My first attempt at urban Archeology: Jungle Island

This used to be Jungle Island, across the street from Knott's berry farm. Featuring odd animal scultures and even missionaries being boiled in a pot by "natives". It had a train ride, and a boat ride, and many paths through a "jungle". It strikes me as a great place for some huge tiki event, as you can rent the area out for large parties or events.

That's a great idea- can you bring booze into the farm?

It's an area for private events. Next time I go down there I will ask, but I think so. It is outside the theme park. The only draw-back is that if you drink, you would need a taxi, as the nearest hotels and motels are a bit of a walk. Not a huge walk, but down the street on beach. I figure if anyone organized an event, say with vending, food, an tiki bar, tiki torches to light the place up and bands like tikiyaki orchestra, Hula girls, exotiki, Martini Kings, King Kukulele, (hint hint!) it might be a really cool place. The whole thing is surrounded more or less by a "river", and the inside area, the "island" is really big. Two big A-frame open air structures, an A frame clubhouse (in my picture)bathrooms, chairs, tables, and pretty much cut-off from the non-tiki riffraff walking out or in from knotts.

I was looking across the "river" and my thoughts were: There is Quiet Village, right in front of me!

Maybe the name for my ficticious event is "QUIET VILLAGE '09"

Very cool, didn't know this still existed! :)

Thanks!

Turns out Tangaroa had some info on this, but alas, the pictures he posted are all gone...

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=8541&forum=6&vpost=85875

Dang....I was Tiki Mick back in 2004....I should have searched this topic, but I honestly had forgotten all about it!

Wow....

This place look great. I've brought up the idea of having a traditional style Luau, with people sitting at tables on the ground, and Luau food, bands, hula dancers etc

This would be ideal. It almost looks like the Coco Palms from "Blue Hawaii"

This place would be great for a full on Tiki Luau.

I'm totally up for helping put this together.

Let's do it.

I am totally into it! The place does not look like much during the daytime, but at night, with the torches and the sounds of drums pounding...it could be incredible!

My next excursion will be to paradise point, San Diego (used to be Vacation Village) to document another vintage fake Jungle!

Get this! A man that I know here in Turlock said back in the 50's there was an alligator farm very near to Knott's. They started disappearing (walked away) and the State shut them down. I kid you not, true story. I wonder if this is the place.

Knock knock
Who's there?
Candygram

On 2008-12-01 15:31, Jungle Trader wrote:
Get this! A man that I know here in Turlock said back in the 50's there was an alligator farm very near to Knott's. They started disappearing (walked away) and the State shut them down. I kid you not, true story. I wonder if this is the place.

Knock knock
Who's there?
Candygram

Nope, this isn't the place (although there may be some sneaky alligators lurking in the ponds). The Alligator Farm was located across the street, north of Knotts Berry Farm, behind the huge pottery store. There used to be overflow parking for Knott's next to the Alligator Farm. Jungle Island was/is located on the east side of Knott's by Independence Hall. I wonder if they still have all of the carvings there?

My dad used to take us to the Alligator Farm. I'm not at all surprised to hear the alligators walked away.

http://www.octhen.com/2006/02/alligator-farm-in-buena-park.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHc4y9niT2Q

PTD

[ Edited by: Psycho Tiki D 2008-12-01 15:52 ]

[ Edited by: Psycho Tiki D 2008-12-01 15:54 ]

Absolutely correct. And a few miles further to the north was the ultimate theme park, Japanese village and deer park.

And funny, but the other thread mentioned 1000's of chickens. (Now we know what attracted those naughty alligators!) I was there this weekend, and I counted at least 75 roosters and hens. But not on the island. Only in the area around it, near Independance hall.

Here is a tip for anyone that wants to explore this area without paying the parking (10 bucks). Just park at the north west corner of the Buena Park mall (by sears) and walk over to La Palma. Just before beach is an exit (with those tire damage knobs) and walk behind soak city to this area.

Well that's a no-brainer where the gators went......deer park.

Don't forget about Enchanted Village, which was South Pacific themed, and had quite a few tikis in and around. It was built on Japanese Deer park after JDP went defunct. It had alot of trained animal shows, a traditional styled polynesian show and literally a few rides. The enviroment was immense and lush, and being there as a kid was almost like being in disneyland. They even had theme park characters walking around, but reminded me more of the stoned/hippie "Banana Splits" characters from what I recall. Well, it was the 70's, afterall!
http://www.octhen.com/2006/08/enchanted-village.htm

Great find, and I would think it would make for a good springtime artshow/polyswap meet and greet with music and food being served throughout the day/evening...Use some red, blue and green parcans for the evening lighting...Ehh you know what I'm talking about! :lol:

[ Edited by: Tom Slick 2008-12-02 08:01 ]

[ Edited by: Lucas Vigor 2008-12-02 13:21 ]

correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the Japanese Deer Park close because the deer got some disease? At least, that's what I recall.

