BUENA PARK : Boy’s Life Down on Knott’s Berry Farm

Russell Knott leaned back in a chair behind the desk in his unassuming office at Knott’s Berry Farm and reminisced about working on the farm--both in the fields and as general manager of the theme park.

Knott, 77, also reflected on the city’s first tourist attraction, founded by his late parents, Walter and Cordelia, who had settled in Buena Park nearly 74 years ago.

Though the Knott family is no longer involved in the family-owned business on a day-to-day basis, Knott still spends a few hours a week in his office, opening mail, returning phone calls and chatting with employees.

He still comes back to the place where he was raised because it’s not something he can easily let go.

“Well, it’s home,” said Knott, who along with his three sisters, are general partners in the theme park. “It’s your roots.”

The Knott family’s roots in Southern California date back to 1883, when his grandfather, Elgin C. Knott, a young minister, came to Los Angeles County from Tennessee. He later preached at a church in Santa Ana.

Russell Knott’s parents met in Pomona while in high school and married in 1911. Both were 21. The next year, the couple moved to the Mojave Desert, where Walter Knott farmed 160 acres.

“They weren’t too successful,” Knott said. “They tried to grow crops, but water was a problem.”

In 1920, Walter and Cordelia packed up their 1917 Model T Ford after farming near San Luis Obispo and came to Buena Park to rent 20 acres. The family moved into a nearby farmhouse with no indoor plumbing, paying $7 a month rent.

In 1927, Knott’s father bought his first 10 acres. “As he needed land, he began buying adjacent land as farming became more prosperous,” Knott said.

Today, the original farm is part of the 150-acre theme park, which started in June, 1934, when Cordelia began serving homemade chicken dinners on her wedding china for 65 cents a plate.

After the dinners’ success, the theme park gradually expanded over the years, first with Ghost Town in 1940. Today, the park has more than 165 attractions and rides.

Knott and his wife of 56 years, Milly, have two sons, five grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

“People ask me, ‘Why don’t you sell Knott’s Berry Farm and do whatever you want to do?’ ” he said.

His answer is simple.

“The family has an emotional attachment to the farm and wouldn’t sell the park even if someone offered us more that it was worth,” Knott said.

“After you’ve spent your entire life building up something, it would be hard to lose it.”