Joyland Park History
Joyland Amusement Park grew from a recreational property long known to Wichita residents as Mathewson’s Pasture. Newspaper references to the property appeared as early as 1914, when the area remained largely open land on the eastern edge of the city. During the 1920s and 1930s, Mathewson’s Pasture became associated with picnics, playground activities, holiday celebrations, and outdoor recreation. In 1924, Wichita officials arranged to lease approximately sixteen acres for use as a park and playground. By the early 1930s, visitors could enjoy games, refreshments, pony rides, roller skating, a miniature railway, and other amusements.
Many Wichita residents wanted Mathewson’s Pasture preserved as a permanent public park. In 1933, approximately 400 citizens petitioned city officials to protect the property from development. Additional proposals followed, including a 1938 offer to establish a permanent playground and recreation center for Wichita’s children. Although city commissioners and Park Board members considered purchasing the land, the Wichita City Commission ultimately declined to acquire it in May 1938.
The property entered a new period in 1945 when Lester A. Ottaway purchased Mathewson’s Pasture and began operating amusement rides there. An October 21, 1945, advertisement promoted a miniature train, merry-go-round, Ferris wheel, and children’s rides at 1515 East Central. On October 23, Lester advertised the operation as Mathewson Pasture Park. This appears to have been the only newspaper advertisement in which he used that name for the amusement park.
On July 2, 1946, Lester officially renamed the park Joyland and advertised it under that name in The Wichita Eagle. The advertisement identified Joyland at 1500 East Central and offered free ride tickets with qualifying fireworks purchases. Joyland continued operating at the former Mathewson’s Pasture property, adding rides and promoting seasonal celebrations, fireworks displays, Christmas-tree sales, and other community activities. A formal grand-opening advertisement published in April 1947 listed a merry-go-round, Tilt-A-Whirl, Ferris wheel, Rollo-Plane, miniature train, kiddie automobile ride, and shooting gallery.
The early history of Joyland must be distinguished from that of Playtime Park in Wichita’s Planeview neighborhood. Playtime was owned and operated by Herb Ottaway—not Lester Ottaway. Herb’s experience operating Playtime contributed to the Ottaway family’s broader involvement in Wichita’s amusement business, but Lester was the family member who purchased Mathewson’s Pasture and renamed it Joyland.
The East Central Joyland expanded rapidly. In 1948, the park added a new miniature steam train, and newspaper photographs showed children and parents enjoying its rides. By the spring of 1949, Joyland advertised approximately ten attractions, including live ponies, Dodgem cars, two Ferris wheels, a Tilt-A-Whirl, Rollo-Plane, miniature steam train, merry-go-round, and kiddie rides. At the same time, the Ottaway family was preparing a much larger amusement park on South Hillside.
The new Joyland Hillside Park, located at 2801 South Hillside, represented the beginning of the Joyland remembered by generations of Wichita residents. Constructed on approximately forty acres, it featured a seventy-five-foot wooden roller coaster with nearly 3,000 feet of track, a sixty-foot Ferris wheel, miniature train, merry-go-round, pony rides, children’s attractions, concessions, and extensive picnic grounds. Construction delays caused by rain postponed completion of the roller coaster, but the new park formally opened on June 12, 1949. For a time, the Ottaways operated both the original East Central park and the new Hillside location.
The transition to South Hillside continued into 1950. Thousands of tulip bulbs and hundreds of trees were planted to transform the property into a landscaped family recreation center. Joyland celebrated another formal Hillside opening in April 1950 with city and county officials in attendance. New attractions included a twenty-car Dodgem ride, the Skyfighter, a horse-and-buggy children’s ride, and a large animated elephant. By then, operations were shifting away from the former Mathewson’s Pasture location as the Hillside park became the permanent home of Joyland.
From its earliest years, Joyland functioned as more than a collection of amusement rides. It became a setting for community celebrations, school parties, charitable events, baseball activities, company picnics, photography contests, and holiday traditions. The park’s Easter celebrations were especially popular. Thousands of children searched the picnic grounds for candy eggs and prizes, while Joyland worked with The Wichita Eagle, local radio stations, dairies, police officers, schools, and charitable organizations to sponsor public events. In 1950, a “School’s Out Party” collected school supplies for children in Mosbach, Germany.
Joyland also developed an assortment of unusual attractions. In 1950, two young black bears named Roly and Poly were placed in a natural-stone enclosure within the picnic grounds. During the 1950s, the park added Mother Goose Land, which featured the giant Mother Goose Shoe and animated fairy-tale figures. Louie the Clown, seated at his organ near the carousel, became one of Joyland’s most recognizable characters. A massive swimming pool opened during the middle of the decade with slides, diving boards, underwater lighting, and a separate children’s wading pool.
