Interview with Brian Knoebel
Photos Courtesy of Knoebels Amusement Resort

What does Knoebels offer customers?
We have seventy-plus attractions, including nearly sixty rides, our kiddie play area, and a 900,000-gallon pool with four water slides. There are also over two dozen games to enjoy. Another big reason people come here is our food. We have thirty-eight food stands, and we’ve won twenty-two Golden Ticket awards, which name the world’s best park food.

What else makes Knoebels unique as a park and a business?
For starters, parking and entry are free: instead of gates and turnstiles, a gravel pathway and a canopy of trees welcome guests. I also challenge you to find another park that has as many benches as we do. We’re perfectly content if they come in, find a shady spot, sit, and people-watch. Sure, we appreciate them buying an ice-cream cone or tickets for rides, but we don’t force it.

We found our niche long ago—allowing folks to get away from life and remember simpler times—and we’re not going to change that focus. We are a multigenerational family park: third and fourth generations run it, and third- and fourth-generation families visit it regularly.

Our corporate structure, if you can call it that, is also different. Everyone is kind of equal in the sense that we don’t focus on our titles. We just go wherever we’re needed.” We don’t have board of directors meetings. Instead, every meeting is basically a family reunion.

How long is your season? Do you have a lot of seasonal employees?
We used to have a hundred-day season, but now we offer Halloween and Christmas events. Starting January 2, we take the Christmas decorations down over the course of three weeks, take a breather, then in March start our hire and rehire meetings, job fairs, and onboarding process for bringing in the team—the last Saturday of April, when our season begins, comes on real fast. In all, we have a little over 2,400 seasonal staff and about 160 full-time and part-time staff.

Does your pricing structure attract guests? Have you ever been tempted to turn away from that model?
Accounting firms have long tried to advise us on what to charge. But my uncle Pete, the former president prior to my dad, put his foot down when one insisted that he had to charge two or three dollars for a ride ticket instead of a buck. He insisted that people would get more satisfaction out of the ticket at that price—that they’d not only repeat a ride but also come back to Knoebels and tell their friends and neighbors about it. So we’ve never even talked about charging admission. It’s all about value. We could certainly charge more, but we flat-out won’t.

You’re located in Elysburg, which is in a somewhat remote part of Pennsylvania. What are the challenges and rewards of it?
Great question. Our primary challenge is that when we need staff to build our team, we’re not pulling from Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, or even Erie. We’re hiring from Elysburg and other small local towns. Even when I go to industry events, people tell me they’ve heard so much about Knoebels but that it’s also tough to get to.

We have one road coming in and one road going out. There are no major highways— the closest interstate is probably twenty minutes away. We are also totally encapsulated by three different hillsides here in the valley of the Appalachian Mountains, so people will drive right by the park and not even realize it. There’s no Uber or Lyft in our area, either. We’re so remote, we don’t even use city water; we treat our own in-house and make sure that it meets all rules and regulations.

But, boy, the positives. So many guests tell me Knoebels is where they go to get away from life—so we’re able to create that place for escapism by being in Elysburg. In fact, they’ll also share with me that they love our environment so much, they won’t tell friends and neighbors they went here because they don’t want it to get too popular. Honestly, we’re always balancing that as well: We’re aware of profits, of course, but if too many people find us, would we truly remain Pennsylvania’s Hometown Park?

A creek also runs through your park, and it sometimes floods. What sort of unique business challenges does that pose?
Actually, more parks are lost to fires than floods. Because of that fact and our remote location, we have fire equipment here 24/7. And the creek’s location sometimes presents interesting billing challenges from time to time, regardless of conditions, since it separates Knoebels into two counties and three townships.

We’re located in a valley, though, and in summertime, the creek and its breeze are usually our best friend. But when the water’s coming hard, it’s our worst enemy, and, sadly, we’ve gotten way too good at flood preparation. To handle such emergencies, we have a couple of dams in the park. If the water’s rising, the first thing we do is pull those dams—you can instantly see the water drop. Still, we’ve had some devastation through the years, especially in 1972 and 2011; we mark these historical flood heights in a few places throughout the park as a reminder of the park’s and my family’s perseverance.

If flooding happens on a busy week in July or August, that’s obviously a big revenue stream hit in addition to the cleanup. But we’re blessed with an amazing team, and the community shows up with shovels and boots, ready to dive in. That’s pretty special.

Would you say that  Knoebels’ success over the last century can be attributed, at least in part, to that resilient mindset your family has?
Absolutely. Uncle Pete was in the navy, Dad was in the marines, and another park co-owner, my uncle Buddy, was in the army, so they have that military drive. My dad is also an overachiever with multiple engineering degrees, and Buddy was a two-time national champion in wrestling. So you’re talking about some of the most determined people you’ll ever meet.

For example, in the eighties, our fans said that they wanted a wooden roller coaster, so my dad found a defunct one in San Antonio and decided to move it here. People said he couldn’t move a wooden roller coaster thousands of miles, and he replied, “Watch me.” You can’t tell Dick Knoebel he can’t do something. Thirteen truckloads later, the Phoenix was set up and debuted in June of 1985. It put us on the map, and it has since been named the world’s best roller coaster several times.

That generation has always seemed to love working. I feel the same about Knoebels— there’s nothing I’d rather do than get up in the morning and come to work here.

Can you reveal what the park’s going to do to celebrate one hundred years?
We’re not a major corporation like some others in our industry; we need to do things on a much smaller scale. Though we’re keeping the details under wraps, I can tell you that we’re focusing on our history and tradition. We’ll have special events and promotions and a season-long celebration.

For more info, visit knoebels.com