Emerald City III
18 CommentsThose of you who have been following my “Emerald City” discussion may rightfully conclude that I am all talk and no walk. You would be right about that for the most part. Over the years, we have made some major improvements on the farm, but the pace has been very slow. If you read my book, (people tell me it’s very engaging), you’ll see that the Riley family did what real estate investors tell you to avoid. (“Don’t buy raw dirt.”) We’ve managed to build some homes here, along with commercial kitchens, out-buildings, and banquet facilities, but the real vision for the place is still “out there.” We don’t have the money to make costly mistakes. We need to make sure what we build and what we market actually attracts a paying audience.
The place inspires option-shock on a scale hard to describe. Friends, customers, family members all make their proposals…
“Build a trout pond.”
“..an RV park.”
“..a zip-line.”
“..a New England chapel..”
All of the ideas have some merit, but they need to be placed in the proper development matrix. If you were to build one hundred country cottages across the farm, and there was nothing for the guests to do, they might sit empty.
Think this all through with me..
In my own muddled way, I am trying to zero in on the defining nature of a new farm experience. The idea – setting the bar impossibly high—has to be irresistible. It has to be something like a catchy tune you can’t stop singing, or a story you can’t stop telling your friends. We can’t solicit money JUST to build a beautiful garden or a well landscaped hiking trail. The garden, the trail, the tavern, the cottages, the cider caves are hugely important, but they are really just the art direction that inspires and cradles the performance. People must feel, on some level, baptized and reborn by the experience.
The key elements..
Sanctuary: culturally, we want the farm to represent an escape from post-modern insanity. If you don’t recognize the madness around you, you are probably not our customer, but if you are tired of woke-shaming and flag-burning and faith-mockery and heritage-bashing, the farm is a place to take a breath–among people who share appreciation for the majesty of God’s creation, and the tranquility inspired by His truth.
Challenge: for those who choose it, the farm should represent a place to grow, intellectually, physically, spiritually, and artistically. It should be a place to paint landscapes, tie knots, film a scene, make soap, and turn an oak tree into plank flooring.
Majestic rest: I have coined this term to describe the way you feel looking out at the ocean from the third story balcony of your freshly cleaned hotel room. For some folks, “majestic rest” is a sleeping bag in the High Sierras. For others, it’s a cantina next to a vineyard. At 5300 feet above sea level, there are several farm hill tops that could–with planning, landscaping, cultivation, and staffing – provide this sense of the calming long view. Generally speaking though, I’m not just talking about pleasing vistas; I’m talking about the sort of rest you experience when your comfort is being sought by the staff. The farm should be a place where, between challenges, you can close your eyes, lean back into the seat cushions, and know that your apple pie is on its way.
How do we get there?
Of these three elements, “sanctuary” and “majestic rest” are the easiest to achieve. As a family, for the most part, we are culture-warriors from the cradle, and we tend to attract guests who enjoy traditional music and redemptive drama. The farm itself already provides enormous “majestic rest” of the sort that can easily be exploited with more furniture, shade structures, landscaping, and cultivation.
“Challenge,” however, gives me pause, both by way of definition and the setting of priorities. (More on this later.)
Speaking of challenge broadly– in a vacation or day-trip context –we are talking about the central activity that inspires the guest visit in the first place. In places like Sundance, Utah, the challenge is snow-skiing. In Branson, it would be concerts or dinner theater. Resort hotels feature tennis and golf. Oak Glen has proven that something as simple as apple-picking can attract enormous crowds, but apple-picking can’t be sustained across seasons and the activity itself consumes a few hours at most.
Challenge also exists on a scale. Unless you are six year old, where the challenge would be “courage,” taking a ride on the Matterhorn doesn’t require much of you. I suppose dinner theater might represent a kind of challenge, but it’s largely passive as well. You can choose to engage with the story or go to sleep. On the other end of the scale, sporting vacations or “education vacations” are designed to test your skills and measure your performance. Generally speaking, a “zero” challenge is sitting in the auditorium and watching the show. A “ten” challenge is walking up onto the stage and holding the attention of 10,000 people.
