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Credit: Land of OzThe Land of Oz, the legendary Wizard of Oz theme park in North Carolina, is re-opening for a limited engagement this fall, and Inside the Magic is here to tell you about it.
The Wizard of Oz is one of the most iconic media franchises in the world. Author L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) served as the launchpad for a sprawling series of books, movies, games, and literally every kind of entertainment that one can conceptualize.
Baum himself wrote 14 books in the series; there are dozens of movie adaptations, theatrical plays, comics, TV shows, and that one music video by Blues Traveler.
While MGM (now owned by Amazon Studios) holds much of the public attention regarding Oz due to the iconic Judy Garland film, there are numerous adaptations of the franchise that stand on their own. One of those is the Land of Oz theme park in Beech Mountain, North Carolina.
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A hugely popular tourist attraction in the North Carolina mountain region in the 1970s, the Land of Oz was defunct for decades but has recently made a comeback under the ownership of the Leidy family.
According to the Beech Mountain resort official website, the park “operated from 1970 to 1980 under the aegis of Carolina Caribbean Corporation. Devised by designer Jack Pentes and built by Grover, Harry, and Spencer Robbins, the park quickly rose to prominence, with the Washington Post dubbing it the Number One Tourist Attraction in its inaugural year.”
“Land of Oz is located 5,506 feet above sea level at the top of Beech Mountain, surrounded by the stunning Blue Ridge Mountains, providing a picturesque background for an unforgettable adventure. Park guests can arrive in Oz by chairlift while soaking in breathtaking mountain views. Inside the park, the Over the Rainbow Observation Deck offers one of the most beautiful views in the Southeast, granting a hundred-mile radius view of North Carolina, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, and Tennessee.”
Inside the Magic reached out to the park to learn more about the history and future plans of the Land of Oz. Artistic director Sean Barrett and park co-owner Page Leidy were kind enough to speak to us about the Oz theme park. The upcoming Autumn in Oz event will be open the following dates:
- September 6th-8th, 2024
- September 13th-15th, 2024
- September 20th-22nd, 2024
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Inside the Magic: Tell me and our readers about Land of Oz in North Carolina.
Land of Oz was built on Beech Mountain in 1970. It was actually a Disneyland-quality experience where guests walked through the story of The Wizard of Oz. They started out in Kansas, went down the Yellow Brick Road, and went to Emerald City, where there was a stage show and a balloon ride. And it was really successful the first year.
Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds cut the opening-day ribbon. They had celebrities like Muhammad Ali and Jay North, who played Dennis the Menace on the original TV show. And it looked really promising. They had 450,000 people in the first season, which was only running from June until September. So for this little mountain town, it was jam-packed with everybody wanting to go to Oz. And then it was doing really well.
The company that built the park went bankrupt in 1975 due to other failed investments. The Emerald City burned down in December of that year. A museum with costumes from the movie was ransacked. They didn’t think the park was going to reopen. One of the investors came in and bought the park, but they had never run a theme park.
Before, they were only used to ski resorts. So, they got rid of the original creative team and had somebody else come and oversee it. They didn’t really know what they were doing. The quality of the park went down drastically. Even the rebuild of the park wasn’t what it was before. And so it kind of petered out until 1980. And it closed after the 1980 season.
And it was very run down because they weren’t upkeeping it. And then the Leidy family got it. They got it back because they owned the land previous to the park being built, and they started to open it one day a year in the late ‘80s to have original employees come back to visit the park, and word of mouth spread really quickly. So they opened it to the public in 1991, and they got slammed that day.
They had over 4,000 people go for this one-day event. And then they took a year off to kind of. You know, gather their thoughts. And then they started the Autumn Festival in 1993. And that’s been going strong since then. And that has grown from a one-day event to a three-week festival. And that’s where we are now.
It’s very impressive. And that’s a pretty incredible rebuild since that initial 1975 fire incident and then 1980 shutdown. So it’s been reopened a number of times over the years. And what’s what’s special about this current Autumn of Oz that’s happening?
Every year a lot of so much money is put back into the park, and we always try to add little incentives to get people to return. But from an odd standpoint, this year is huge because The Wiz returned to Broadway for the first time in 40 years.
It’s the 85th anniversary of The Wizard of Oz (1939). And [Wicked] is coming out in November. So, they’re like sandwiched in between everything. It’s like you can go see the Broadway show before it closes. It’s just it’s a very Ozzy year. That’s particularly good timing for everyone. I actually was curious.
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Is there a connection between MGM, who produced the 1939 film, and the park?
They know we’re there and have been doing it for so long, so they kind of just let us do our thing.
That’s actually quite remarkable, but good for everybody involved.
Page Leidy: And if I can add to that, the park is based on the book written by L. Frank Baum. So that’s the difference between the two.
Note: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, first published in 1900, has been public domain in the United States since 1956.
Tell me about the specifics of the Autumn of Oz.
Basically, we went back to the ‘70s formula, where you walk through the story. So it’s an immersive theatrical experience, and guests can either take a chairlift up to the park, which seems like they’re flying over the rainbow or take a shuttle bus up if they don’t like heights.
But when you get to Kansas, there’s any number of things happening around. You might be looking for Toto, for example, or Doctor Marvel can read your fortune. The farmhands are dancing. They do a dance with Dorothy, and she sings.
And then you walk through the house, and it’s all neat and tidy, and you meet Aunt Em, and then you go into the storm cellar, and you come out the other side, and the house is all crooked like you’re landing in Munchkinland.
You come out into Oz, and you meet Glinda. The Scarecrow, Tin Man, and the Lion each have meet-and-greets where you can take photos with them. They also perform along the Yellow Brick Road. When you get to the end, we have an Emerald City set up.
Every year, we build an Emerald City. There, we have the finale stage show, which is the magic moment show. In it, everybody brings the broomstick back to the wizard, who grants their wishes, and Dorothy clicks her heels and goes home.
We have food and memorabilia vendors, and we have a gift shop filled to the brim with official Land of Oz merchandise that you can’t get anywhere else.
Do you have any idea how many people you might expect to see across these three weekends?
Last year, we had over 24,000 people come, and we are hoping for similar numbers this year.
Are there any plans to permanently reopen the park or open for more extensive periods in the future?
Permanently, it’s not really possible. What makes Oz so special in the moment is that you can’t access it all the time.
One of the original castmates told me that what was really special about Land of Oz when it was open was that you could only watch the movie once a year on TV, but you could visit Land of Oz anytime you wanted to.
But now it’s reversed. You can see the movie whenever you want because of streaming services and DVDs, but you can only visit it for a very short period of time. If you can get one because we do sell out. We sell out quickly. And our Saturdays are already sold out. But if you are able to get a ticket, it’s kind of like getting the golden ticket to the chocolate factory.
Paige Leidy: I would also say the original park is 17 acres. And now it’s approximately eight acres. It is in the middle of a residential community. So we have to be mindful of the residents and the community impact that the event has.
That’s very considerate. It is remarkable for such a unique experience and such a unique theme park to be in the space for people to get to go to for a limited time.
Tickets for Autumn in Oz are available here.