On 2008-12-02 08:51, lucas vigor wrote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C6NkRUbI38

Unbelievable!!!

Hey Mick,
very interesting, I watched all 6 of the episodes,
but uh....
what does that have to do with the Topic of the thread?
maybe Im slower than the Chimps....
Jeff(bigtikidude)

On 2008-12-02 10:22, arriano wrote:
correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the Japanese Deer Park close because the deer got some disease? At least, that's what I recall.

They got Gatoritis.

At the Bamboo Ben shindig, Crazy Al asked me if anyone still had plans to do a large tiki event at this cool location....

I know Jim Tikiyaki had been thinking about it....anyone else?

Hellz Yeah Tikiyaki and Smokin Menahunes at the Jungle Island,
and BBQ long pig.

I'm in, Mahalo.
:wink:
Jeff(bigtikidude)

Back in the late seventies, we used to ride our bikes from Huntington Beach all the way up Beach Blvd. to this little oasis. Wasn't patrolled too well either. Why?
"...warm smell of colitas..rising up thru the air..."
Fond memories. I'm in for the luau idea, of course!

Jim was talking about setting up some old school type luau....man, that would be something!!!

I can imagine this place lit up at night with tiki torches, the sound of drumming, bird/jungle sounds on the PA, a full bar set up and serving famous exotic drinks. Bands, luaua pig....the Moia Mafia as security along the only walkway onto the island...hmmmmmmm, the possibilities!

Bumped by popular demand.

http://outsidetheberm.blogspot.com/

Dilligaf?

I'm close by to Knott's. Is the area that was Jungle Island, still standing? With Soak City and all the other buildings, it's tough to tell from Beach Blvd.

Most definitely, Deke.

What you want to do is park at the Buena Park mall and then walk over. The area formerly known as Jungle Island is right next to Independance hall, and behind soak city. You can't miss it once you get there. Walking around the perimeter will reveal where the "amusement park" used to be. The old church is on the other side. The pictures at the beginning of this thread were taken by me just before I posted them, so that area is intact, but now used for events only.

[ Edited by: lucas vigor 2012-01-18 11:12 ]

Thanks, man! I need to check it out.

And (again), how come there's never been a Tiki event there !?

On 2012-01-18 17:51, bigbrotiki wrote:
And (again), how come there's never been a Tiki event there !?

no booze....

I got to believe that if the right offer was made, they might go for it?

On 2012-01-18 17:51, bigbrotiki wrote:
And (again), how come there's never been a Tiki event there !?

We looked into it ! We'd have to use all their food and beverage vendors and everyone would have to buy a ticket to the park (Knotts)

Would have been too expensive. Too Bad, it's very cool !

Too bad. The Knott's Lagoon spot in the Knotts Picnic Center would have been great.

[->>King Bushwich 33rd on Hulu.com

On 2012-01-19 10:37, King Bushwich the 33rd wrote:
The Knott's Lagoon spot in the Knotts Picnic Areas would have been great.

The Knott's lagoon IS the same area as Jungle island, and was part of Jungle Island. Those water shots at the beginning of this thread are the lagoon.

On 2012-01-19 09:52, tikiyaki wrote:

On 2012-01-18 17:51, bigbrotiki wrote:
And (again), how come there's never been a Tiki event there !?

We looked into it ! We'd have to use all their food and beverage vendors and everyone would have to buy a ticket to the park (Knotts)

Would have been too expensive. Too Bad, it's very cool !

Maybe Chris Merrit (Tangaroa) can put in a good word in for us to get around that!

http://www.amazon.com/Knotts-Preserved-Boysenberry-Theme-History/dp/1883318777/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327004055&sr=1-1

Though making a book about a place does not necessarily help you get past corporate structures.

Here is another article I found about it. Scroll down a bit, and you can see jungle island pretty clearly (They zoomed the shot)

http://letstalkknotts.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html

What you don't really see well in that zoom-in is the great A-frame structure you posted on page 1:

What's that incongruous fence doing there...shielding of the traffic view?

That might be a newer edifice?

I have found this website to be a great reference for seeing what things used to look like (from the air):

http://www.historicaerials.com/

Half this stuff wasn't even on the 'net when I started this thread!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Knotts-Jungle-Island/118288511518863#!/photo.php?fbid=2215568386573&set=o.118288511518863&type=3&theater

Yes, there were alligators across the street from Knott's Berry Farm

MiceAge: California Alligator Farm

Meanwhile back at Knott's main park at the Boardwalk area