Big Bengt

Why is it then that our interest in the Wild West resulted in the High Chaparral theme park of today? Well, we wanted to make a visible contribution, a salute if you please, to all those who left the old world to make a life for themselves in the new one. Many of our own ancestors (originally from Småland) were among them, and that played a large part in our decision to get started.

High Chaparral began taking shape as a monument over people and a historical era, but a monument must come alive to be appreciated. It has therefore always been our aim to entertain and please. We’ve always had room for children’s play, but also for those of us who remain young at heart. Since High Chaparral is meant to be a place for everybody to experience a true Western atmosphere, we’ve taken pains to create Buffalo City for younger sheriffs and villains who come for a visit. In Buffalo City, a ten-year-old can feel like a real cowboy.

It is our goal that you will experience The Adventurous Wild West. Although short, the era of the Wild West has much to teach us about the power of initiative and believing in the future.

Here follows the story of a man and his dream.

Bengt Erlandsson, the creator of High Chaparral, was born in 1922 in a small village called Brännehylte. He was one of eight children who grew up on a forest farm, where the father provided for the family by working the woods and running a small saw mill. Even at a young age, Bengt often showed evidence of his business talents –talents that he later in life has honed to perfection. For example, Bengt Erlandsson has, single-handedly or together with others, started more than 1,000 different companies. Not only does has this made him an excellent representative of the well-known, hard-working spirit of the region, but also earned him the nickname “Big Bengt”.

Big Bengt grew up in an area branded with the mark of hard work, but also of strong memories of those who left the fatherland to seek happiness on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Stories were told about farmers, farmhands and others who had moved to America. Moreover, many of the ones who had left stayed in touch with the old country. Fascinated with the many destinies of various emigrants, Big Bengt went to the Unites States in 1956 to see and hear their stories with his own eyes and ears. For four months he travelled 40,000 km across the North American continent.

The result was a solid collection of emigrants’ tales, but also a number of impressions from the country “over there” that in so many ways have inspired Big Bengt. The long journey through America naturally meant that Big Bengt also had various encounters with the history of the United States. He also visited the military and trade forts that still stand tall, and which are cared for as monuments over the often violent conquest of new territories that dominates American 19th-century history. Needless to say, he also visited the Wild West cities that still remain.

One of Bengt’s many principles is not to reveal too much of his plans beforehand. Bengt didn’t tell anyone of the thoughts and ideas that the trip to America had established. Neither did he realize any of the ideas until many years later.

The driven businessman had learned to grab opportunities when they presented themselves. One such opportunity appeared when the government-run Swedish telecommunications company wanted to get rid of 200,000 telephone poles; they couldn’t be used, since they were impregnated with creosote. Big Bengt promised to take care of them, and stocked them on the Kulltorp farm he had bought in 1957. Naturally, the entrepreneur couldn’t let so much first-rate wood lie around. In the beginning of the sixties, he stated building a fort like the ones he had seen in the US some years earlier.

From the outset he had only planned to use the fort for his own ends, such as inviting his business associates to a interesting and different place, but when he built aretail outlet for surplus goods next to it, he discovered that a lot of people were interested in the fort.

That’s how High Chaparral started – in 1966, Big Bengt opened his fort to the public. The admittance fee was 5 Swedish krona, but then the audience not only got to visit the fort, but also got to see a number of stuntmen performing a show. These stuntmen often participated in movie shoots in the High Chaparral fort. True, there were no torrents of visitors these first years, but there were enough for Big Bengt to realize that this was the start of something really exciting. And thus he began planning to expand into a full-fledged theme park.

During all these years, there’s always been a lot of construction in this 50-hectar area. When the shows played at the fort started drawing large crowds, the idea of building an authentic Western high street took shape. The street was completed in the early seventies. Shortly thereafter, Restaurang Diligensen (The Stage Coach Restaurant) was built, so that visitors could have a bite to eat while visiting High Chaparral.

From the very start, Big Bengt supervised a somewhat unorthodox construction process. During this time in Sweden, many city buildings were torn down in order to make way for newer, modern edifications. Thus, all the construction material for High Chaparral came from torn-down buildings in the vicinity. For example, the restaurant was built using material from old grain warehouses in Jönköping. Visitors to the theme park still walk on floor boards that used to harbour grains and flour.

Big Bengt’s youth was one of deep religiousness, so naturally High Chaparral also needed a church. But as many other of Big Bengt’s solutions, there was to be no conventional church edification. The material for the church came from a destroyed home for the elderly in Skillingaryd, but architecturally the church has its roots in Karelia. The benches were fetched in Berga close to Lagan, the altarpiece comes from Germany and the pulpit from Spain. The result is a truly ecumenical church!