If you have followed our programs, you know that Riley’s Farm encourages you to jump into the drama, and the farming, and the music. At the Revolutionary War adventure, students are actually given dialogue lines to speak. Our “Sleepy Hollow” dinner theater is chock full of hayrides, pumpkin-carving contests, and instructed dancing. We give prizes, at some events, for the best toast of the evening. In the past, we have even given cameo roles to guest-volunteers.
This desire to involve the guest is born of a frustration we felt, as a family, with living history “shrine” sites – Williamsburg, Gettysburg, Plymouth Plantation. The sites are beautiful. The wardrobe is immaculate (for the most part). Some of the performances are compelling, but the guest himself is a passive observer. He’s not pushed to think, much less speak, or hammer iron, or whittle a spoon.
Hammering Down the Definition
It seems to me our central “challenge” definition could go in one of three directions, but will likely exist side by side. Those categories are..
Living History Challenge Games
Performances
Skills Education
Living History Challenge Games
At present, our field trip programs for children are the primary example of this category. Students drill with the militia, use primitive hand-looms to weave home-spun wool, engage in etiquette role-play and engage in a mock battle. These programs have been tremendously popular, and – despite cancel culture and “pandemic” battles – they still pay most of our bills.
What gives me pause here?
Would adults and families pay for a more detailed and advanced version of this experience? I hesitate to use the term “West World,” since that production depicted living history role play as dark and salacious, but the concept is similar. Dress in period clothing. Learn the language of the time. Take in a briefing on a specific historic problem (the advance of Burgoyne’s army, the stealing of a gold claim, the division of a family over the Civil War), and then play the part in a context that allowed for board-game style objectives.
A day-long experience..
9 AM Guests change into period clothing, orientation. Each guest is given a bio.
10 AM Today’s “game” briefing: It is August of 1777. British General John Burgoyne is massing an army of redcoats and Indians in Canada. He is demanding that all colonials surrender their arms. One of the staff living historians and one of the guests (randomly) is an agent of the British army.
11 AM – 4 PM Guests play the game with several challenges: 1) find the spy(s) 2) locate British deserters 3) re-locate a stockpile of colonial muskets so as to prevent their seizure 4) complete a specific 18th century era craft challenge (hand-sewing, fire-starting, spoon-whittling) 5) locate, by virtue of bio-based conversation with other guests, the location of a “dead-drop” communication between British spies
5 PM Town meeting, news of a local teenage boy being killed by an encounter with British troops, stirring patriotic speech
6 PM – 9 PM dinner in the tavern, awards ceremony, live music, dancing
A cinematic experience..
Guests change into the clothing of the era, with specific attention to wigs, roles, bios, and language. The goal will be to film a three minute period scene with high production values. Along the way, enjoy craft services, production education, and the expertise of historic consultants. Experience concludes with a tavern dinner, live music, dancing, and guest speeches.
Living History Escape Room
Guests are locked in a gold prospector’s cabin and can’t get out unless they work together to find the secret passageway
Pros..
- A lot of this can be done with our existing facilities and wardrobe
- It’s very unusual, and if done well, will be talked about a lot
- If done well, it can bring home the value of American history
Cons..
- Children ENJOY pretending. Do adults?
- This requires a lot of improv, both on the part of the staff and the guests. As Phil Hartman once observed, with improv, 95% of what comes out is AWFUL. 5% is better than anything you could script.
- To do this right, the guests would have to pay $300 to $900 each. Is the market there?
Performances
Most of our “living history dinner theater” performances sell out at what seems to be the market rate in Southern California — $69 for adults (2024 dollars). We have more trouble in the spring and summer, but we believe that sustained marketing and “upping our game” on drama and performance will be rewarded long term – particularly if we can eventually offer lodging and/or local accommodations.
We believe there is also room for a broader audience in the form of a weekly variety show that would go out live over the internet, or via a radio syndicate. Content: Uplifting, funny, touching, politically incorrect, America-loving.
Skills Education
Picture a yearly calendar of educational workshops on everything from pruning an apple tree to making black powder from chicken poop to brewing hard cider to “manhood skills” to “swing dancing with your sweetheart” to “singing harmony.” The emphasis would be on skills you could teach in a single day, but there might be a market for week-long classes as well.
- Requires a full-time coordinator to imagine the topics, set a price on them, and find the experts who can teach them
- Facilities: we would need a building dedicated to general education of this sort. The packing shed could probably serve in the interim.