By 1960, Joyland covered approximately sixty-two acres. Its attractions included the wooden roller coaster, swimming pool, Go-Kart track, Wishing Well, Haunted House, picnic grounds, and Frontier Town. Members of the Southern Kansas Gunfighters Association staged gunfights, bank robberies, and other Wild West performances. The park also introduced the C. P. Huntington miniature train, the Strato-Jet, Rotor, Enchanted Forest, and numerous thrill rides. Joyland’s mixture of mechanical rides, live entertainment, landscaped picnic grounds, and themed attractions allowed it to serve children, teenagers, and adults.
The park continued evolving during the 1970s. Actor Burt Ward, known for portraying Robin on the Batman television series, appeared at Joyland in 1972. That same year, the park promoted the Zipper as its newest thrill ride. In 1974, Joyland introduced the Whacky Shack, a multilevel dark ride designed by Bill Tracy. Its illusions, startling effects, psychedelic lighting, and water curtain made it one of the park’s most distinctive attractions. Other additions during the decade included the Round Up, an improved Go-Kart track, and an air-conditioned puppet theater.
In 1975, Stan and Margaret Nelson purchased Joyland, beginning a new period of family ownership. The Nelson family maintained and modernized the park while preserving many of its traditional attractions. Photographs from 1980 documented Roger and Steve Nelson replacing wooden sections beneath the roller coaster’s steel rails. The Nelsons also restored carousel horses, maintained the miniature steam locomotive, and adjusted the attraction lineup as visitors increasingly sought larger and more participatory rides.
Joyland remained an important gathering place throughout the 1980s. More than 18,000 people attended KFDI radio’s twenty-first-anniversary celebration there in July 1985. The park also hosted charitable and inclusive events. In March 1989, approximately 350 children with physical and intellectual disabilities participated in an Easter celebration featuring games, rides, and a picnic. Special arrangements allowed children using wheelchairs to search for eggs inside the roller rink.
The historic wooden roller coaster remained Joyland’s defining attraction. Members of American Coaster Enthusiasts visited the park in 1989 and praised the ride. Constructed for the 1949 Hillside opening, the coaster became one of the park’s most important surviving connections to its early years. Other attractions remembered by later generations included the carousel, Ferris wheel, Log Jam, Wacky Shack, Dodge-Em Cars, Go-Karts, Paratrooper, Tilt-A-Whirl, Frontier Town, Louie the Clown, and the miniature train.
Joyland faced serious challenges during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Attendance reportedly declined following a fatal shooting in the parking lot in 1989. On February 2, 1993, an arson fire gutted the roller-skating rink and destroyed its 13,000-square-foot maple floor. The rink had served Wichita residents for decades and hosted speed-skating competitions and community events. Despite the loss, Stan and Margaret Nelson remained determined to continue operating the amusement park.
Throughout the 1990s, Joyland relied upon its strong place in Wichita’s collective memory. Newspaper features described adults returning with their children to experience the same rides they had enjoyed in their youth. The park promoted discounted Ride-A-Rama passes, Easter egg hunts, radio celebrations, and special events. In 1998, Joyland held a nostalgic promotion featuring prices inspired by its 1949 opening season.
Joyland entered the twenty-first century with its historic character largely intact, but aging equipment, maintenance expenses, ownership disagreements, financial difficulties, and legal complications threatened its future. In 2001, the park undertook an extensive rehabilitation of the wooden roller coaster. As much as $50,000 was invested in lumber, labor, and paint, with approximately 800 to 1,000 gallons of paint expected to be used. The coaster, described as Joyland’s “crown jewel,” had received recognition from American Coaster Enthusiasts as an ACE Coaster Classic.
Herb Ottaway died in February 2004 at the age of ninety-one. His obituary remembered him as an innovative businessman and one of the figures associated with Joyland’s founding years. It also recalled the park’s beginnings near Central and Washington and its later establishment on South Hillside. Herb’s death marked the passing of an important link to the Ottaway family’s amusement-park legacy.
Joyland continued holding community events in 2004, including its traditional Easter egg hunts, but its difficulties had become increasingly visible. A March 2004 editorial argued that Wichita needed Joyland and encouraged efforts to preserve it. The park eventually ceased regular operations, ending more than half a century of amusement and community life at the South Hillside property.
Joyland’s importance extends beyond its rides. It was a place where generations of Wichita residents celebrated Easter, attended company picnics, marked the end of the school year, gathered for radio concerts, rode their first roller coaster, and returned as adults with their own children. Its history began with Mathewson’s Pasture, continued through Lester Ottaway’s establishment and naming of Joyland, expanded through the contributions of Herb, Harold, and other members of the Ottaway family, and endured under Stan and Margaret Nelson.
