Thursday, February 09, 2006

Alligator Farm in Buena Park

Did you know there was once an alligator farm in Buena Park?

It was adjacent to Knott's Berry Farm on La Palma Ave. The Radisson Suites Hotel now sits on the old spot. I always wanted to go there, but my folks would never take me there.

We collected a few alligator farm memories from folks during the old days of OCThen, and posted them below...

By: Chrissey, 20 Aug 2002

The alligator farm was fun, but they scared me. The alligators were very quiet and had a harness on him and people would sit on the alligator and have their pic taken. Both the Alligator Farm and Knotts seemed so far away from L.A.

By: Pat Swift, 9 Aug 2002

I remember taking my son's there (Alligator Farm). We were amazed at how a snake felt. We were always interested in the alligators but watching how fast a cobra or rattlesnake could strike was the main attraction for us.

By: Ross, 13 June 2002

Being there when I was about 6 or 7. I am now 48, I have had a facination with alligators and crocodiles all my life. I currently live in Boise, Idaho and have 2 pet american alligators (Forest and Bubba). I remember my mom taking me and my brother there it had to be like 1960 or 1961, they had baby gators for sale in the gift shop, and of course I wanted one, but didn't get one. But, I was trying to figure out where a Southern California kid would develop and interest like this. I was talking to my dad and he said he remember the Los Angelos Alligator farm in Lincoln Heights LA, well I did some research and sure enough it started there in like 1905, and then moved to Buena Park, where it was until about 1986. Anyway, I wish I could have gone there as an adult before it closed. Little trivia, they moved all the gators and crocs by private Boeing 707 to an estate in Florida owned by the inventor of Naultilus workout equipment!

By: John Nemeth, 15 Jan 2002

What a great place if you were a herpatologist. They had almost every species of crocodile, many rare species that are seldom seen. The place was always deserted, not well known as a popular tourist attraction. They did snake shows with cobras.

By: Mark Wallace, 31 Dec. 2001

Remember the Alligator Farm across the street from Knott's? This was such a great creepy place that had been there forever. Full of giant alligators, croc's and tortoises, snakes and lizards. I still have dreams about this place eventhough it was torn down years ago.
Do you have any memories of the Alligator Farm? Post a comment below, and share it with us!

75 comments:

  1. Yup, went there many, many times. I grew up in Buena Park. I could walk to the Alligator Farm...and did many times. It was super cheap to get in-- .25 or something insane. The alligators were tired. I didn't see much action there, but loved the other reptiles, like the snakes.

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  2. I work on an alligator farm in Hammond,Louisiana. An older gentleman walked in and was telling me about the farm that he visited when he was in the service around 1963 or so. He said it was in Orange County,Ca. He wondered if it was still there. While he was out on a tour I looked it up and was sad to tell him it had been replaced by a hotel. He was sorry to hear it, but, glad he had visited. Then he proceded to tell his great granchildren about the children fom the 1960's sitting on the gators back for pictures. A.B.

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  3. I went there on a field trip one time (Diamond Elementary). I remember my mom was one of the teacher helpers for the trip.

    It was kinda lame but I was kid and still had fun!

    Wow....that place was completely forgotten by me until I read this post!

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  4. The Alligator farm was not where the hotel is, it is now a parking lot north of La Palma for Knotts.

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  5. Actually, the Alligator Farm was located in the corner of La Palma and Beach Blvd. (across the street from Knott's Berry Farm.). The Alligator Farm closed around 1982 or 1983. It is now a Claim Jumper Restaurant.

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    1. It was actually where the parking lot for Knott's is behind the Claim Jumper Restaurant. The Cottage Pottery was where the restaurant is now.

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  6. oh man, how could i forget this place, and with the knott's lagoon and jungle island across the street..

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  7. oh mna , i loved this place, i remember the big slide you could see from la palma, and with knott's lagoon and jungle island right across the street...

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  8. I remember it well. Here is a great site that gives some history on the Alligator Farm and it's origins, when the family first opened it in Lincoln Heights, later moving it to Buena Park in 1953.

    http://www.lincolnheightsla.com/alligator/

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  9. I definitely remember the alligator farm and loved every minute of it as a child. It was awesome to be so close animals that you wouldn't normally see on a daily basis. They also had other wild life, like ostrich's, tortoise etc. My mother and I went one day, and it must have been mating season because every animal was having a good time that day. Sorry to it leave. Hope they are doing well in Florida.