- Pricing: if we want to provide quality instruction, we would have to make sure we know what the market will really support. I think there would be a spectrum from the $15 basket-weaving 2 hour course to the $200 all day couples dancing course.
Today’s Specials
Given the number of programs the farm already offers, I have worried about how we introduce, or shift our focus, but I think we can manage a new product by employing the chain restaurant’s use of the “today’s specials” strategy. A restaurant’s menu is perfected by always introducing new specials. If the guests really respond to a new offering, that new offering crowds out the slower-selling items on their menu.
Similarly, on the farm, if we begin offering new scheduled items (example: a family-oriented living history cinema challenge) and that becomes popular, it begins demanding more dates on the calendar. The goal is to have lots of admission-based items available on a web calendar. Get the customer to buy their experience far ahead of time, and then guarantee their presence when their day-trip, or their week-long vacation comes up.
Admission Is The Key
Most of our guests are absolute jewels, but just yesterday I pulled onto the farm after we were closed and found a woman plucking apples after hours. I pulled up next to her and let her know she can’t just stop by and pick apples for free. She sneered at me.
This is the worst example of an abuse stemming from “the grounds are open without admission,” but, in general, putting out an “open” sign and waiting for people to drive in just doesn’t work in Oak Glen. You have to build your market ahead of time.
My sense is that we start with a gate, and an admission charge that is very low. Perhaps $10 (2024). The guests can walk the grounds, and park for that, but if they want any of the other programs, they would buy them online, or, if they happened to be here on a date they were offered, they could buy admission to the challenge games, performances, or skills education of their choice. Under this scenario, guests might pay as little as $10 for grounds admission up to $900 for a “cinematic” living history challenge.
What to build and buy first
As I’ve written before, in support of all of this, we have been thinking about making the following improvements..
- Paved or cobblestone parking lots and roadways
- Admission booths and gates
- A manicured, landscaped trail system with shade structures and points of interest along what could total a combined route of 15 or more miles
- Glam camping tents decorated with period furnishings
- A stone-lined wading pond and splash pad that serves in the winter as an ice skating rink
- A restoration and re-fitting of the 1880s packing shed, with a cider cave capable of producing hard cider, brandy and apple-whiskey
- Reforestation of the farm’s “back country.”
- Increased apple and wine grape planting and terracing
- Period craft-production shops (paper-making, chandlery, printing press, pottery)
Your Feedback
Just writing this has helped me answer a few questions of my own. (Keep in mind, I am composing this during the #linefire conflagration that is threatening the San Bernardino mountains. We have been through this before.)
Most of our changes don’t require a great deal of major construction. We would be investing, after a few structures, in staff training, marketing, and program design.
Would it work? Your thoughts are very much coveted!
Categorised in: Farm Journal
This post was written by Jim Riley
18 Comments
#1 Splash Pond; Ice Skating.
# Hard Cider Mill
# Reservation (fee) Day use Picnic Areas with Picnic Tables, shade with either trees or pop ups; catering from approved vendor list only. Do you have space where this would not Interfere with the period vibe?
I would love to see a murder mystery dinner theatre or even better a murder mystery weekend but I don’t know if you have overnight accommodations
I like all of your ideas! I think the pond that also serves as an ice skating rink would be a great draw for the local kids and families. I’m sure sledding that is more organized than random visitors might also be a draw. Praying all these ideas become a reality over time.
I also like the idea of an ice skating rink! I know Oak Glen (specifically Riley’s Farm) is our first choice for snow activities. The full day day activity where we would dress up sounds AMAZING! My friend and I are on our third year of attending the last evening of Christmas in the Colonies simply because we love dressing up! Who cares that we are nearly 30!
A full day would be so fun and I know we would love to add it to our annual friend traditions. Lord of the Rings events and Renaissance fairs are popular especially on social media, so I don’t see why spending a day dressed up as a lady or gentleman in the late 1700’s wouldn’t be just as desired.
The other idea that stuck out to me were the day long skills education! The “manly” skills would be great! My husband is always looking for something like that to do with his friends. Our friend’s motorcycle club would also love to do events like that and that would be a group of 20 guys.
YES to everything!!!
