- Gun Shop
- Knife Shop
In 1961, Bob McCoy Sr. opened up The Old Knife Shop at Knot's Berry Farm. There were no contracts back in the 60s and merely a handshake with Russell Knott sealed the deal for more than 20 years until Knott's began using contracts with its Lessees. Bob Sr. would handcraft knives made from power hacksaw blades in the Old Knife Shop. "Steel made to cut steel" he used to say to guests who frequently purchased the aluminum handled knives. Bob Sr. made these knives for around 10 years until his doctor advised him to quit because of the damage to his lungs caused by the grinding dust from the steel and aluminum. In the 1970s, the shop then started selling more factory-made production knives. The original grinder that was used to make Bob Sr's knives is still in use today at The Knife and Gun Shop.
In 1971, Bob Sr. acquired the Overland Gun Shop which had an archery range in the back. About this time, Bob Sr's wife, Vivian, became involved with the business and she eventually ran the Gun Shop while Bob Sr. ran the Knife Shop. Their four children, Debbie, Bob Jr, Bill and Sherri would help out at the Archery Range in the summer. The kids would run and pull arrows from the hay bales and sell arrows to shoot. The cost at the archery range was 6 shots for 25 cents or 15 shots for 50 cents.
In the mid 1970s, Bob Sr. opened yet another shop, the Coin Shop, with the help of Steve Knott. The shop was located in the Bank next to the Knife Shop, but it was only open for two years.
In 1989, Bob Sr. and Vivian decided it was time to take some time off after almost 30 years of running both shops. Although McCoy kids all worked at the park at one point or another and had spent much of their lives at Knott's Berry Farm, it was Bob, Jr. who decided to come back full-time to help run the business for his parents.
The Old Knife Shop and the Overland Gun Shop have seen many changes over the years, but one of the biggest changes was in 1999 when both shops were combined into one, The Knife and Gun Shop, and moved to its present location in Ghost Town. In April of 2005, when Bob Sr. passed away, his memorial service was attended by many of his Knott's Berry Farm friends, including Steve Knott.
Bob Jr., who has worked at Knott's Berry Farm for over 35 years, continues to run the shop his Father opened so many years ago. Bob Jr. still finds his Father's old knives being sold at antique shops and knife shows throughout California that are proudly stamped with the Ghost Town logo. Even today, guests come into the shop looking to buy the old steel knives his father used to make, telling Bob Jr. that they were the best knives they had ever owned.
When the Knott family moved to this area in 1920, this old house was on a neighboring farm. Mr and Mrs Knott attended their first party there. It was later purchased and moved to the Farm, and an additional room was added in 1955.
Through the years it has housed various mercantile activities including the Candle Maker's Shop. Most notably, it has housed the Knife and Gun Shop which has been operating in the park since 1961.
The German Army coined this term of respect for U.S. Marines during World War I. In the summer of 1918 the German Army was driving toward Paris. The French Army was in full retreat. In a desperate effort to save Paris, the newly arrived U.S. Marines were thrown into the breach. In June 1918, in bitter fighting lasting for weeks, Marines repeatedly repulsed the Germans in Belleau Wood. The German drive toward Paris sputtered, fizzled, and died. Then the Marines attacked and swept the Germans back out of Belleau Wood. Paris had been saved. The tide of war had turned. Five months later Germany would be forced to accept an armistice. The battle tenacity and fury of the U.S. Marines had stunned the Germans. In their official reports they called the Marines "teufel hunden," meaning Devil Dogs, the ferocious mountain dogs of Bavarian folklore.
- Wooden Nickels
- Rabbits Foot
- Meerschaum Pipes
Fellow Citizens of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Among the vicissitudes incident to life, no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the fourteenth day of the present month. On the one hand, I was summoned by my Country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years: a retreat which was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me, by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time. On the other hand, the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my Country called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced of her citizens, a distrustful
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permanent provision for the Executive Department; and must accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates for the Station in which I am placed, may, during my continuance in it, be limited to such actual expenditures as the public good may be thought to require.
Having thus imparted to you my sentiments, as they have been awakened by the occasion which brings us together, I shall take my present leave; but not without resorting once more to the benign parent of the human race, in humble supplication that since he has been pleased to favor the American people, with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquility, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity on a form of Government, for the security of their Union, and the advancement of their happiness; so his divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures on which the success of this Government must depend.
- Calamity Jane
Martha Jane Canary "Calamity Jane" was a heavy-drinking, tobacco chewing, bawdy frontierswoman, Army Scout, & stagecoach driver, among other things. She was also known for her association with Wild Bill Hickock. - Sitting Bull
Sioux Chief 1831-1890 - Annie Oakley
Born Phoebe Anne Mosey, Annie Oakley was an exhibition sharpshooter. Her amazing talent led to a starring role in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, which propelled her into fame. She was called "Little Sure Shot" by Sioux Indian Chief Sitting Bull. - Billy the Kid
William Wright. Age 18 Height 6 feet 3 inches Weight 125 lbs. Light hair, blue eyes and even features. He is the leader of the worst band of desperadoes the Territory has ever had to deal with. The above reward will be paid for his capture or positive proof of his death. - The Wild Bunch
Harry Longabaugh (Sundance Kid) - Robert George Parker (Butch Cassidy) - Ben Kilpatrick - Will Carver - Harvey "Kid Curry" Logan. Wanted for robbery of the Butte County Bank and the Union Pacific Express. - The James Gang
Jesse W James - Frank James - Cole Younger - Jim Younger - Bob Younger - Buffalo Bill Cody
1846-1917 William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody (pictured with Sitting Bull) was a soldier, a buffalo hunter, and a showman who became famous for his Wild West shows.
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O say can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there; O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep, Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes, What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep, As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses? Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, In full glory reflected now shines in the stream: 'Tis the star-spangled banner, O long may it wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion, A home and a country, should leave us no more? Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution. No refuge could save the hireling and slave From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave: And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave, O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand Between their loved homes and the war's desolation. Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n rescued land Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation! Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust.' And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
