Walter Knott turned a California fruit ranch into this theme park
The little town of Calico, near Yermo, California, sprang to life with a silver ... 
Walter Knott and his cousin, Jim Preston, rented land south of ... into the popular 
Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant (which turned 75 ... to use a strip of land to 
raise fruits and vegetables for the ranch hands, .... Indoor theme park?