Ghost Town Alive Serves Up Poetic (In)justice
Knott’s Berry Farm, Buena Park, CA
Alright, folks, we’re ending March on a bit of a pattern… not only is this another belated update of an event that happened last year, it’s another Knott’s update. With the way last year’s haunt season kicked into high gear early and immediately, I never got to write my traditional Ghost Town Alive! season finale post, which typically comes during the week between the end of Ghost Town Alive! (on Labor Day) and before haunt season starts. With GTA! just two months around the corner, though, I figured this was a nice way to both look back at last year and look ahead to the upcoming season.
Ghost Town Alive! has become one of Knott’s most beloved events to the fans who regularly participate and play this enthralling adventure of Wild West escapism. Taking place concurrently with Knott’s summer season, this production of immersive and interactive theater is unlike any other theme park attraction around, and it’s charm, inventiveness, and silly mirth make it a delight to witness and take part in.
The Players
Before we recap how last season’s Ghost Town Alive! and the last day of the season went, lets re-acquaint ourselves with the characters of the show. These Citizens of Calico are the engine of the event, playing out both a main storyline but also engaging their improvisational talents to veer off on side stories and secondary activities with both each other and with guests. Last year was a bit of a homecoming of sorts, as Ghost Town Alive! was making its first run in three years, since the pandemic. Still, there were a lot of familiar faces in 1891 Calico, plus several new ones, of course.
The final day of Ghost Town Alive! provided one of the very few times in the season when the entire cast was at the park. Here are the various characters one could encounter throughout Ghost Town!
The Assayer’s Office right at the entrance to Ghost Town, across from the mine entrance of Ghost Rider, is home to two of the original tenured members and a pair who hasn’t moved their home base in all five years of the event.
Augustus French and Zeke Connelly man the Assayer’s Office.
Augustus is an excellent resource to examine potential treasure.
Zeke is a regular attendant here as well, though I’ve tended to see him here less frequently than Augustus over the years (just luck of timing).
At the Barbershop, we find a trio that includes two favorites and a newcomer.
Left to right are Looking Glass Thurmond, Doc Linville Carter, and newcomer Artie Cabrera, Jr.
Doc Carter, one of the most popular citizens, always has a smile.
Looking Glass has moved on from his former photography days and seems to help out his good friend at the Barbershop frequently now.
Artie just arrived in town this year and has also given Doc Carter and Looking Glass a welcome hand with providing tattoos and whiskerinos and other fashionable assistance.
Gertie’s Dress Shop has had many different purveyors tending the shop over the years, and this year, there were two additional newcomers to town helping Gertie out.
Miss Barbara Gaines helps at Gertie’s Dress Shop this year.
Theodora “Teddy” Delmundo is sweet and innocent, though her overly trusting nature occasionally lands her in unintentional mischief.
The Sheriff’s Office featured some familiar faces, including one who was based in the Barber Shop the last time we saw him. This spot is still a great place for kids to play poker with the Sheriff and keep a lookout for any troublemaking (and often bandit-related) activity!
Sheriff Bryce Wheeler still runs the law in this town and all of its interesting twists and turns at Ghost Town Alive!
Deputy Skylar Haney is back to help Sheriff Wheeler, since keeping order in Calico is a very full time job!
Chester Davenport was at the Barbershop the previous season, a few years ago, but he’s made a career change and taken up the law as well!
Goldie’s Place is Calico’s heart of hospitality, and it featured a familiar face and a new hired help.
Violet Lee, right, returns to Goldie’s after a sabbatical at the Calico Saloon, and she’s joined by Thelma Kinkaide to help tend to visitors needing a place to say.
Violet is as warm and caring as ever.
Thelma is personable and energetic, though she discovers a love/hate relationship with snakes (at least on this day).
The Calico Gazette & Post Office operate in conjunction, with the prior publishing the news and the latter helping distribute it!
The Calico Gazette dream team returns Bixby Knolls and Audrey Morgan (left and left center), and Shelley Melson (right) has joined the journalism team. Emery Mund (right center) tends to the Post Office next door.
Bixby has an assortment of cameras that he enjoys testing out in the field.
Bixby’s good friend, Levi Newman also assists from time to time.
Audrey has grown into a leader at the Gazette. She runs the news mill efficiently with or without Bixby!
Emery is very helpful with helping route packages to and fro, and there are certainly a lot of them to deliver in Calico!