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  10. I loved the Alligator Farm as a young boy! Our family would first visit the farm then walk across the street to Knotts. The alligator which most impressed me was the Nile Crocodile. It was huge! What was also fun was when the attendants would feed the smaller gators raw chicken. The gators would bite and snap, sometimes biting the limbs of other gators with no apparent ill effect.

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  11. Anonymous said

    "It is now a Claim Jumper Restaurant."

    The Claim Jumper restaurant stands where a place called The Cottage Pottery used to be. The Alligator Farm was located behind the Cottage Pottery. The Alligator Farm was owned/operated by the Earnest family. Ken Earnest, I believe, was the last family member to run the farm before it was sold off. He is now head curator at Black Hills Reptile Gardens in South Dakota. http://www.reptile-gardens.com/

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  12. HI ALL, VERY INTERESTING I RAN ACROSS THIS THREAD.. MY FAMILY OWNED THE POTTERY SHOP, THE COTTAGE POTTERY RIGHT NEXT TO THE ALLIGATOR FARM... I PRACTICALLY LIVED AT THE FARM, THAT WAS IN THE 60'S..BEST MEMORIES EVER...USED TO TRY AND KEEP MY FACE ON THE GLASS WHERE THE COBRAS WOULD STRIKE AND I ALWAYS FLINCHED...
    BEST TO YOU ALL

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  13. Kenny,was my great uncle,my grandma worked there for many years.When I was young I would be dropped off there with my cousin so that my grandma would watch us when our parents were at work.we would play around there all day.we would watch alligators hatch,play on the big turtles,ride on the alligators,feed the monkeys.I have many memories......

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    1. Hi, my name is Dominic. You may remember me. I was Ken's assistant curator and worked at the farm for many years. My wife found this thread the other day and it brought back so many memories. Ken was one of the only people in the world to survive a Tiger snake bite. He lost an eye and was in a iron lung for months. I learned so much from him. I remember you being dropped off. I remember your grandfather, grandmother, mother and Ken. I have so many stories and pictures I will post against this thread over the next few months. Have a great day, Dominic.

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  14. I enjoyed the alligator farm when I went as a kid. My parents took me when I was about 7 or 8 in 1973. I enjoyed looking at all the reptiles especially the alligators and the turtles. They had a very nice snake and lizard display also. I also believe there was even a show when one of the trainers put his head inside the mouth of one of the large alligators. That was pretty cool. Anyway, we have a lot of excitement here in Harbor City, CA. with "Reggie the Alligator" Unfortunately, he got caught last week, but we will get a chance to see him next month at the LA Zoo. Looking forward to that.

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  15. I grew up in Buena Park in the 50's-60's. Each year of elementary school until 6th grade, our yearly "field trip" was to go the Alligator Farm. I lived less than two miles away, so I would walk or bike there as often as I could. It cost $.50 to get in. I actually enjoyed it more than Knott's Berry Farm. I really loved to tease the ostriches! My friends and I gave names to all the critters. The Snake House was soooo cool! The thing that really freaked me out, though, was the Crocodile pit. These crocs were kept in a very deep pit, and although there was a big fence to keep you out, I always worried about getting pushed in. The coolest place ever!

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  16. Oh Yea! This place was great! I had a birthday party there one year and visited often. I was (still am) into snakes and that place had a lot of them to see. I was really impressed with the King Cobra. That guy was huge! I remember one of the handlers got bitten by a very dangerous Tiger Snake once. I also loved it during the alligator show when they would get a gator to "volunteer" to climb up this big ramp to the top of a slide. He would then be coaxed into sliding down into a pool o' gators. So cool!

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  17. oh..
    who remembers the pottery shack? it was right there, on beach, just before the aligator farm. the fedrated group and the akron were right across the street next to "mings" (i think) chinese resturaunt.
    buena park is a much different town nowthan the one i grew up in. the nabisco plant is GONE!! i lived close enough to smell it when i was young.
    before they put the apartments across the street from us on western and artesia i could look out my window and see the enchanted village sign.. hmmm.

