Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Lane's General Store Calico Ghost Town

Calico Ghost Town has an interesting history. Originally a booming silver mining town in the Mojave desert of California, then an abandoned town, then purchased by Walter Knott to complete his vision of a real ghost town (and to preserve the history) and eventually donated to San Bernadino to be run as a park. The connection to theme parks is that Walter Knott ran the town as an amusement park with a mine train ride and costumed characters during the day. It is now still run like an amusement park with gun fights, gold panning and a train ride. This postcard is of the general store with all the advertising out front. The postcard is postmarked 1958, during the prime time of the Knott's ownership.

3 comments:

Major Pepperidge said...

Any idea if you can still see this building at Calico?

DrGoat said...

Used to stop there on the way to Disneyland from Tucson, '57 to '60something.

outsidetheberm said...

Great postcard of Lane's. And yes, it's still there, Major - although there has been some structural changes to it over the years.

Thanks, Matterhorn!