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Walter Knott built Ghost Town starting in 1940, salvaging authentic buildings and materials from abandoned western settlements across the region to create an atmosphere for the crowds lining up outside Cordelia Knott\'s Chicken Dinner Restaurant. Sad Eye Joe was part of that first wave.
Woodcarver Andy Anderson carved the figure for Walter Knott that same year — a deeply furrowed wooden face with a cigarette in his mouth (since removed), sitting in a small jail beside the restaurant and talking to visitors through the bars with the help of a hidden park employee\'s voice. The employee could be slipped a visitor\'s name in advance, and Joe would call it out through the window — a piece of low-tech interactive theater that charmed generations of children and adults alike. His \"real name,\" according to Ghost Town legend, is Joseph Nagnapper, jailed for stealing the sheriff\'s horse.
The card was produced almost immediately after the attraction opened, likely within the first few years of Ghost Town\'s existence. The visitors lined up outside the jail are dressed in early 1940s clothing; the Ghost Town surroundings look freshly built. The humorous grave marker just visible at right — \"1857, Here Lies Ephraim Butts\" — is one of several gag signs Anderson and Knott installed to give the place texture and personality.
Sad Eye Joe is still in the jail today, still one of the oldest continuously operating attractions at any American theme park. Knott\'s Berry Farm, which started as a berry stand in 1920 and grew into America\'s first theme park, now draws millions of visitors a year — but Joe has been there since before it was a theme park at all.
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