30 Comments:

• 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.

  By  Debra Twardowski, at February 12, 2006 5:48 PM  

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• 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 While he was out on a tour I looked it up and was sad to tell him it had been replaced by a hotel.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.

  By  anita brandon, at April 13, 2006 12:06 PM  

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• 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!

  By  Chris, at May 08, 2006 11:42 PM  

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

  By  Anonymous, at May 17, 2006 6:59 PM  

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• 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.

  By  Anonymous, at May 27, 2006 9:28 AM  

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

  By  Anonymous, at July 02, 2006 8:36 PM  

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• 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...

  By  Anonymous, at July 02, 2006 8:37 PM  

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• 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/

  By  Doug Mason, at July 11, 2006 2:59 PM  

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• 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.

  By  Shelly, at August 28, 2006 1:40 PM  

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• 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.

  By  Sal, at September 12, 2006 1:58 PM  

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• I grew up in Anahiem and I remember the alligator farm and the old buena park theater and the litte cars that drove on the outskirts of Knotts Berry Farm.the old prospecter statue with the mule.how about an Andrews Hamburger? I went to orangeview junior high and Twila reid Elementary.Those were good days.

  By  Ronblue62, at October 16, 2006 7:16 AM  

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• I am the City Clerk for the City of Buena Park, and I am undertaking a project to create a vintage memorabilia display for city hall of the city's amusement attractions. If you have anything you would like to donate or loan to the City on long-term basis, please contact me at sreynoso@buenapark.com.

  By  Buena Park City Clerk, at October 30, 2006 3:35 PM  

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• 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/

  By  M. Barnes, at November 08, 2006 8:28 AM  

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• 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

  By  Anonymous, at December 15, 2006 3:31 AM  

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• 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......

  By  Anonymous, at April 12, 2007 8:28 PM  

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• 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.

  By  Van Eriksen, at May 29, 2007 2:37 PM  

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• 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!

  By  barb braley, at June 30, 2007 11:05 AM  

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• 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!

  By  David, at July 10, 2007 10:07 PM  

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• 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.

  By  lazy j, at July 31, 2007 6:36 PM  

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• 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!

  By  Eve, at August 13, 2007 2:13 PM  

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• 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.

  By  jimdcarter, at August 21, 2007 9:23 AM  

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• 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..!!

  By  mike, at September 01, 2007 1:32 AM  

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• 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.

  By  Ron Root, at October 08, 2007 10:55 AM  

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• 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.

  By  Anonymous, at October 14, 2007 9:42 PM  

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• 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.

  By  Anonymous, at January 19, 2008 2:50 PM  

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• 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!

  By  Anonymous, at January 31, 2008 7:46 PM  

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• 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....

  By  Anonymous, at February 13, 2008 9:03 AM  

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• 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!

  By  Ricarda, at March 25, 2008 7:03 PM  

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• 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.

  By  Diane, at April 15, 2008 7:09 AM  

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• theres a short video of it on youtube:
  
  http://youtube.com/watch?v=zHc4y9niT2Q

  By  John, at June 29, 2008 4:02 PM  

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