In the early seventies the nearby town of Anderstorp came into focus, since the town for the first time would host Formula 1 racing. However, there was a problem. There simply weren’t enough beds to house the Formula 1 entourage. To remedy this, Big Bengt promptly promised to build a hotel. He kept his promise. In three months, a hotel with 200 rooms stood ready on the High Chaparral grounds – a hotel where drivers and mechanics lived and thrived all the years Anderstorp hosted Formula 1 racing.

Then, how could they build so quickly? Big Bengt’s explanation is that he and the rest used the simple, rational thinking for which the region is famous. The builders themselves produced the drawings, schematics and constructions. Not a single building at High Chaparral has been drawn by an architect. However, Bengt wanted everything to be built the way houses were erected during the Wild West. He got the inspiration from a number of books showing construction techniques true to the time period.

For the sake of safety, robustness has always been a primary concern. Where regulations and stress calculations determined that a certain strength was required, the folks decided to build twice as strong. To ensure control of the construction strategy, Big Bengt chose not to hire building contractors. Instead he started a number of construction companies who were put to work on the premises.

A new attraction destined to attract attention in the early seventies was Kristinastugan (these days a popular coffeehouse). Kristinastugan was the house used in Jan Troell’s movie adaptation of Vilhelm Moberg’s famous books about the emigrants.

Another attraction was the railroad, which opened in 1977. Today, this is the only truly authentic, still-running Western train in the world. Naturally, a real steam locomotive pulls the cars along the 3.5 km track. During the time of inauguration, the Bengt expanded the moat that passes the area, and a steamboat started trafficking High Chaparral. Around this a harbour area was built, and next to it a show street. This has ever since been the largest arena for Western shows in the world.

While having a railroad was really nice, Big Bengt realized that the railroad would need a destination, and so he built Dalton City – a Western town that today has been remodelled into a popular Mexican village.

The construction frenzy abated in the mid-eighties, but that didn’t mean that the builders have been without chores. There is a constant demand for improvement and alterations, all with the purpose of enhancing the attraction in the Western village, which isn’t just well-known throughout Sweden - but also in the country which inspired Bengt to build it.

The Arizonans that revere Western traditions already in 1972 noted the stubborn enthusiast from Sweden. Big Bengt and his youngest son Alf were then invited to Old Tucson, where the television series High Chaparral was recorded. Big Bengt became an honorary citizen of Old Tucson, as a token of their appreciation for his work of promoting the Wild West in the old country. To this day he wears around his neck the sheriff’s star he received at this occasion.

Big Bengt has many hobbies. Not only the Wild West has aroused his curiosity over the years. He has always had a profound interest in old things, both from the old and the new country, and he has always been a collector.

A museum was erected in 1978 to give more people the ability to see these collections. The museum showed mainly older technology, in the shape of machines and whatnot from the cradle of industrialisation. But the museum was also filled with many different motor vehicles, all of the vintage models.

The Great Fire in 1990 destroyed most of the museum and its priceless collections. Economically, SEK 40 million’s worth of items went up in smoke. No one has even tried to estimate the sentimental value. Following the initial shock, Big Bengt had the museum rebuilt and once again filled it with cars, motorcycles, machines and many other things. The fire in 1990 wasn’t the first time property at High Chaparral was engulfed. In 1984 the entire Western Street went up in flames, but Big Bengt swiftly restored it, as had he restored the museum.

The entire existence of High Chaparral can be seen as one large construction project. All of the time new ideas, amendments, etc. have been carried out under Big Bengt’s supervision. That this creativity also catches the interest of others can be noted in the ever-growing crowds that visit the park.

The conflicts surrounding the arduous construction at High Chaparral have been many. Due to inflexible construction regulations and time-consuming bureaucracy, Big Bengt sometimes has been forced to neglect seeking building permits in advance. Needless to say, this civil disobedience has prompted the Construction Board in Gnosjö County, where High Chaparral is situated, to take certain measures. The most dramatic turn of events was in the early eighties. Big Bengt was then arrested, charged with unlawful construction, among others. After a number of trials, however, he was allowed to leave prison and proudly don his sheriff’s star once more. Later, the conflicts have been put to rest, and the Construction Board has decided to permit the many edifices on the grounds without further legal proceedings.

Big Bengt sees a commercial angle in most dealings, and rarely misses an opportunity to do business. A judge at a court where Bengt was subpoenaed due to lacking construction permits told Big Bengt to either move a number of disputed cottages or pay heavy fines. “I’d rather move them,” said Bengt, whereupon the judge lamented the fact that the finely crafted cottages then would be sustain damage. Big Bengt then quickly asked him if he would like to buy one of them for a sum of SEK 5,000, and a deal was struck. Such is the nature ofanatural-born entrepreneur! The underlying reason for all of his disputes with the government is probably Bengt’s fundamental philosophy: as long as honest and truthful people do reasonable things with a clear rationale, then the government doesn’t have to poke its nose in it with rules and regulations. This attitude also follows in his idea that a lot of papers does not improve a deal, a handshake should be enough.