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  18. I remember my Dad egging on an old army buddy to sit on the alligator and have his photo taken. I believe that someone was bitten by an alligator while sittin on the gaotr's back and they discontinued that practice. Oh, for the days when no one thought about liability!

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  19. I grew up in Buena Park in the 60's and 70's. The Alligator Farm sat off of La Palma next to the Cottage Pottery (which was on the corner on La Palma and Beach), and directly across the street (to the north) from Knott's. Last time I checked, the site of the old Alligator Farm is still a vacant lot--what a shame! The hotel still sits (like it did in the 70's) south of Knott's Berry Farm.

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  20. I visited The Alligator Farm once when I was young but never went back in the 60’s, 70’s & 80’s & never set foot in the House of Wax. I do remember a “True Story”, my niece showed me the newspaper article, of what happened in Phoenix Arizona around 1975 at there Alligator Farm. A mother was holding her Baby on a bridge rail for a picture, the Baby squirmed & fell into the pond full of Alligators & was quickly consumed, they closed the park & killed a number of Alligators to retrieve the Baby’s remains. A True Horror Story but a lesson for the rest of us..!!

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  21. I lived in Buena Park and as a 10 year old in 1966, I remember I could not wait to go to Knott's Jungle Island. It was like .50 cents and you could play there all day. Running around that place with friends was a riot, the things you could do back then, wow?

    Bellis Park down Knott Ave was another venture, they had a merry go round that was penultimate. wood octagon seats with like four push and pull leverage bars that would be used to get that thing really movin'...dangerous as heck.

    Many times I think about the hard times my mother was going through and needed to work while going through a divorce and having to drop me and my younger brother off at parks all over the place. The Boy's Club was a big hit on Knott Ave, I can't remember the name of the Park it was attached to... they had a gutted jet plane there to play on as a few other parks did back then, those were the days.

    I played Little League Baseball at "Stock Park" in Stanton....and the Lease ran out and it was torn down and Condo's built. What a shame, it was a great place for kids to play ball at and if anyone knows a website that shows some pictures of the park let me in on it, thanks.

    Nice to have went down memory lane.

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    1. It was Peak Park, still there, but the old planes are gone.

      Bellis was a great little park with a small wading pool, if it could be called that.

      Jungle Island made for a full day of fun. Now it is a place for company barbecues and lunches. A small lagoon is still next to Independence Hall, and some ducks are there.

      Memories are great, but I wish my son could have enjoyed what we had in the 60's and 70's. I think it was around 1983 or so that the lake, and lagoon became history and a parking lot.

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  22. Every summer during the sixties and early seventies my folks took us kids to do the Disneyland/Knotts thing but one of our favorite things was the alligator farm. I remember them feeding the alligators raw chickens and how the big calm pit would just ERUPT into wild roiling gators! The snake show was always so exciting, they would get the big cobra to strike. Then when I had my kids , I tried to take them to the Alligator farm and it was GONE...so sad.

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  23. I came onto this site by accident. Someone told me recently that they knew of a place in California that they called the Reptile Farm. They had visited it back in the 1970s. I realised they were talking about The Alligator Farm across La Palma Blvd from Knotts Berry Farm and just a few miles from where I lived until I was 10. I googled and discovered it was no longer there and somehow hit this site and started reading the comments. I loved to go to both the Alligator Farm and Knotts Berry Farm as a kid. I even remember Knotts Berry Farm before it became over commercialized and surrounded by a chain linked fence. It had very few rides back then and a merry-go-round powered by a horse.

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  24. The last time we visited Knott's Berry Farm I explained to my daughter, age 12, about the old Alligator farm. I recall going there once and within a few years it had closed. I also remember the glass store right on the corner, across the street from Knott's. Last time we drove my there it was still selling various colored glass items. Lots have changed, but I still can't stop but remembering the old Alligator farm. My Mom was so afraid to even look in the direction of that old farm. Thanks for the memories!

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  25. I was telling a story about the alligator farm by Knotts and nobody believed me. I went on a field trip to knotts in the 5th grade, I'm 47 now my teacher paid to let the class go see the alligators and I remember it was the best. Then we visited independance hall which was a replica of where the declaration of independance was signed. Then of course knotts. All the cool stuff sometimes fades away. How sad. thanks for the memories....

