Joyland amusement park, closed since 2006, is up for sale for at least $2 million. People still ask owner Stanley Nelson if the park will ever reopen as it was, back in the days when it hosted concerts and fried-chicken dinners and cars whooshed along its wooden roller coaster. "It's a possibility," he said.
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Mike Hutmacher / The Wichita Eagle
Joyland owner Stanley Nelson thinks about the park's future all the time. He'd like to think the park can come back, even if not on the same order as it was when the Nelsons ran it. In the middle of the dilapidated buildings and broken pavement and rusted vehicles, he still has a vision for what the park could be. Somebody could build it back up, he said, and make it a new kind of amusement park.
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Mike Hutmacher / The Wichita Eagle
There has been some interest in buying the park, but nothing solid yet, Joyland owner Stanley Nelson said. "Nothing we can talk about at the moment, but there are some things going on," he said.
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Wichita City Council member Jim Skelton said the ongoing problems at Joyland are disappointing and that a recent fire wasn't surprising.
"It's a new level of destruction," he said, "but the same thing happens in vacant houses all across the city."
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"It looks like it can be accessed by just about anybody," Wichita Fire Marshal Ed Bricknell said about Joyland. "Our concern is that someone would get in there, start playing with fire and either by accident or on purpose start a fire, then get trapped in one of those old wooden buildings."
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Joyland owner Stanley Nelson surveyed the deserted grounds at 2801 S. Hillside, with their shuttered Whacky Shack and DodgeEm, buildings, the idle Ferris Wheel and Tilt-A-Whirl, the faded buildings trimmed in pink and aquamarine, including the big white one that housed the famous Wurlitzer organ and once had Louie the clown in front of it.
"It's awful," Nelson said.
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Wichita Fire Marshal Ed Bricknell said fires at Joyland have happened before, but so infrequently they didn't have statistics. A small one a year or so ago didn't cause any damage, he said. His department considers Joyland a hazard.
"It's an attractive nuisance," Bricknell said.
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Mike Hutmacher / The Wichita Eagle
Joyland owner Stanley Nelson came to Wichita after World War II. He and his wife, Margaret, who had worked at Joyland, purchased the park from the Ottaway family -- brothers Harold and Herb, and their father, Lester -- who had started it by offering rides on a miniature train.
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The Nelsons ran Joyland themselves until a few years ago when two different groups tried unsuccessfully to operate and buy the park.
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Joyland still has the classic roller coaster built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Co., one of the last surviving original wooden coasters designed by Herbert Paul Schmeck.
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The drive system for the roller coaster is a marvel of 1920s belt drive technology.
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Mike Hutmacher / The Wichita Eagle
In January someone took the "Last Warning -- Do Not Stand Up -- Sit Down" sign off the top of the Joyland roller coaster.
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Mike Hutmacher / The Wichita Eagle
A recent fire was the latest in a long series of indignities that have been inflicted upon Joyland, a Wichita landmark since 1947.
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Mike Hutmacher / The Wichita Eagle
Joyland owner Stanley Nelson has a groundskeeper to help. Police come by, he said, but don't go into the park. Fire inspectors visit once in a while.
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Mike Hutmacher / The Wichita Eagle
In the middle of the dilapidated buildings and broken pavement and rusted vehicles, Joyland owner Stanley Nelson still has a vision for what the park could be. Somebody could build it back up, he said, and make it a new kind of amusement park. It'd be a lot of work. Some of the rides have been sold, and others are in storage.
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Mike Hutmacher / The Wichita Eagle
Since it closed, Joyland has been a steady victim of vandalism, with people damaging structures, spray-painting graffiti, and stealing copper and brass.
When people call him about the park, owner Stanley Nelson said, "I apologize to them for not taking care of it better, but I can't be there all the time. We're out there most of the time, but they seem to get in there when we're not there."
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Mike Hutmacher / The Wichita Eagle
Vandals seem to know when to get in, Joyland owner Stanley Nelson said. "It's an attractive nuisance," Wichita Fire Marshal Ed Bricknell said. "It looks like it can be accessed by just about anybody."
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Arcades line the west edge of Joyland's fairway. The offices were above.
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Mike Hutmacher / The Wichita Eagle
Wichita fire officials think someone set a recent fire at Joyland. Investigators found evidence that other small fires had been set in the park as well. They are trying to determine whether the fires were set deliberately or by accident. They found a mop handle that apparently was used as a torch.
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"It's a real disheartening thing that somebody would come in here and do these types of things," Joyland owner Stanley Nelson said as he surveyed the damage.
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Mike Hutmacher / The Wichita Eagle
The Opera House at Joyland Amusement Park was famous for puppet shows, the showing of classic movies and other types of entertainment back in the park's heyday. On Friday, it became a charred ruin right in front of Stanley Nelson, the park's 85-year-old owner.
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Mike Hutmacher / The Wichita Eagle
"It hasn't been very good for us," Joyland owner Stanley Nelson said. "We love the park. We built it up from when the Ottaways had it. We don't know what's going to happen, but we hope something good happens."
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Mike Hutmacher / The Wichita Eagle
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