The stories about Big Bengt’s business deals are many, and have been told over and over in the media. Bengt started trading as a young boy, and he found great joy in this – and most often the joy was shared. Of course the bottom line was to make money, but he also realised that trading could teach him a lot about human nature.

As a young man Bengt worked as an assistant on the milk carriage in the vicinity of his home, and before long he was responsible for the milk distribution. His job wasn’t only transporting healthy milk from the farmers to the dairy; it also involved distributing alcoholic beverages going the other way. This led to many contacts with the people around the area, and Bengt soon added new psychology to the bank of knowledge he was building. He also travelled around the farms and sold cookbooks. On one farm that he visited he sold one copy to the house matron and one to the house master. When he was about to leave, the farm hand came running and asked him to come back to the house. Bengt told the farm hand that he already knew what they wanted from him – they wanted to buy a book about cooking from him. That way, he sold a third copy to the farm hand.

Of course he didn’t mean to fool the people on the farm, he was just curious about how they would react. A few days later he returned and apologised for his prank. The apology was accepted, and all three kept their cookbooks.

Another business deal that has been told many times over the years is the time when Big Bengt bought a large lot of tinned sardines. He traded them for other goods, but a few days later the buyer called and pointed out sharply that the sardines were inedible, since they had gone old quite some time ago. Bengt said he was sorry for what had happened, and explained that he had thought that the buyer would sell the sardines, not eat them… The moral of the story is that the buyer during the negotiations had tried to swindle Bengt, and therefore ended up with a lot of useless sardines.

Finally, we’ll tell you about one of Big Bengt’s most famous deals – his idea of exchanging the earth in housewives’ potted plans. This idea took shape when Bengt and some business associates sat discussing whether it was even possible to start a business without initial capital. Big Bengt was alone in his belief that this was fully doable. The next day, he promised to prove it. Said and done.

He went to the Stockholm park management facilities and persuaded them to give him a crate of soil. Armed with nothing but this crate, he headed for a residential area and started knocking on doors, offering to exchange the soil in all of the potted plants. Naturally he was awarded some money at each place, although he after a while was replacing the soil with that of the house before. When the day was done, his colleagues had to admit that he had succeeded in starting a business without investing a nickel. He even returned the soil to the Park Council, but according to Bengt the biggest return was the wisdom that he picked up in the conversations with the house owners.

Big Bengt has never been afraid to speak his mind on any subject. This has many times attracted attention, and not the least in various media. This can be clearly seen in the many news clippings logged in High Chaparral’s own newspaper, The Chronicle.

So what about Big Bengt’s philosophy? Well, since childhood The Good Book has been his guide. Bengt claims to have found the answers to most of his questions in the Bible. To this should be added that he was raised in an environment marked by hard work, but also by love and close contact among the generations. Bengt gladly admits that he throughout his life has spent great efforts to learn from his elders. As a child he was therefore regarded as precocious, a fact that he doesn’t grieve over today. However, he finds that the youth of today lacks this. Far too few want to reap the benefits of the wisdom of the elderly. This lashes back in many ways. The young will make the same mistakes as the old ones have already made, for example. Being an economical soul, Bengt thinks that this is both a waste of time and money.

Perhaps his strongest conviction is that each individual must be given the right to develop the way he or she wants. This conviction is also the cornerstone of all his disputes with governmental organisations and bureaucrats. To adapt a strong individualist to a thoroughly regulated society is like trying to pass a square block through a round hole. Against this backdrop, it is easy to understand that Big Bengt was fascinated by the United States, and perhaps by the Wild West in particular - a country and an era where the individual was given vast opportunities to develop his or her skills.

High Chaparral is to a great extent a monument over the individuals who in various ways through hard work and belief in their ideas created the Wild West. Big Bengt’s individuality also carries an unmistakable thirst for freedom. He would never want a fixed occupation, for example, since this would inhibit him. It is important to be able to move on when the time is right, the way a cowboy would go west when he felt the urge. It is important to emphasize that Big Bengt’s individuality shouldn’t be mistaken for selfishness. A person that has failed one way or another, and therefore needs support, deserves help.

It is essential that politicians and other powerful people don’t create systems that raise unnecessary barriers fir creative individualists. The creative powers of these people produce resources that let everybody live decent lives.

Someone who falsely claims himself superior to his fellow man, can save themselves the trouble of trying to impress “The Auld One” at High Chaparral.