Although the park is no longer operating, Joyland remains one of the most recognizable and deeply remembered amusement parks in Kansas history. Its surviving photographs, advertisements, newspaper stories, artifacts, and personal recollections preserve the story of a local amusement park that became part of Wichita’s identity.
Many Wichita residents wanted Mathewson’s Pasture preserved as a permanent public park. In 1933, approximately 400 citizens petitioned city officials to protect the property from development. Additional proposals followed, including a 1938 offer to establish a permanent playground and recreation center for Wichita’s children. Although city commissioners and Park Board members considered purchasing the land, the Wichita City Commission ultimately declined to acquire it in May 1938.
The property entered a new period in 1945 when Lester A. Ottaway purchased Mathewson’s Pasture and began operating amusement rides there. An October 21, 1945, advertisement promoted a miniature train, merry-go-round, Ferris wheel, and children’s rides at 1515 East Central. On October 23, Lester advertised the operation as Mathewson Pasture Park. This appears to have been the only newspaper advertisement in which he used that name for the amusement park.
On July 2, 1946, Lester officially renamed the park Joyland and advertised it under that name in The Wichita Eagle. The advertisement identified Joyland at 1500 East Central and offered free ride tickets with qualifying fireworks purchases. Joyland continued operating at the former Mathewson’s Pasture property, adding rides and promoting seasonal celebrations, fireworks displays, Christmas-tree sales, and other community activities. A formal grand-opening advertisement published in April 1947 listed a merry-go-round, Tilt-A-Whirl, Ferris wheel, Rollo-Plane, miniature train, kiddie automobile ride, and shooting gallery.
The early history of Joyland must be distinguished from that of Playtime Park in Wichita’s Planeview neighborhood. Playtime was owned and operated by Herb Ottaway—not Lester Ottaway. Herb’s experience operating Playtime contributed to the Ottaway family’s broader involvement in Wichita’s amusement business, but Lester was the family member who purchased Mathewson’s Pasture and renamed it Joyland.
The East Central Joyland expanded rapidly. In 1948, the park added a new miniature steam train, and newspaper photographs showed children and parents enjoying its rides. By the spring of 1949, Joyland advertised approximately ten attractions, including live ponies, Dodgem cars, two Ferris wheels, a Tilt-A-Whirl, Rollo-Plane, miniature steam train, merry-go-round, and kiddie rides. At the same time, the Ottaway family was preparing a much larger amusement park on South Hillside.
The new Joyland Hillside Park, located at 2801 South Hillside, represented the beginning of the Joyland remembered by generations of Wichita residents. Constructed on approximately forty acres, it featured a seventy-five-foot wooden roller coaster with nearly 3,000 feet of track, a sixty-foot Ferris wheel, miniature train, merry-go-round, pony rides, children’s attractions, concessions, and extensive picnic grounds. Construction delays caused by rain postponed completion of the roller coaster, but the new park formally opened on June 12, 1949. For a time, the Ottaways operated both the original East Central park and the new Hillside location.
The transition to South Hillside continued into 1950. Thousands of tulip bulbs and hundreds of trees were planted to transform the property into a landscaped family recreation center. Joyland celebrated another formal Hillside opening in April 1950 with city and county officials in attendance. New attractions included a twenty-car Dodgem ride, the Skyfighter, a horse-and-buggy children’s ride, and a large animated elephant. By then, operations were shifting away from the former Mathewson’s Pasture location as the Hillside park became the permanent home of Joyland.
From its earliest years, Joyland functioned as more than a collection of amusement rides. It became a setting for community celebrations, school parties, charitable events, baseball activities, company picnics, photography contests, and holiday traditions. The park’s Easter celebrations were especially popular. Thousands of children searched the picnic grounds for candy eggs and prizes, while Joyland worked with The Wichita Eagle, local radio stations, dairies, police officers, schools, and charitable organizations to sponsor public events. In 1950, a “School’s Out Party” collected school supplies for children in Mosbach, Germany.
Joyland also developed an assortment of unusual attractions. In 1950, two young black bears named Roly and Poly were placed in a natural-stone enclosure within the picnic grounds. During the 1950s, the park added Mother Goose Land, which featured the giant Mother Goose Shoe and animated fairy-tale figures. Louie the Clown, seated at his organ near the carousel, became one of Joyland’s most recognizable characters. A massive swimming pool opened during the middle of the decade with slides, diving boards, underwater lighting, and a separate children’s wading pool.
