Cypress Gardens, one of Florida's oldest theme parks, closed last weekend.

The park, in Winter Haven, about 35 miles from Orlando, was created in the middle of a marsh and opened in 1936 as a showplace for 8,000 varieties of plants from nearly 100 countries.

In later years it became famous for its Southern Belles dressed in antebellum finery, its water ski shows and the electric boats carrying visitors along its waterways. The park also featured in many films.

In the early 1960s, Cypress Gardens received nearly 1.5m visitors annually but the arrival of the Disney theme parks 10 years later caused a gradual decline in numbers to only several hundred thousand a year.

The 11 September terrorist attacks were responsible for a further fall in visitors and a disinclination to travel caused by the war in Iraq only made the situation worse.

Park spokesperson, Stacy Huey, said that the gardens received 42,000 fewer visitors in March this year than it did over the same period in 2002.

Founder, Dick Pope, took Cypress Gardens public in 1972 and later sold it to the company behind the Sea World theme parks. It was subsequently acquired by the Busch Entertainment Corp and was the subject of a management buyout in 1995.

Since then, Huey said, the ownership has suffered losses of $6m.

It is reported that at least some of the park's 200 acres have been earmarked for residential development. Details: www.cypressgardens.com