Tim Hollis, an Alabama-based writer of books about tourism history, is wrapping up The Land of Oz (Arcadia Press). You couldn’t push a wheelchair through there.”Īlthough the Gale home can be leased as a getaway throughout the year, the rest of Land of Oz is off-limits to the public at all other times. “For one thing, it’s not (ADA) accessible. The events are quick sell-outs.īut Keller says the park could never open as a commercial attraction in this day and age. The pre-Computer Age chicanery at the Crooked House is simple but effective, a crowd-pleaser during the June Friday walk-throughs and during Autumn at Oz. That’s where the Yellow Brick Road would begin. After, you’d step outside and into Oz, where a staffer garbed as Glinda the Good Witch met you. Once all were safely inside, sound effects and a wind machine would signal the storm’s arrival. The Yellow Brick Road tapers into oblivion near the sole remaining arch at the approach to the long-gone Emerald City.įully restored is the cellar where a tour-leading Dorothy would gather guests as a tornado was on the way. Artifacts found among the ruins are preserved. Through the year she also leads the area’s volunteer preservationists - she calls them “Ozians” - with upkeep on the winding Yellow Brick Road (current status: 44,000 customized, fire-glazed yellow bricks), plantings and whatnot. She leases the Gale family farmhouse where Dorothy lived - a 5/8ths replica of the movie home - as a vacation rental. Keller lives in what was once Uncle Henry’s Kansas petting-zoo barn. The population of what essentially is suburban Oz is now about 3,000 households.Īmong the arrivals was Cynthia Keller, 56, a fan of Land of Oz in its heyday and who these days is project manager for the Emerald Mountain Properties site. Residential lots surrounding Oz were sold to mountain lovers, including those nostalgic for the old park. But skiers continued to go to the adjacent Beech Mountain ski resort. The attraction permanently closed after the 1980 season the land reverted to the mountain’s owners. Adding to the problem: off-season vandalism and destructive snowy winters. That and the 1973 opening of the ride-driven Carowinds park in Charlotte, N.C., cast a pall over Land of Oz. Land of Oz debuted in June 1970 and pulled in 400,000 people that summer.īut a little over a year later, Walt Disney World opened in Florida. There were no rides, except for a glorified ski lift from the Emerald City finale (and adjacent gift shops) that provided an aerial view of the theme park. On the way, they would encounter the Scarecrow, the Wicked Witch of the West, the Tin Man, Munchkins and other characters who would do specially commissioned song-and-dance routines. The result was a linear park: Guests would begin at the Gale family’s Kansas farmhouse, be gusted to Oz, then escorted down the Yellow Brick Road by a Dorothy. They leased the top of Beech Mountain (elevation: 5,506 feet), the site of an apple orchard that reminded their creative consultant of a spooky forest Judy Garland and her friends had to traverse on their big-screen Wizard of Oz quest.
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