By 1960, Joyland covered approximately sixty-two acres. Its attractions included the wooden roller coaster, swimming pool, Go-Kart track, Wishing Well, Haunted House, picnic grounds, and Frontier Town. Members of the Southern Kansas Gunfighters Association staged gunfights, bank robberies, and other Wild West performances. The park also introduced the C. P. Huntington miniature train, the Strato-Jet, Rotor, Enchanted Forest, and numerous thrill rides. Joyland’s mixture of mechanical rides, live entertainment, landscaped picnic grounds, and themed attractions allowed it to serve children, teenagers, and adults.
The park continued evolving during the 1970s. Actor Burt Ward, known for portraying Robin on the Batman television series, appeared at Joyland in 1972. That same year, the park promoted the Zipper as its newest thrill ride. In 1974, Joyland introduced the Whacky Shack, a multilevel dark ride designed by Bill Tracy. Its illusions, startling effects, psychedelic lighting, and water curtain made it one of the park’s most distinctive attractions. Other additions during the decade included the Round Up, an improved Go-Kart track, and an air-conditioned puppet theater.
In 1975, Stan and Margaret Nelson purchased Joyland, beginning a new period of family ownership. The Nelson family maintained and modernized the park while preserving many of its traditional attractions. Photographs from 1980 documented Roger and Steve Nelson replacing wooden sections beneath the roller coaster’s steel rails. The Nelsons also restored carousel horses, maintained the miniature steam locomotive, and adjusted the attraction lineup as visitors increasingly sought larger and more participatory rides.
Joyland remained an important gathering place throughout the 1980s. More than 18,000 people attended KFDI radio’s twenty-first-anniversary celebration there in July 1985. The park also hosted charitable and inclusive events. In March 1989, approximately 350 children with physical and intellectual disabilities participated in an Easter celebration featuring games, rides, and a picnic. Special arrangements allowed children using wheelchairs to search for eggs inside the roller rink.
The historic wooden roller coaster remained Joyland’s defining attraction. Members of American Coaster Enthusiasts visited the park in 1989 and praised the ride. Constructed for the 1949 Hillside opening, the coaster became one of the park’s most important surviving connections to its early years. Other attractions remembered by later generations included the carousel, Ferris wheel, Log Jam, Wacky Shack, Dodge-Em Cars, Go-Karts, Paratrooper, Tilt-A-Whirl, Frontier Town, Louie the Clown, and the miniature train.
Joyland faced serious challenges during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Attendance reportedly declined following a fatal shooting in the parking lot in 1989. On February 2, 1993, an arson fire gutted the roller-skating rink and destroyed its 13,000-square-foot maple floor. The rink had served Wichita residents for decades and hosted speed-skating competitions and community events. Despite the loss, Stan and Margaret Nelson remained determined to continue operating the amusement park.
Throughout the 1990s, Joyland relied upon its strong place in Wichita’s collective memory. Newspaper features described adults returning with their children to experience the same rides they had enjoyed in their youth. The park promoted discounted Ride-A-Rama passes, Easter egg hunts, radio celebrations, and special events. In 1998, Joyland held a nostalgic promotion featuring prices inspired by its 1949 opening season.
Joyland entered the twenty-first century with its historic character largely intact, but aging equipment, maintenance expenses, ownership disagreements, financial difficulties, and legal complications threatened its future. In 2001, the park undertook an extensive rehabilitation of the wooden roller coaster. As much as $50,000 was invested in lumber, labor, and paint, with approximately 800 to 1,000 gallons of paint expected to be used. The coaster, described as Joyland’s “crown jewel,” had received recognition from American Coaster Enthusiasts as an ACE Coaster Classic.
Herb Ottaway died in February 2004 at the age of ninety-one. His obituary remembered him as an innovative businessman and one of the figures associated with Joyland’s founding years. It also recalled the park’s beginnings near Central and Washington and its later establishment on South Hillside. Herb’s death marked the passing of an important link to the Ottaway family’s amusement-park legacy.
Joyland continued holding community events in 2004, including its traditional Easter egg hunts, but its difficulties had become increasingly visible. A March 2004 editorial argued that Wichita needed Joyland and encouraged efforts to preserve it. The park eventually ceased regular operations, ending more than half a century of amusement and community life at the South Hillside property.
Joyland’s importance extends beyond its rides. It was a place where generations of Wichita residents celebrated Easter, attended company picnics, marked the end of the school year, gathered for radio concerts, rode their first roller coaster, and returned as adults with their own children. Its history began with Mathewson’s Pasture, continued through Lester Ottaway’s establishment and naming of Joyland, expanded through the contributions of Herb, Harold, and other members of the Ottaway family, and endured under Stan and Margaret Nelson.
Although the park is no longer operating, Joyland remains one of the most recognizable and deeply remembered amusement parks in Kansas history. Its surviving photographs, advertisements, newspaper stories, artifacts, and personal recollections preserve the story of a local amusement park that became part of Wichita’s identity.