The Schoolhouse is still the heart of Calico’s educational activities, and this year, there were four school teachers who called it home. Guests could come in and enjoy a lesson, ring the prominent tower bell, and help call things to order at the Town Hall.
The Schoolhouse has a fabulous quartet of educators, including former Mayfield Gang member, Fluke Mayfield (right), now completely renounced from any sort of life of crime at all.
Headmaster Noble K. Johnson is back attending to business at the Schoolhouse.
Miss Nell Elliott is back giving lessons to children too.
Miss Victoria Noelle is a new schoolteacher, taking the place of Sierra Mist, who no longer resides in Calico.
Speaking of… the adjacent Town Hall was the heart of all the civic matters in Calico. It’s where everyone always returned to gather to hear the next news update or learn about the next deciding activity. It was also where guest inevitably found themselves voting for a new representative to a position of power in Calico, because Ghost Town Alive! has found a way to incorporate an election every single season!
Judge Roy Bean is a GTA! original, and his gruff countenance still sticks to business.
Deputy Mayor Milton Howell is now Mayor Milton Howell, because Mayor Parnell and his wife took leave and resettled out of Calico.
We haven’t seen Luke Stillwater in a hot minute, but he’s back at Calico and helping attend to the town’s government matters.
Lawyer Herbert Bird is still a bit of a nervous Nelly sometimes, but he’s settled into a nice position helping out with civic activities too—when he’s not helping guests cool down.
Occasional lawyer and general everyman Kid Friday is back at Ghost Town Alive! He’s another original cast member.
If the prior two locations were the centers of education and civic duty, the Calico Bank was the heart of action. Because inevitably, there would be some attempt to empty this establishment of its valuable contents, making it a frequent site of exciting plot turns.
Left to right, the employees of the Calico Bank, Cookie Lemon, Wisconsin Wes, and Coop Walker.
Cookie is still boss around these parts.
Wisconsin Wes has now fully reformed and enjoys assisting Cookie in providing the town with financial services. Plus his outlaw past gives him the ability to sort of play the role of security sometimes.
There were also characters not necessarily based out of any particular building. For example, the Calvary & the Explorers roamed around Calico. Last year, the cavalry was revealed to be imposters, because the people the Citizens of Calico thought belonged to the cavalry were actually part of the Mad Bucks Gang. This year, the actual calvary was in town, assisting one familiar and one new adventurer with their expeditions out to the wilderness and back.
Half of the Colter & Potts duo are back, along with a new explorer and the real cavalry—the law-abiding and enforcing, non-bandit, government one!
Darby Whirt and Major Riley Barnett help maintain order in Calico, which is a job that may have outgrown just the local Sheriff’s Office.
Private Barrett Hansen is goofy and sometimes absent-minded but always entertaining and loyal.
Taking place of John Potts, explorer Alfred LaDeen helps discover the treasure map that kickstarts this year’s story. Fun fact, the actor who plays Alfred LaDeen also was one of the actors who played the hero in Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular at the Hyperion Theater in Disney California Adventure. Hence, “Al LaDeen”… get it?
The Mad Bucks Gang itself was back too—well, half of them. Similar to how the Mayfield Gang were the main antagonists in season 1 but became embedded in the community in season 2, the Mad Bucks were accepted as part of Calico last season, though the law officers kept a tight eye on them.
Archie “Crybaby” Schafer and Lane “The Con” Winters constitute the returning members of the Mad Bucks Gang, and they’re definitely a lot less malicious than last season.
Similar to how Ox Mayfield became a friendlier paternal figure, Lane Winters has taken on a more general counseling role.
Archie Schafer never did seem like the bandit type, and he’s a little more playful this time around.
The Mayfield Gang also returned to Calico, minus several members. There was no sight of Ma or Mudd Mayfield, who each played shocking roles in the previous season’s finale. Also missing last summer was fan favorite Clay Mayfield, who seemed to have left town looking for his relatives. But being a large clan, there were still familiar Mayfield faces to encounter, and they seemed to be more reformed than ever now!
Ox Mayfield is the town roaming musician in Calico 1891.
Ike Mayfield is back and just as lovably weird as ever.
Scruff Mayfield still occasionally finds himself on the wrong side of the law and has to call the hoedown to work off community service.
Dead-Eye Jackson is an unofficial member of the Mayfield clan—not by blood, but by friendship.
(Not pictured in this series but present over the summer was Tiny Mayfield, who was indisposed on this final Founder’s Day of the season.)
