Knott’s classic wooden carousel was carved at the turn of the century in Gustav A. Dentzel’s shop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dentzel came to America in 1864 after learning the carousel-carving trade from his father, Michael, in Germany, and seven years later he produced America’s first amusement park carousel. After Gustav died in 1909, his son William continued the family business for twenty years, and by the time of William’s death in 1928 the Dentzel shop had become the model and benchmark by which other carousel makers were judged. Dentzel carousels were known for excellent craftsmanship, intricately carved menagerie animals, and realistic-looking horses. Of the many carousels produced by the Dentzel family from 1867 to 1928, fewer than two dozen remain. This carousel has a two-level platform with 52 animals and two chariots and is considered one of the finest examples of the golden age of the carousel still in operation. It is 52 feet in diameter, with a 25-foot-high center post made of Canadian spruce, and all of its brass poles are original. Among the carvers represented on it are Daniel and Alfred Muller, Salvatore Cernigliaro, and E. Joy Morris. The carousel was originally at Hershey Park in Hershey, Pennsylvania, then moved in 1936 to Brady Park in Canton, Ohio, brought to Buena Park by Walter Knott in 1955, and placed in its present location in 1987. Two antique band organs made by the Wurlitzer Company provide music, and the jester’s head mounted above came from a carousel made by William H. Dentzel around 1920.
