This Animatronic Life: Finding Gold in the Calico Mine Ride Part II

Howdy—and welcome to part two of the story of Garner Holt Productions, Inc.’s (GHP) work in revitalizing Knott’s Berry Farm’s incredible Calico Mine Ride attraction. In part one, I recounted GHP’s previous involvement with the attraction and the lead-up to our work on the recent renovation. This time, we’ll take a scene-by-scene look at the attraction and the new features and stories behind it.

I think a fitting preface for all this is a note of appreciation to Knott’s Berry Farm as a client. From Matt Ouimet at the corporate level to Raffi Kaprelyan’s leadership as general manager at the park itself, the creative visionaries in Knott’s entertainment director Lara Hanneman and her team, and the exceptional maintenance and operations folks at the park, GHP is truly blessed to have Knott’s as a client. Everyone there works hard to make the park as wonderful as it is, and makes the client-vendor relationship a uniquely friendly one. They are the true heroes in making Knott’s Berry Farm the park that we love so much.

Read the rest at MiceChat

Knott's News: It would've been really cool to see the hydraulic miner shoot water over the heads of riders. I'm sure Garner Holt's unspecified reasons for not including this stem from what happened with the hitchhiker on the Log Ride. After seeing just how disrespectful and destructive guests can be, I'm sure they didn't want to risk someone standing up to touch the water, potentially soaking other passengers or even getting hurt in the process.