There were also a few miscellaneous characters who didn’t necessarily fit into any particular group or affiliation.
Flint Stalahk, the owner of Calico’s favorite (and only?) donkey, is a bit of a free roamer.
Abigail Dynamite is still a supporting but friendly character at Ghost Town Alive!
There’s also this guy, Ken, but I’m not sure what he does around here.
Not officially part of the Ghost Town Alive! cast but part of the live dance show at the Bird Cage Theatre this summer are the performers of Cameo Kate’s Western Burle-Q Review!
And the best attempt at a panoramic group cast photo at the end of the day!
A huge shout-out goes out to the entire cast, particularly on the finale weekend of Ghost Town Alive! last year, which was right in the middle of that extended and exhausting heat wave we had. With temperatures in the 90’s and 100’s, Mother Nature was definitely making that desert Old West ambiance feeling very realistic. But all of the characters kept marching right on in character and with the story—though there might have been more water breaks and general water spraying than normal.
Guests & Interactions
The soul of this event lies in all the touching, meaningful interactions between the guests and actors. As I’ve written before, the beauty of Ghost Town Alive! is how it can seamlessly suck a guest in from being an observer to a participant. It’s never forced, and the actors know how to balance between a hesitant visitor and someone who’s more curious and wants to indulge in this 1800s Old West reality. And there are plenty of different ways that this magical relationship expressed itself.
The original advertised appeal of Ghost Town Alive! was being able to step into the classic peek-in’s of Ghost Town and meet characters inside their establishments. This still happens and forms the backbone of a lot of the interactive experiences at the event.
Children play cards with Sheriff Wheeler—something we’ve seen in plenty of promotional material for Ghost Town Alive!
A guest converses with Augustus French at the Assayer’s Office.
In Town Hall, when there wasn’t governmental business happening, there seemed to be an awful lot of weddings happening! And who wouldn’t want someone from Calico to officiate your nuptials? Even if it wasn’t legally binding, it was still a great way to show off two partners’ love of each other in a fun setting.
Kid Friday serves as the escort to the “altar” for a guest looking to offer her vows.
In a separate ceremony, Mayor Howell pronounced this couple man and wife.
And everyone was around to celebrate and congratulate!
Sometimes, guests found ways to directly impact the fabric of the Ghost Town Alive! event itself, whether it be creating something that became an actual prop in the production or instigating storyline elements that were recorded for posterity!
This map of Calico was actually drawn by a guest and portrayed the town and its surrounding geographical features in 1891 mythology!
1-800-Karts of Kids (goats). Absolutely love it.
On this day, some of the guests even got into a shoot-out, but with their cameras instead of revolvers!
Speaking of influencing things, guests could also help drive side stories taking place in parallel with the main Founder Day’s narrative. These could often result in hilariously absurd make believes and the actors putting themselves into ridiculous situations to play along. But that was also part of the charm and appeal. At a certain age, kids are still kids retaining their innocence, but they’re old enough to be used to adults not wanting to play because of real life responsibilities or being busy. But in Ghost Town Alive!, the actors do play and go along with whatever serendipitous ideas enter a child’s mind.
I forget the exact origin, but on this day, Wisconsin Wes had to practice being a scarecrow to help a guest out with possibly some problem with crops.
He even had a trial run outside.
Teddy Delmundo took some ill-informed advice and ended up in jail for a spell.
A sudden snake infestation struck Calico in the afternoon, and one of the children brought the slitherers to Thelma Kinkaide.
Turns out she does NOT like snakes!
Just as the guests had the chance to drive their interactions with the actors, often too did the actors play their roles and loop guests into their make-believe. Sometimes, this was with period-specific props and acting. Other times, real-life conditions called for some improvisation.
This sequence of Bixby Knolls testing his camera out with a young fan was absolutely adorable. There are more photos in the gallery below.
The last Founders Day of 1891 was a scorcher, and Herbert Bird helpfully provided a way to cool guests down.
There were also plenty of incidents where the cast members had fun with each other, going “off script” to entertain themselves and the witnessing fans while remaining within the general confines of the main plot points.
I didn’t capture the exact action well, but this was a funny moment where Dead-Eye Jackson kept on water gun squirting the cavalry members.
And they kept thinking it was each other playing pranks while Dead-Eye played dead!
The crowd ratted him out, though, and he was apprehended.
Suffice to say that Ghost Town Alive! has developed a devoted following and plenty of crowds that actually return multiple times a season to play out the show with their favorite characters or find a different twist on the same storyline. The guest momentum even after a two year hiatus was remarkable to see!