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  26. I grew up in Lakewood in the 50s, 60s, 70s and well remember the Alligator Farm. I liked it better than Knotts -- Knotts was free back then and it cost something to go into the Alligator Farm. My dad loved reptiles and I loved anything he loved. Once or twice, my parents conceeded and we went to the Farm. Yes, there was a huge alligator to take pictures on, but because they are cold-blooded, my dad didn't trust them with me. There was a crocodile pool which was really scary and lots of snakes and all kinds of 'gators. What a great memory! I loved that place and hated to see it go!

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  27. I grew up in Southern California, within walking distance from the Allagator Farm, Knotts Berry Farm & the Movieland Wax Musuem. When we were good at the market, we would get the treat of stopping at Knotts on the way home & getting a ride on that fabulous merry-go-round, before the chainlink fence & a ride cost only 10 cents. But the memory I have of the Allagator Farm was when my mom & aunt took my sister & cousins one summer afternoon in 1966. The farm was amazing. There was an old allagator there named Billy. My mother had said when she was a child, you could sit on Billy & have your picture taken, but not anymore. And we watched an ostrich swollow an orange whole & we could see it go all the way down its throat. They had fed the allagators by throwing raw meat into the pit & the allagators went into a feeding frenzy, tearing limbs off of each other to get to the meat. It was real bloody & tramatic for an 8 year old. When we got home, my mother gave us tomato soup for lunch. My cousin, Nick, the only boy, crushed up crackers in his soup & said, "Allagator guts, allagator guts!" Ever since then I haven't been able to eat tomato soup.

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  28. theres a short video of it on youtube:

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=zHc4y9niT2Q

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  29. I also grew up in buena park and literally lived just down the street from knotts berry farm and the alligator farm as well.it is a sad thing to have come back to the city that i grew to love as a child and see that all has changed or is gone. I attended Glen H. Dysinger elem. and I recall us going the farm in either Mrs Bacon's fifth grade class or Ms. Troverellis sixth grade class... 1968-1970?the buena park theater where my mother and i went to see the Ape movies and when it didn't cost $$ to got to knotts berry farm!everything was right there like zono's burgers on beach blvd.What was the name of the big store on the northwest corner of lincoln and beach where the super ralphs store is now? or was in the late 80's?I grew up in buena park from '65-'76.Saw alot of changes and moved to the east coast back to virginia when i was in the navy both times.I was scared to death of the alligatotors but i sure loved the snakes!!Charles von Olinger

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    1. The store that I remember in that are was called Zodys. That was in the early seventies. I went to Raymond Temple elementary. My wife attended Dysinger.

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    2. The store was Zodys....

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  30. The Alligator Farm,was actually locate on La Palma,behind what is now The Claim Jumper. I remember when they leveled the whole thing,and only bits of fencing was left before that was finally hauled away too. I grew up right across the street from Knott's Berry Farm. Lived there all my life.
    The Radisson sits on the spot that used to be parking. For many years,it was The Buena Park Hotel.But,just behind it,stood the old Knott Family Farm House. But that has been gone for years now,and is now part of the pillars and supports for Ghost Rider.I also worked for Knott's as a Ride Operator,and had to learn the history.But since I was also a long time local, I remembered most of it already. That old house was actually a green color when I was very young. Now, it's where the rides office is located and the wardrobe department is behind that.

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  31. Oh,wow, Barbara, I remember the Pottery Barn. Speaking of it,it was where the Claim Jumper now stands. I had completely forgotten about it. We used to go there all the time.
    I could spend hours in there scouring the many aisles. Man, I miss that place.
    Oh,and the Croc pit used to both fascinate and scare the bee jeesus out of me. lol. They were so huge. I too,was always afraid of getting pushed in or falling in.
    And in correction to my previous post. I remembered a parking lot being where the Radisson now sits. Actually if memory serves me right, it was fairly green and part of the side yard to the old Knott family farm.
    And as for the Lagoon,did you guys know that its partially there still? But most of it has been converted into picnic areas that are often used for employee events and catering services. Wasn't it something like a quarter to cross that little bridge to get onto the island side of the lagoon?

