Bud Hurlbut

Wendell "Bud" Hurlbut (1918–2011) was a designer, builder, entrepreneur, and one of the first creators of theme parks in the United States.

Hurlbut was born in Watertown, South Dakota, the only child of Ray and Emma Hurlbut. The family moved to Whittier, California, where Ray managed a successful oil tool company. Bud worked in a printing company, worked as a pattern maker for Vultee Aircraft, and was a mechanical engineer for F.A. Nemec Combustion Engineers in Whittier, before getting into the amusement park business.

Hurlbut's amusement park experience began with designing and building small-scale trains for people to ride. He sold 12 of them to other operators, then installed one in his own kiddie park in El Monte, CA in the parking lot of Crafords market. One of Hurlbut's trainsets operated at The Pike in Long Beach, CA. He also designed the replica 1880's train that ran for many years in Santa's Village in the San Bernardino Mountains, and now is at the Santa Ana Zoo. He built the first train for the Nut Tree restaurant complex in Vacaville, CA that would ferry incoming flyers from the Nut Tree Airport to the toy shop and restaurant plaza. Another of Hurbut's trains, built in 1938, is in operation at Adventure City, which is part of the Hobby City complex in Anaheim, CA. Others are at Canaan Land Christian Retreat in Lake Toxaway, NC, Maricopa Live Steamers in Phoenix, AZ, Castle Park in Riverside, CA (see below), and numerous private individuals' backyard railroads across the United States.

His experience and collaboration with Walter Knott would make a name for Hurlbut Amusement Co. and transform Knott's Berry Farm from a chicken dinner restaurant and "ghost town" into a major theme park. Hurlbut began as a concessionaire at Knott's, operating an 1896 Dentzell Menagerie carousel. In 1958, he added the Antique Auto Ride, designed and built by Arrow Development (later renamed Tijuana Taxi), and in 1959, he began to operate one of his small trains around Knott's Lagoon.

The major innovation occurred with the Calico Mine Train ride in 1960. This ride was the first authentic "dark" amusement ride, and it has been emulated by amusement parks ever since. Guests boarded an old-time mine train that took them into a "mine" inside a "mountain." Walt Disney frequently came to watch construction on the ride.

...
Wikipedia