The last day of Ghost Town Alive! brought out the legions of fans and supporters, even with the hot temperatures!
The Story
Read our review from the beginning of the season for specifics. But to bridge into the exciting events of the final day of Ghost Town Alive! 2022 / 1891, here’s a quick recap of the overarching storyline of GTA season 5.
A few years after the reappearance of Mudd Mayfield and the getaway of Phyllis and Ox Mayfield as the secret actual leaders of the Mad Bucks Gang, Calico has settled down and mended bridges, as some of the Mad Bucks members (and Ox Mayfield) have returned to town and been forgiven, while Ma Mayfield and some other Mayfield members remain at large.
On the morning of Founder’s Day, a mysterious chest is unearthed by John Colter and Alfred LaDeen, and it turns out to contain the directions to the legendary riches of the bandit Black Bart. Members of the Mayfields, the Mad Bucks, and the townsfolk lay claim to town ownership and thus the map, and in their struggle, tear the map into three! The real cavalry intercedes and rules that a series of contests will occur throughout the day to decide who wins possession of the prize. The pieces of the map are taken to the bank for safe-keeping, but later, a suspect (on this day, Dead-Eye Jackson) is caught breaking in to try to the steal the map! He is imprisoned and tried for his crimes, but after turning out to have an unexpected alibi, the real culprit is revealed to be Mayor Milton Howell, who framed Dead-Eye out of good intentions to make sure Calico could have control of the treasure and do good with it, as opposed to the suspicious Mayfield and Mad Bucks bandits. Outed in his conspiracy, Mayor Howell is forced to resign, and an election is held to determine the new leader of Calico.
We joint the last Founders Day with the torn map having been attempted to be stolen.
Sheriff Wheeler is on the case!
The perpetrator is Dead-Eye Jackson, known loyal affiliate of the Mayfield Gang.
He’s taken to trial at Town Hall.
Dead-Eye is a ruffian, so he must be guilty!
Dead-Eye seems to want to protest his innocence but can’t bring himself to provide the vital information that would prove it.
Suddenly, impromptu legal counsel, Kid Friday comes up to try to defend Dead-Eye and give him an attempt at a fair trial.
Turns out Dead-Eye couldn’t have broken into the bank, because he was on a picnic with Deputy Skylar. That’s right, it’s forbidden love between a pair of opposite sides of the law!
Who really did it? Why, it was Mayor Howell!!
He did it. For The Rock. He did it. For the people.
Well, the second part is true. He just wanted Calico to have the treasure, especially since its previous treasure from the end of season 2 turned out to be fool’s gold.
The map is carried away for real safe keeping by the cavalry. For real this time, not like in season 4, when the Mad Bucks in disguise carried away the town’s wealth.
An election is held to determine the new mayor. Three Citizens of Calico are nominated, and park guests can also be nominated!
Poor ex-Mayor Howell must leave his public post after his indictment. He’s not excited.
Games
As part of the main storyline, various games—typically involving water (which was great on the nearly 100-degree GTA! finale day) and teamwork—were played, with guests deciding which of the three factions to represent and try to gain points for. There were also side contests, like a whiskerino competition, that were comedically enthralling.
The Season Finale
As fans of Ghost Town Alive! know, the season finale has traditionally brought upon a twist to the main storyline and brought the summer’s mysteries to a close—all while revealing a new surprise or cliffhanger to cap off the event! This season was no exception, as not one but two shocking appearances blindsided the crowd after a cryptic puzzle appeared earlier in the day, prompting a treasure hunt.
Keep reading to recap the details!
And with that, Ghost Town Alive! rode off into the sunset, to rest for another offseason. Fortunately, it will be back again this year, starting Friday, May 19th. If you’ve never checked it out, make this year your first time! If you have participated before, you know how much fun and how touching this interactive production is. This is Disney-esque wonder—a level of enveloping storytelling that really transports guests to another age. And everyone involved with Ghost Town Alive! handles their roles and their relationships with the guests with so much care. Whether veteran cast or newcomers, the Citizens of Calico settle right into forging special moments and cherished memories with participating guests. And we certainly hope to see this event continue and thrive for years and years to come!
Eternal Ghost Town Alive! observer, Catawampus says MOO!!
Architect. Photographer. Disney nerd. Haunt enthusiast. Travel bugged. Concert fiend. Asian.
