Knott’s to Add $10-Million Attraction : Theme parks: Officials hope the ‘Mystery Lodge’ show, fashioned after a popular special-effects draw at the ’86 World’s Fair, will pull in crowds this summer.

Pledging to shatter the sameness that has gripped Southern California theme parks, Knott’s Berry Farm on Monday unveiled plans for a $10-million, family-oriented special effects show that it hopes will become the hit of the summer.

The “Mystery Lodge” show will feature an authentic Native American storyteller and will probably employ effects such as objects and ghosts that appear in campfire smoke. At the end of the show, the storyteller will mysteriously disappear.

It is an updated version of a show that was one of the most popular attractions at the 1986 World’s Fair in Vancouver.

“When I visited Spirit Lodge at Expo ‘86, I was captivated, uplifted and determined to bring the next generation of this extraordinary journey to Knott’s,” Knott’s President Terry E. Van Gorder said in a statement. “Our guests will see a new, technically advanced version of the original attraction, a truly memorable experience they simply can’t experience anywhere else.”

With Disneyland not expected to debut a major new ride for summer, Knott’s would not get lost in the Anaheim park’s shadow during the height of this year’s peak tourism season.

At $10 million, Mystery Lodge will cost a fraction of the amount for a major attraction like Disneyland’s Splash Mountain or Mickey’s Toontown, which had an estimated price of $100 million. But this represents Knott’s largest capital investment at the Buena Park attraction since 1988, when it opened its Camp Snoopy area for children.

The attraction comes at time when Knott’s needs an attendance boost. Its estimated attendance last year was down 5% to 3.7 million, according to the trade magazine Amusement Business. The park has fallen from the fifth to ninth most popular in the nation in the past two years.

But opening an attraction that is merely different may not be enough. Knott’s is taking a calculated risk by not spending its money on new action rides, motion simulators and the like that other parks have preferred.

And its previous venture into the Native American theme, an “Indian Trails” area that opened in 1992, did not substantially increase the park’s attendance.

Still, analysts suggest that Mystery Lodge could prove to be very popular.

“It is one of the best new types of attractions to come along in years,” said Jim Benedick, senior vice president for Management Resources, a theme park and exposition consulting firm in Tustin.

The show begins when visitors cross a bridge next to a waterfall and enter a cave. Inside, they are surrounded by a full-size replica of a Kwakiut’l tribal house, a tribe from the Pacific Northwest. To set the mood, the lights dim and a lightning show fills the fake sky.

They then enter another room where they find the storyteller and his spooky campfire. All told, the show takes about 26 minutes.

The earlier show at Expo ’86 in Vancouver had crowds waiting three and four hours in line at the General Motors pavilion and was the talk of the fair, Benedick said. Given that, it is surprising that no U.S. theme parks have picked up the mystery show since, until now.

“The special effects are good and the story is good,” he said. “It is the perfect attraction for (Knott’s) because they can build on that mystique.”

The attraction is being developed for Knott’s by the same firm that designed the Vancouver show, BRC Imagination Arts in Burbank, which was founded by Orange County native Bob Rogers.

Although Rogers said his company has invented shows that play around the world, he said he is thrilled about bringing the show to Knott’s.

“It will leave people stunned,” he predicted.