In 1941, he joined Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, California as a staff artist, then served as art director there from 1943 until 1953.

He also drew up floor plans, oversaw the construction of buildings, and even spent some time painting concrete to look like natural rock.

His Old West paintings and murals adorned the walls of many structures in the park, and his art was used extensively on menus, brochures, catalogs and other Knott’s documents.

However, he discovered that when in Hollywood, generating clients there was more a matter of socializing in that superficial society, than in possessing artistic skill.

The only concession Paul asked, to which Walter Knott readily agreed, was the exclusive right to manufacture and sell art souvenirs, booklets and paintings on the premise.

Von Klieben was instrumental in all aspects of planning and executing the construction of Ghost Town, as well as the art that adorned Knott’s buildings.

As the audience listened to the recorded narrative, doors slowly opened to reveal von Klieben’s six-foot, eight-inch groundbreaking painting of Christ.

[17][18] Von Klieben traveled to ghost towns in the West, taking photos, and conducted extensive research, which would become the basis for buildings at Knott’s Berry Farm.

Von Klieben drew concept drawings for numerous other buildings in Ghost Town, such as the Bird Cage Theater, the Bottle House and Music Hall.

I wouldn’t see him for several days, so exhausted would he be from having expended himself.”[21] Von Klieben produced detailed concept art for proposed buildings and also floor plans.

He oversaw construction and the process for converting new lumber into weathered-looking boards by the use of burning, sandblasting, scraping, pounding, twisting, painting multiple colors and wire brushing.

[22] The covered wagons that von Klieben created were so authentic-looking that they fooled the curator of an eastern museum who visited.

[23] Walter Knott’s uncle, John Caleb King (1838-1901), was sheriff of San Bernardino County in 1879–1882.

Walter Knott worked there for a month in 1916, as a carpenter building the redwood cyanide tanks, and never forgot it.

In 1951, Walter Knott bought the town of Calico, and put Paul von Klieben in charge of the whole restoration project.

[25] Using Walter’s memory and that of some old-timers who still lived in the area, von Klieben was able to not only restore existing structures, but also design and replace missing buildings.

[26] Von Klieben’s body of work includes a number of portraits of actors and people of notable families that are in private collections that he painted before his association with Walter Knott.

He also painted a mural that is in the Ghost Town Grill, and two large portraits that are in the Western Trails Museum.

[27][28] In March 1953, von Klieben reluctantly retired to Sonora, California in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

He intended to devote more time to his first love, executing paintings and dioramas of early California, as well as still doing planning work for the farm and the restoration project at the town of Calico.