Greetings family, friends and theme park buddies! This months old postcard pictures the cable tram ride that once operated at Calico, a mining camp restored by Walter Knott and currently operated as a western theme park by San Bernadino County.........Bill
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MUSINGS OF A THEME PARK FAN
CALICO GHOST TOWN
Lucille Mining Company Tram
“Purty as a gal’s calico skirt” is the way the mining camp was once
described by a local miner. At is peak more than 3000 hardy persons
swarmed the steep rocky hillsides below King Mountain in this remote
desert location ultimately creating one of the largest and richest silver
camps in California. More than 86 million dollars worth of high grade
silver was dug from the sheer cliff’s and the honeycomb of tunnels.
Main Street bustled with hotels, saloons, it’s own post office and
schoolhouse but like most mining towns, Calico was abandoned and
left to decay in the harsh summer heat and brutally cold winters once
the valuable ore ran out. In 1950, with the success of his Buena Park
enterprise, Walter Knott bought the entire original town site, the few
surviving buildings and nearby mining claims and set about restoring
the decaying mining camp as a tourist destination. Knott retained
concessioner Shafe-Malcom Enterprises to build a rustic single track
cable tram to shuttle visitors from the parking lot in Wall Street
Canyon up the steep hillside to Calico’s Main Street and it’s collection
of shops and western themed attractions. The Lucille Mining
Company Tram was presumedly named for Lucille Coke who with her
husband Lawrence were the only inhabitants of Calico from 1934 until
1949. Visitors to Calico had the option to pay to ride the tram in one
of the three wooden ore cars operated by the on site concessioner’s
Boyd and Margaret Clark, or climb up a steep path to reach Main
Street. After restoring most of the town and creating new attractions
in 1966 the Knott family deeded Calico to the people of San
Bernardino for a county park. The Lucille Mining Company Tram
came to an end when the county decided to build a more convenient
upper parking lot rather than repairing the tram seriously damaged by
an earthquake.
Circa 1950’s Postcard from the collection of Bill Ralph
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