YES, adults love to dress up and pretend. I’m in Colonial Williamsburg 3-4 times a year, and I love to observe the adults who dress out or even buy a period tri-corn or bonnet to wear. They used to have “Revolution City” that would feature a particular year on given days (1775, 1776, etc.), and put on plays in the street that engage the guests. Guests would be mustered into the militia and march down Duke of Gloucester to the military parade grounds with fife and drum. They would be given lines to say/shout, and became immersed in the historic event/scene. Why they ever stopped doing it is a mystery – crowds amassed and LOVED it. Your living history ideas are spot on, and you could have scenarios for individuals as well as entire families. That day long experience is BRILLIANT! I’d be all over it, and I bet you could get reenactors who’d love to come and participate in a weekend military focus highlighting their particular niche of history. If you combined the cinematic experience to capture the day, that would be a bonanza win. The Escape Room idea is wildly popular, but that cost would be prohibitive. I’d explore cheaper options. Definitely build admission gates not only for your protection but for the protection of guests. What about tiny houses as overnight possibilities? Love any and all period/living history crafts and skill training. I’d love to provide writing workshops to promote storytelling/book writing to inspire the next generation’s pen. Teaching how to research and write history like my Epic Patriot Camp model. We could so easily do an annual Epic Patriot Camp week at Riley’s – let’s do it next year! Keep up the good fight and the good work in all that you do – you are making a difference for history, and bringing so much joy and delight in every facet of Riley’s Farm.
We’ve been coming to your farm for over 20 years with our family and come up more then just during apple season. We remember when you did have a pond with fish in it many years ago. So my first vote would be for the pond that would serve as an ice skating rink in winter. My second vote would be to bring back your Christmas light event (I forget what you called it but it was about 2 years ago we attended) and the ice skating rink would fit perfect with that as well! I like the above suggestion for a special picnic area for families to enjoy. Another fun suggestion I would have is a farm to table with apples, where kids pick the apples from the tree and then have a cooking lesson using them in a recipe. I’m sure whatever you decide will be fantastic.
I love the idea of the wading pond/ice rink. Wading pond would be nice for the hotter seasons that typically keep me away during that time.
Would love a place to stay may be glam tents or small campground. (We have a trailer)
And day long educational experience sounds awesome!
These are all great ideas! Sounds like these expansions will further turn your farm into a theme park, a smaller scale one but one nonetheless, theme parks create an intentional narrative experience for guests, where if you plan it right you can control the eb and flow of your guests through certain areas leading to other attractions, just like writers control the pace and flow of stories. If you need inspiration look at Knott’s Berry Farm, that park was built one attraction at a time, done on extremely limited budget, with the help of outside concessionaires to help with financing the attractions and the financial risks (Disney did this as well on a much larger scale with corporate sponsors). But unlike Knott’s a design/plan of the entirety of your farm would help greatly so future attractions are planned with intention not all willy nilly slapped together big issue with Knott’s and will allow your attractions to easily share resources needed like water, electricity, Wi-Fi, etc…
Besides a coordinator an experiential designer would be great, those are theme park designers, at Disney they are called imagineers, they don’t just design rides they design the entire experience, the walk ways, bathroom areas, eating areas, the transitions from area to area, they understand what guests want, how they use areas, how to get guests to go where they want them to go, what they’ll spend time/money on, etc… They’ll also know how to research trends, focus groups, etc… This all sounds like a lot but it’s like the blue print of a house, you design the whole thing all at once, I you know you’re going to want to add-on you plan for it as much as possible in this phase because it’ll make it faster, easier, cheaper and higher quality later.
Also at Knott’s Berry Farm look at their Ghost Town Alive event, it spectacular, more focus towards kids, but it’s great fun for everyone of all ages to sit back and watch. It’s basically a live action role playing game that has a structured beginning and end, with everything in between being chaos due to the unscripted actions of the guests. It’s also casual, so it’s play as you want so guests can come and go as the they want and the actors will continue with their scripted rolls until guests engage. So yes it’s a lot like West World minus the robots and cowboys running amuck on visitors.
Another great example of a small theme park is Skypark Santa’s Village, they’ve figured out how to grab onto the year round tourists and pride themselves so that locals keep them busy as well. This is key. Oak Glen probably has the same problem as Julian down in SD does where their tourist pricing makes them a no go for locals.