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  32. Oh,Ron Blue? Did you used to hang out at Andrews Burgers? Remember the roller skating car hops? That was a great place. And I remember the old cars that you could ride in,along Beach and Crescent. They were all guided by that railing so you couldn't veer off anywhere.lol.
    I remember,when it was at the end of the ride, an employee would jump on the side of the car and take over the steering to get you back into the loading and unloading area.

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  33. My Dad, Max Mason, was a close friend of Lou Rosen, owner of Cottage Pottery in Buena Park. My Dad was with Lou way back in the 50's when Lou was looking at the empty lot deciding on whether or not to purchase it. I still use the dinnerware I purchased there in 1975. It was a great store and Lou was a great man.
    Sally Mason Brayton- Lakewood

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  34. ok now lets go way way back do you remember the seals ???the petting zoo it was where fista village is now . for years and years i went to knotts, live on poke st..well the alley they called it went to centrelia ele. but the alagator farm i do rember and the baby who was killed. but the seals were my thing there for years...lindas

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  35. I remember the alligator farm and went there a lot as a kid in the 60's. I grew up in BP went to Cerritos Elem., Apollo Jr. High and Western High. I remember Andrews but Jims Super Burger dowm at the next light was better, the burgers were flame broiled instead of grilled.
    Bellis Park with the fountain and I forgot about Stock Park till I read this thread.

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    1. I went to all those....and I agree jims was way better. we must have known each other.?

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  36. The rumor is that Andrew's Burgers was owned by the Stamos (as in John Stamos) family. Does anyone know if this is true? It is no longer Andrew's Burgers. I think it's Dave's Burgers now. Not the same.

    Jim's Burgers is still there and is still good! My dad used to pick up burgers for us often. Good memories.

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  37. Oh wow. What great memories. My first job was at the Cottage Pottery in 1966. Lou Ropsen was like a father to me. Thanks for letting this old mind think back. The Alligator Farm and the Pottery shared the same parking lot. The guy that ran the Farm was on "You asked for it" a few times.

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    1. what's your name and section did you work in. i was sorta there a lot!

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  38. I was born in West Covina in 1973 and I have fond memories of a school field trip sometime in the early 80's to the Alligator Farm.
    What I remember the most is those big huge pits they had them in, they were DEEP! And I dont know if it was just because I was just a small boy or not, but to this day, all I remember is the mammoth sized beasts that were at the bottom of those pitts...They were HUGE! Almost like station Wagons sitting there on the bottom...very scary, but very cool!
    Haha, I was re-telling the story of my visit there to my Mother and she laughed me off and said I was mistaken, that there was no Alligator Farm in SoCal...After I later had kids myself, I then went out and looked it up online and was sad to find the park had closed... :(
    Things are just not the same as when were kids huh?
    Knotts was my most favorite park as a child!
    And I just took my kids to Knott's on Saturday and it's hardly recognizable. Independance Hall looks to have been torn down and replaced with either a parking lot or the new Fridays.

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  39. Growing up in OC, we used to walk to Knott's. We fed the ducks at the pond near Independence Hall. The duck pond is gone now.
    The Alligator Farm was diagonally across the street from Home Savings. The big deal was going to Bob's Big Boy on Beach Blvd. on Saturday nights after the Kennedy High School football games. Ah, good times.

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  40. I have GREAT memories of the alligator farm. I was one of the luckiest kids around my Uncle Kenny worked there for years in the 70's.I can vividly remember getting to feed the alligators, snakes and getting to go "Behind The Scenes". Boy those were good times

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  41. The sign for the Alligator farm had a fake gator
    sitting sort of crosswise over the letters. It actually had two heads with no tail. If you were going in either direction on La Palma it wasn't obvious unless you knew about it. There was an older man with a European accent who cleaned up the pens and fed the gators. He told me once they fed leftovers from Kentucky Fried Chicken.
    He would go in the gator pits with just a bamboo rake and a small garbage can. Some of the gators challenged him and he beat on them with the rake.
    If they didn't back down he gave them a good kick with his boots(none of these things ever injured a gator-they're prehistoric).It was still intersting to see a human walk into a pit of 25 gators and come out of it with all his parts.

