John went to Six Flags Over Texas for several days to study the ride, then, while still at UCLA, developed a log flume concept that he planned to pitch to Knott’s. “It was a log ride concept, with a hydro-mining theme.”
John wrote to Walter Knott saying he had a ride proposal. A few days later Russell Knott, Walter’s son, called and asked John to come in for a meeting. “We met, and he told me that they didn’t do the designing of rides at Knott’s. He knew they were working on a log ride with Bud Hurlbut, but didn’t say anything.”
Russell set up an appointment for John with Bud, who designed many of Knott’s Berry Farm’s rides. John showed Bud his idea. “Bud laughed and said he wanted to show me something. He took me into his shop and showed me the models of the log ride he was building for Knott’s. I had to laugh too, but then I asked him for a job.”
Bud wasn’t hiring at the time, but offered John a job as a skipper on the steamboat that plied the lagoon at Knott’s. But John really wanted to work on the log ride construction. So John resigned from UCLA after the 1969 commencement exercises and went to work for Bud. “I worked on some of the final preparations of the ride, sealing cracks and things like that.” John became one of the Timber Mountain Log Ride’s supervisors and worked on it, and for Bud, for many years.
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