He devoted his free time to nearly 250,000 miles (400,000 km) of traveling in the West, collecting historical items relating to pioneers and Native Americans, as well as geological specimens.
Once he entered college he excelled, and caught the eye of a mining company, which offered to subsidize his education if he would work there after he graduated (which he did).
Funds for the addition were donated primarily by long-time friend J. D. Luke and businessmen who were members of the Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce.
School groups and the general public would come to see his collection of 12,000 arrowheads, mineral specimens, fossils, guns, tools and other Old West artifacts.
As early as 1941, Speer wrote articles for Ghost Town News, which was the Knott's Berry Farm newspaper.
The collection, which depicted American life from Pilgrim times to the present (with even a working two-inch-wide television set), was housed in Jeffrey's Barn.
A large display board at the Western Trails Museum contains an image of Marion Speer operating an antique copy press.
Irene Drake, docent, Western Trails Museum, original building at Knott's Berry Farm, 1983. Courtesy of the Orange County Archives.
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The original building at Knott's was either made of rammed-earth construction or concrete made to look like rammed-earth. This construction technique is fireproof and was used in the old mining town of Calico, California. This
c.
1983
photo is courtesy of the Orange County Archives.
A sample of the guns on display at the Western Trails Museum
East Entrance, Western Trails Museum, current building at Knott's Berry Farm, Buena Park, California
Center Room, Western Trails Museum, current building at Knott's Berry Farm, Buena Park, California
Center Room, Western Trails Museum, Knott's Berry Farm, 2021. A large portrait of Kit Carson by
Paul von Klieben
(who planned most of Ghost Town at Knott's) is on the ceiling.
