"Storybook Gardens has run its course," said Flath's grandson, Jason Field, who manages the property. "What kids know about these characters? Jack and the Bean Stalk, maybe, or Humpty Dumpty. We're at a new generation now."

Field, general manager of Dells Army Ducks, said he is looking for a new attraction to lease the Storybook Gardens property for 2012. The figurines and buildings will be sold at auction. A Zorb ball attraction (riders climb into a large plastic ball and roll down a hill) is scheduled to go in later this year in what was the parking lot.

Field knows what it takes to succeed in the hyper-competitive Dells market. His grandfather, Flath, brought the first Ducks to the Dells in 1946 and later added a miniature golf course and drive-in theater. Those two attractions closed but the Ducks remain a popular attraction. Field, in recent years, has added jet-boat rides on the Wisconsin River and a zip-line course behind Storybook Gardens.

"You have to keep reinventing yourself," Field said. "You can't sit on your laurels. People aren't going to come just because you exist."

But the memories of Storybook Gardens run deep and its closing will be a downer for some who arrive this summer only to learn Humpty Dumpty and his wall are gone and the Three Bears were sold to the highest bidder.