The Land of Oz Park

BANNER ELK, NORTH CAROLINA

At least two members of the Oz Club took time out during summer travels to visit The Land of Oz, an amusement park which opened last June on Beech Mountain in Banner Elk, North Carolina. Peter Hanff visited the park late in July and Douglas Rossman and his family spent a day there about a month later. The Rossman letter describing the park to Fred Meyer depicts it so well that we quote it here with a few additional observations from Pete Hanff.

"Well, the Rossmans have been to the Land of Oz and back! Having seen billboard advertisements as far away as Knoxville we wended our way from our cottage to Oz this past Monday. There was some difficulty finding the right route from Boone; not only were there no signs indicating where to turn off for Oz, but there was no route sign showing where highway 105 turned off (which I fortunately knew in advance was the correct route)--we found the latter only after we had gone through the town and come back into Boone from the east. [Apparently this has happened to a good many visitors to Oz; hopefully the managers will remedy the situation by next season]. Thereafter there are sufficient signs advertising Oz that you can't get lost. Isolating the park on the top of Beech Mountain has some advantages, no doubt, but following bumper-to-bumper traffic up a winding mountain road at less than ten miles per hour for many miles is not designed to improve one's disposition. [There was no traffic the day the Hanff car made the trek, but the roads are so steep and winding because of the mountainous terrain that the trip was still frustratingly slow]. Fortunately the Land of Oz turned out to be well worth the trouble.

"After purchasing our tickets ($3.50 for adults, $2.25 for children) at an alpine village (Beech Mountain is a ski resort in winter [and is part of a larger resort development project by a land investment company]) near the parking lot...we rode in Ozzy gondolas (red, yellow, or blue) up a ski lift to the Land of Oz, which is on the very tip-top of the mountain. Leaving the gondolas, we followed a path through the beech forest to a fountain and gazebo (the latter was a souvenir stand). Near the fountain was Margaret Hamilton's witch costume enclosed in glass (it's bound to fade badly soon I would think). Another gazebo nearby, overlooking the side of the mountain, contained a bust of Dorothy and Toto as well as name plaques of all the major characters in the 1939 movie [MGM's The Wizard of Oz]. The path led to Uncle Henry's barn, containing a variety of common barnyard animals for children to pet. Up on a shelf was, unintentionally I am sure, a can of Wizard spray deodorant!

"We then entered the ["Kansas"] farmhouse, which all four Rossmans agreed later was the best part of the whole operation, a remarkably faithful replica of a typical Midwestern farmhouse of the period (the exterior could have come straight from a Grant Wood painting). My only possible complaint would have been that the house and particularly its furnishings were a bit too affluent for a farmer in the financial shape Baum portrayed Uncle Henry as being in. An attractive young coed in green urged us into the storm cellar, for there was a cyclone coming. Sure enough, as we descended the steps, which wound around and around, storm sounds and cold air were piped at us, and psychedelic lights in the roof gave the impression of the house spinning. [An additional effect was a large centrally placed screen with an animated movie showing the inner part of a tornado funnel]. We left the cellar via a door that leads into an exact duplicate of the first house, but one which is tilted [at visually bewildering angles] and has all its furnishings askew (broken crockery, books on the floor, furniture tipped over, etc.). As you emerge from the front door of the house, you find that even the front porch appears to be crumpled up from the force of the impact [of landing in Oz].

"It is, as might be expected, just a short distance to the Yellow Brick Road (they used about 40,000 glazed yellow bricks), which leads past Munchkinland--quaint little houses, etc., giving the impression that the Munchkins are elves or the like--the most uninspiring aspect of the park.... [Visitors saunter along the road and encounter costumed likenesses of the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion, and the Wicked Witch, each of whom, in turn, does a brief dance routine, miming songs previously recorded on tape. The yellow brick road ultimately leads to the Emerald City where each visitor receives red/green-lensed 3-D spectacles which give the colors of the city a strange--not green--appearance]. The City contains a restaurant, ice-cream shop, four gift shops, and an outdoor theater. Every hour, on the hour, Dorothy and her friends appear on stage [in a song and dance routine] to seek audience of the Wizard (he is only on screen).... The only noteworthy aspect of the entire performance occurs when Dorothy and Toto disappear in a cloud of smoke and reappear, almost simultaneously, in a balloon sailing over the city (neatly worked by having a second Dorothy with the same clothing and hair styling as the one who was on the stage). The gift shops contain the usual unrelated tourist junk as well as Oz pennants, pins, coins, postcards, books, and a miniature Tin Woodman's ax. Leaving the Emerald City, we took the balloon ride over the City...and stopped off at the L. Frank Baum Museum before taking a gondola ride back down the mountain. The Museum primarily contained clothing and other artifacts from the 1939 movie (Dorothy's dress [jointly owned with actress Debbie Reynolds who has custody of it six months out of the year] probably being the highlight), although there were early [editions of a few Baum Oz books and related items]. Although some aspects were too cute and touristy, I was generally well impressed and would certainly consider a visit to the Land of Oz well worth the time and money of any Ozmapolitan."

--DOUGLAS A. ROSSMAN

From The Baum Bugle, Christmas 1970, pp 23-24, (Volume 14, Number 3)