OTHER TIDBITS: Not much else is written on the history of this particular school, but it is part of a larger collection of historic buildings gathered by Walter Knott to amuse his customers! A combination of demand for his boysenberries and his wife, Cordelia’s, fried chicken made Knott’s Garden Place so highly visited that Mr. Knott wanted to find more ways to entertain guests while they were waiting in line!

He started with a huge “volcano” with a desert garden around it, but in 1940, he changed his goal to create an entire ghost town to teach people about the American West! For the next two decades, he sent two agents throughout California to buy up buildings, barns, buggies, and whatever other historical paraphernalia they could contribute to build an entire town, including the two-story Old Trails Hotel from Prescott, Arizona, a full-sized recreation of a bottle cabin from Calico, and of course, the Old Maizeland School!

• Pay the entrance fee to help maintain trails, signs, structures, and other visitor services!
• Volunteer with the Orange County Historical Society!
• Donate to the Native Daughters of the Golden West!
• Be a responsible visitor! Please respect the signs and pathways, and treat all structures and artifacts with respect. They’ve endured a lot to survive into the present. They’ll need our help to make it into the future!

ANNOTATIONS:
Don’t be fooled by the signs! The Old Schoolhouse isn’t really the Maizeland School. The Maizeland School is now the Express Outpost at Museum Lane and Wild Water Wilderness!

From Los Angeles: ~23mi (38km) — 0.4hrs
From Sacramento: ~406mi (654km) — 6.8hrs
From San Diego: ~101mi (163km) — 1.7hrs
From San Francisco: ~404mi (651km) — 6.8hrs