turned his attention to Castle Park, according to Palovik.

Hurlbut sold his interests at Knott’s in 1984 and threw himself into Castle Park. During the 1980s, the Riverside park added a merry-go-round, bumper cars, Scrambler, Tilt-A-Whirl, Whip, wave swings, log flume ride, swinging ship and the former Knott’s antique car ride.

In 1999, with Hurlbut in his 80s, Castle Park was sold and the park’s founder was honored for his lifetime of service to the theme park industry by the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions.

The quiet man revered in the theme park industry for his creativity and innovation could be found tinkering in his Buena Park barn workshop into his early 90s. Hurlbut died in 2011 at the age of 92.

After Hurlbut’s passing, many of his custom-made miniature trains that filled the barn were sold to collectors.

An estate sale held in 2012 emptied the remaining contents of Hurlbut’s barn workshop — including carousel horses, reel-to-reel cassettes of amusement park music and the drafting desk where he designed many of his rides.