Knott’s Berry Farm Map Comparison Post

This post is BIG and has many links to high resolution scans. Eleven Knott’s Berry Farm maps from 1949 to 2005, there are some gaps in time; any and all contributions of the missing years (or the missing decade of the 90’s) will be gladly accepted.

Blogspot seems to compress or shrink the scans that are uploaded. Most of these maps were scanned at 300 or 400 DPI. The original maps are at least 8” by 12” with some twice that size or more, the true scanned file sizes are around 4 to 8mb each. Blogspot does an OK job, but I think something gets lost in the conversion.

Posted with each map is a link to the full high resolution file - should you want to examine them in super high clarity. Most of these maps have a “back side” that I scanned at high resolution too. Those links are also listed with each map.

A world of thanks to two very helps folks. Richard over at "Viewliner Ltd." (link) was gracious enough to donate his talents to stitch together the 1950 and 1953 maps - Wow these are seamless! The 1949 and 1979 map pictures are courtesy of Jay over at "The Knott’s Berry Farm Museum Blog" – check out his incredible Knott’s collection (link). Thanks Richard and Jay!

All right, let’s get started. For a little frame of reference, here is the only aerial photo of “old” Knott’s that I could find. It’s oriented sideways compared to all the maps, but you get a good idea of how rural the place was. “Year unknown” I would guess early 1950’s. Maybe you can date it based on some of the maps in this post.

For these maps I’ll be quiet and just tell you the year and give you the links.

1949: Full Map Scan (link)

1950: Full Map Scan (link) - Back side (link)






1955?: Full Map Scan (link) - Back side (link)






1962: Full Map Scan (link) - Back side (link)






1966: Full Map Scan (link) - Back side (link)






1970: Full Map Scan (link) - Back side (link)






1973: Full Map Scan (link) - back side A (link)and back side B (link)






1977: Full Map Scan (link) - Back side (link)






1979: Full Map Scan (link)






1986: Full Map Scan (link) - Back side (link) Thanks to Chris Jepsen for the correct year...






2005: Full Map Scan (link)




WOW! If you have spare time, read the backs of some of the older maps - Who knew you could watch wool socks being made on a "very old British Rib Sock machine, it's quite a treat and the socks are lovely too"...

I hope you enjoyed this Knott's Map post, the farm has changed so much it's barely recognizable today. Disneyland almost seems untouched compared to Knott's. Maybe the It's a Small World change doesn't seem so evil after all when you contrast it to the wholesale obliteration that has occurred at Knott's over the decades....