The owners of Joyland Park are selling some of the rides and say more vandalism at the park this weekend, coupled with a soft real estate market, makes it unlikely that the park will ever reopen.

The "Last Warning -- Do Not Stand Up - Sit Down" sign was taken Saturday night off the top of Joyland's nearly 80-foot-high wooden roller coaster.

This last act of vandalism is one more blow to the aging amusement park, a Wichita landmark since 1947. The park has been closed since 2006.

Stan and Margaret Nelson, the owners of the park for more than half a century, have put the land up for sale and have begun selling some of the rides.

"What's going to happen? We don't know," Margaret Nelson said.

They have sold the Paratrooper, the Round-up and the big truck ride.

For now, the icon of the park, the wooden roller coaster, remains on the site.

The roller coaster, one of the few of its kind left in the nation, was a product of the Philadelphia Toboggan Co. It is one of the last surviving original wooden coasters designed by Herbert Paul Schmeck.

The Nelsons say they are open to whatever buyer comes along. Since October, they've offered the land for at least $2 million -- but so far there have been no takers.

The park, at 2801 S. Hillside, has suffered in recent months from more than 20 break-ins and from vandalism.

Since Christmas, some children broke into the park site and used the park for paintball practices, Margaret Nelson said.

The couple are working to maintain the property until it sells, but in the meantime, she said, with the economy slumping, "nobody is doing anything and we are still waiting."

City Council member Jim Skelton said Monday that he was disappointed to hear the park was beginning to be disassembled.

"It's an unfortunate situation," Skelton said. "But the neighborhood considers it a blighted area. Gangs break in and cause vandalism. If any use could be found for the land, it would be an appropriate future."

The park's best days were before television, air-conditioning, video games and other distractions kept people at home.

Joyland offered Chuck Berry concerts, fried chicken dinners, a swimming pool and steam-powered engine shows.

Volunteers from McConnell Air Force Base came last fall to help clean up the property -- but it is still far from the amusement park that earned Joyland a national reputation.

"It was one of the classic American amusement parks. It was family-owned and operated," said Gary Slade, editor and publisher of Amusement Today, a national trade industry publication.

Joyland began shortly after the end of World War II with brothers Harold and Herb Ottaway and their father, Lester Ottaway.

Herb Ottaway had a miniature train that he could pack up and offer rides on at county fairs as far away as Colorado Springs. In 1947, he offered those rides in the Planeview area.

In 1949 and 1950, the Ottaways bought the 40-acre tract where Joyland Park sits today. From there, they began building it into a family attraction.

In the early 1970s, the Nelsons purchased Joyland from the Ottaways. They ran it until a few years ago, when two groups made unsuccessful attempts to operate and buy Joyland.

During the heyday of amusement parks, more than 400 thrived throughout the nation, Slade said. Today, only 75 to 100 survive.

"The cost of business has gone up," he said. "The reasons for their demise include the costs of liability insurance, changes of ownership, and competition with other things. Kids in general don't go to parks like they did when I grew up. Joyland has a long, rich history, and it's sad that Wichita does not have a park in operation today."