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  42. If you remember the Alligator farm you surely remember Jungle Island...check out this page on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Buena-Park-CA/Knotts-Jungle-Island/118288511518863

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  43. I was shocked to find out the alligator farm had closed. I haven't lived in CA for 15 years and haven't visited the amusement areas in the L.A. area for 20 years, but I had planned to bring my grandchildren to the farm this summer. I have vivid memories of visiting the farm so I am very disappointed it is closed.

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  44. It was the best place in the world for a 8 year old boy. We used to feed those spider monkeys with bags of nuts theyd sell you & they would take them through the bars with their tails & little hands. Remember a lagoon full of little crocs with missing feet and tails & a snake charmer show with a giant cobra. Feel kinda bad for that giant alligator at the bottom of a deep pit, didnt seem to be able to even turn around. I feel sad we dont have such places anymore.

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  45. Some of these posted memories really sparked my own, one inparticular is when I was about 10 back in 1962. I was watching some guy feed the gators in the big pit. Man, I'll never forget the powerfull sound of thier big jaws crashing down on the chicken parts they were being fed. Also, I remember some of the gator's walking around in thier pen, and some were missing legs. It was a really fun and scary place to visit as a child. Sad it's gone, just like the old Haunted Shack at Knott's Berry Farm is gone. What a shame...but it's great to have these memories.....Steve H.

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  46. Knott's Berry Farm owns the property it was on. It is the lot on the north side of La Palma between Beach Blvd and Western Ave. it is where they keep all of the horses and chickens and any other animals they use at knotts.

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  47. To Charles Von Olinger:
    The big store that was on Lincoln & Beach Blvd was Zodys!!!! It was like a K-Mart or even a Walmart is now. It became a Ralph's market in the mid-1980s. Took my son & husband to Knotts in 2008. Nothing seemed the same. I remember the seals & the petting farm with little goats & pony rides. The Roaring 20's area that was a favorite as a teenager has changed. Used to go dancing there every Friday night to some of the biggest name bands of the 1970's. And the John Wayne Theater (named after the Log Ride opened with John Wayne riding it for the first ride to commemorate his movie "North to Alaska"-log flume scene). Later changed to the Good Times Theater. Saw Frankie Avalon sing & kissed his cheek. I was so dis-enchanted when I took my family on the Stage Coach ride & a rollercoaster went whooshing over our heads. It seems to be so crammed now. Sad to see.

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  48. I also grew up in Anaheim and would walk miles to Knotts and to the Alligator Farm. I became a contractor as an adult and its funny that I received a call from the company one day that was going to tear down the building and ask me to board up the windows with plywood. I ask the owner if I could take the 8 ft x 16 ft sign out front which He said yes and I have been carring this sign all these years. Its the one that has the Cobra on one side and the alligator on the other. If anyone knows somebody that might be interested in it send me an email at afr@att.net Thanks

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  49. I grew up in north Orange County, and have strong memories of visiting the Alligator Farm a couple times. In fact we donated our pet turtle to them when it got too big (at least that's the story). My dad did once bring home a baby alligator, alive, from a Rotary meeting won as a gag gift. After a few days in the tub, it also became an donation to the Alligator Farm.

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  50. I loved the Alligator Farm when I was a kid. We used to go there every time we went to Knotts. My dad was a big fan of reptiles, so he had more fun there than at Knotts.

    I'm going to have to show some people this site, because they never believe me when I tell them about the Alligator Farm.

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  51. I used to love that place! Loved touching the snakes...

    Sadly the thing I remember mos though was the 20 foot croc in the 20 foot pit. It was scary but even as a small child I knew something was wrong. Poor thing could not even turn around or submerge. Most it could do was move its tail once in a while. It bothered me a bit but when Steve Erwin was on TV I realized that it was much worse than I had thought, much more cruel.

    Still miss the place though...would love to see a place like that again but alas there are no more around here.

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  52. I went and still remember the place! It had one of the largest alligators in captivity once and it was so big the alligator could not even turn around!Does anyone remember him? How big was he? This was at least 35 years ago!