Create new seasonal festivals with the other local businesses. There used to be a Cherry festival or something up there. Julian has a Mining Days in the summer.
Then while determining your attractions, test some out, be flexible (guests/clients/customers are bound to want and love things you hate or absolutely hate ideas you’ve fallen in love with), check out other successful farms or parks that have similar offerings and see which ones have the highest ROI, also see which ones work well together. Prioritize attractions you might only be able to open one E ticket every 2 years, but you can easily add a few smaller possibly temporary or movable A Ticket attractions every year, some that may need to move when the bigger one is completed.
Keep in mind everything people spend money on is in competition with your business. Toys, games, groceries, eating out, beauty salons, streaming subscriptions, the beach, travel, zoos (a theme parks also), skiing, Disneyland, etc… Families want high quality for high value, when they feel like (feel not necessarily factually based, this is experience based) they are getting a high value they will spend more and they’ll gladly give it to you. If they feel like they’re being fleeced and nickeled and dimed for everything they may pay to complete the day, but they won’t be back and they’ll activate keep others from going. Pricing is tricky, admission fee, is tricky, if they pay to get in but there’s nothing to do included in that, that creates a bad experience. There will always be cognitive dissonance in how you think things are seen and valued between what you know/think/feel and every single guest that walks in your door.
Feel free to write me back. I look forward to seeing what Riley’s has in store for Oak Glen. My family has been going to Los Rios in the fall for 65 yrs and head up there several times throughout the year.
Wow, thanks for that detailed reply.
We believe, with rural land across the country, there is an opportunity to create a new kind of vacation/experience destination that leaves the land looking mostly horticultural and under cultivation. I agree that a master plan is the ONLY way to look at it all long term, as well. I will have to check out the live action role play at Knott’s. I didn’t know to what extent they were doing that.
As others have mentioned, the pond is quite appealing! I differ from some in that I do not find pleasure in dressing up in costume as an adult, but thoroughly enjoy watching others do so on my behalf to portray history, or a lovely story. Seeing others in character is a delight!
I’m sure it’s difficult without formal admission to the farm, but I make a plea to steer clear of admission booths, gates, tickets, etc. Our family’s long time love and support of Riley’s Farm has come from its authenticity. An authenticity that would surely be diminished by an amusement park feel that would come with a more formal admission to the farm.
With that said, I don’t have much else to offer besides my sincere prayers for the successful provisions and expansions of your farm. Blessings to you!
We are very well aware that some of the crowd control & admission systems infrastructure associated with a typical theme park could spoil the aesthetics. Unlike most of our neighbors, we don’t even have road gates for after hours. We will, however, have to change to something of a membership/admission system to protect the experience of people who pay for things like Sleepy Hollow, field trips, etc. I think we can achieve a very low-impact solution — maybe even something like a smart card reader on an old wooden post. 🙂
Wow, thanks for that detailed reply.
We believe, with rural land across the country, there is an opportunity to create a new kind of vacation/experience destination that leaves the land looking mostly horticultural and under cultivation. I agree that a master plan is the ONLY way to look at it all long term, as well. I will have to check out the live action role play at Knott’s. I didn’t know to what extent they were doing that.
I love the idea of glamping !! As of now my favorite activities when we go up is have a quiet meal, having wine , walking the trail at Los Rios , having cider or catching a show at Riley’s ! For me it’s about getting away and enjoys the trails , chimney , picking fruit etc ! I’d love to have a place with longer trails !
I like the sound of that — “catching a show at Riley’s.” It makes me feel like Jack Warner. 🙂
Anything that doesn’t exploit or use animals sounds wonderful~ I used to come here as a child, and I want to return as an adult to make more great memories.
All sounds Fantastic—- my husband’s complaint is LA etc traffic and parking.
I like the idea of a get away weekend, but I don’t need a lot of activities. What if you had a “camping experience” with campfires at night, with smores. Maybe fishing, maybe some hiking, but I just love being out in nature. Or an “all-inclusive” weekend with activities, food, and a place to sleep.
How about having a period era building skills class. I know I would pay to learn how my forefathers built things. Using hand tools like augers,braces,square/bevel and draw knives.
We could practice on outbuildings and then help with the rebuilding of the packing shed. The “barn-raising” of the packing shed could be a daylong event!