Featured Exhbit
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The Wichita Eagle
Tuesday, May 26, 1992 Joyland a place for fun, fantasy ... SCREAMS & DREAMS They met in the 1950s while he was selling tickets for the bumper cars and she was running the Skeeball game. Joyland Amusement Park would become an integral part of their lives. Stan and Margaret Nelson ended up buying the park in 1973, when Stan, who went to work for Joyland while he was an accounting student at the University of Wichita, decided to indulge his career in amusement. He acknowledges that running an amusement park wasn’t exactly his original plan. “I thought I’d be an accountant and make $20,000 a year,” Nelson said. Amused by his initial aspirations, he laughed. The park, at 2801 S. Hillside, is spread over 55 acres, offers 25 rides and had 80 to 70 seasonal employees and 10 to 15 full-time maintenance employees. “It’s a family affair. Some employees are teenagers and for many, Joyland is their first job,” Nelson said. Joyland is called an “iron park” in industry jargon, as opposed to a theme park such as Six Flags or Disney World. It caters mainly to support groups and special events, Nelson said. Most are in much bigger cities. Wichita’s size helps Joyland compete with bigger parks. He leases out the park to private groups. The business has changed since Joyland opened. People no longer spend a dollar for cotton candy and other carnival fare as they did when he was little. “Now they are eating in restaurants,” he said. Popular rides, following the park’s more popular rides, followed by the Log Jam and the Figure 8 roller coaster, and the Ferris wheel. “I remember an older couple riding the coaster, arms outstretched,” Nelson said. “They wanted to put their arms around their grandchildren.” The amusement park has 70 to 80 employees, with some working up to 60 to 70 hours a week during peak times, he said. “I keep employees’ hours to 40 hours or less,” he said, except for those who choose to work more. He begins his day at 8 a.m. and stays until the park closes at night, 8 p.m. Nelson said workers average less than a week. But the hours are more relaxed during the winter while the park is being renovated. Nelson apparently found much more fun at Joyland than accounting. “I like seeing kids have a good time,” he said. “And you see that a lot here. It has a tendency to keep you young.” |
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Coffeyville’s Clyde White City
Coffeyville’s Clyde White City was advertised to be more of a resort than an amusement park. The park entertainment and rides were a carousel, theater, bowling alley, a figure 8 roller coaster and shooting galleries. Wichita’s Wonderland, Topeka’s Vinewood Park and Coffeyville Clyde’s Park and a few others made a positive impact in their communities except for the people of color. Most early parks had a white only policy. Some parks in Kansas including Rosedale of Salina and Clyde of Coffeyville advertised they did not allow people of color into their park, known as White Cities.
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