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    1. I used to live a couple of miles away and was a frequent visitor. There was a pair of very large Nile crocs in a deep circular pit at the alligator farm. I was told by a keeper that the male was over 16 ft. and the female 14. He mentioned that there had previously been another female about the same size, but that it had been killed by the male and partially eaten. After that, the male was kept separate from 'roomies'. I also remember Tuatara's, Rhinoceros Iguanas, Snake-necked Turtles, watching rattlesnakes court, and (I believe) Giant Tortoises.

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  53. I remember going to the Alligator Farm with my Grandmother, and one of the attendants holding a snake so that we all could feel it. Once was enough, although I NEVER forgot it. It certainly was a learning experience.

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  54. Hi!

    I had the good luck to stumble on this fine site while googling Cottage Pottery in Buena Park.

    My wife and I had the pleasure of meeting Lou Rosen and his staff at The Cottage Pottery some 30 years ago, and I had lunch a few years later with him in London, UK. He was a solid anglophile. Lou's late wife Toby was the daughter of Canadian-born US soldier of fortune Bert ("Yank") Levy, and had control of most of Yank's files, which he shared with me for my biography project. I would love to know what became of Lou and his family and staff, and no letter in response to this query will go unanswered. Many thanks for any info and all compliments of the Christmas-New Year's season 2011-12.

    Yank was a professional boxer, as for example was the late Bob Hope, with whom I corresponded very briefly, who boxed near Pittsburgh contemporaneously, but never knew of Yank. Yank also "sparred" in letters to and from Governor Ed. Brown in re the merits of boxing for young athletes.

    Allan E, Levine, MLS, Librarian, 224 Viewmount Drive, Suite 404, Ottawa, ON, CANADA K2E 0B4. levine.allan@gmail.com

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  55. I have fond memories of the Alligator Farm. My family and I went there often.

    I just posted a postcard from the old Lincoln Heights site.

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  56. I remember the Alligator Farm well. Lived in Santa Ana from 1970 until 1985. Remember the crocs in the pits were so huge I didn't think they could be real. Would love to see some old photos and brochures from the place.

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  57. I REMEMBER MY MOTHER AND STEPFATHER TAKING ME, MY BROTHER, AND SISTER THERE. WHY I REMEMBER IT SO WELL IS THAT KNOTTS BERRY FARM, WHICH IS STILL THERE, BEING ACROSS THE STREET FROM IT. I AM IN MY 60s NOW SO YOU CAN IMAGINE HOW LONG AGO THAT WAS

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  58. I went to La Palma Junior High and remember Andrews Hamburger stand very well. I always look for hamburger stands that serve hamburgers and fries like that. You ordered from the street. It had a dinky diningroom on the side. You could pick up your order from the staff through a dutch door. The little cars used to be around the back of Knotts by crescent street.

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  59. Ok but what about KING DOG? dont you remember that?

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  60. Saw Nicolette Larson there.

    Loved the informal picnic table setup close to the stage.

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  61. Just finished watching an old Leave It To Beaver, and they were at the alligator farm. I'm sure an animal rights group would have it closed by now anyway.

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  62. A visit here was a favorite memory of mine. I am now 72 and I was still a kid when I rode the alligator and had my photo taken. In the background of the photo are some of my loving family who made certain that I got to visit. A great-aunt and uncle and my grandmother are standing behind the fence in back of me. I was not afraid because the alligator had on a harness. What good memories I have of that day and that visit. Thanks for posting this.

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  63. I used to love to go to Knotts Berry Farm and also the aligator farm. Knotts is very commercialize now but all the people in my age group have fond memors of the old Knotts and the aligator farm.

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  64. I was raised in La Habra, and spent many a good time at Knotts. Never went to the Alligator Farm for some reason, but remember it being there very well. Must have been a Mom and Dad Thing ?. If you are a Leave it to Beaver Fan, maybe you you will know that the first episode in 1957 ( the year that I was born ) with Edward Buchanan as " Captain Jack " was filmed there. I do miss those simple days.

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  65. I was raised in La Habra - not too far from the farm. Have fond memories of it and Knotts Berry Farm. Did you know that the first episode of Leave it to Beaver - featuring Edgar Buchanan as "Captain Jack ) was filmed there ?.

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