Piedmont Pit Stops: Over the rainbow to the Land of Oz

Each year, more than 20,000 Wizard of Oz fans travel to Beech Mountain, North Carolina to live in the world of Dorothy and Glinda and the Wicked Witch of the West – at least for a day. Land of Oz, which first opened in 1970, offers an immersive theatrical experience of the classic film during its three-weekend Autumn at Oz festival each September.  WFDD’s April Laissle followed Dorothy’s journey through Kansas, Oz and the Emerald City for this installment of Piedmont Pit Stops. 

Off to see the wizard

It starts on a pink school bus in the parking lot of the Beech Mountain Resort. Tiny Dorothys and Scarecrows and their parents are greeted by a driver dressed as the Cowardly Lion and settle in for their trip up the mountain, to a new world. 

As we step off the bus, Dorothy’s sepia-toned Kansas farm appears among the gnarled, moss-covered trees of the mountain. The farmhands and wicked Almira Gulch and even Professor Marvel – they’re all there, chit-chatting with guests. 

“If someone cautions you to get into a storm cellar, even if it looks like this, you want to go to the storm cellar," Marvel says. "Because that means a whopper may be coming, we get those here.”

Point taken. And then just moments later, everyone gathers around to watch Dorothy sing her signature song: "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." 

We follow Dorothy through the Gale house and walk down floors slanted by the tornado until finally a door opens, and Oz appears. Technicolor flowers line the yellow brick road stretched ahead of us. The excitement is palpable. 

“It's like literally my childhood," says guest Lele Soley. "Like coming to life. It's magical. I think it's better than Disney World.”

Soley is here alongside her mother, Leslie Thrift, who first introduced her to the world of Oz.

“One Halloween, I dressed her up as Dorothy, her sister up as the witch, and my son up as the Cowardly Lion, and had their pictures professionally taken," Thrift says. 

Stories like this are not unusual among this crowd. The movie has inspired a kind of devotion that’s often passed down through generations. It’s the reason artistic director Sean Barrett says he works hard to ensure the experience here lives up to expectations.

“I don't think people realize how much they've always wanted to be in the middle of the Wizard of Oz until they're here," says Barrett. "So we get grown men that are walking around crying and everything and it's like, okay, we're doing our job, and we're doing it right.”

Visitors first set foot in the Land of Oz more than five decades ago. It was the brainchild of developer Grover Robbins, founder of Tweetsie Railroad. Backstage at Oz, Barrett explains that in the 1960s, Robbins was trying to figure out what to do with the Beech Mountain ski resort during the summer.

“And he brought up a designer from Charlotte named Jack Pentes, and Jack said that the grass and the trees reminded him of Oz," says Barrett. "And so they decided to make it the Land of Oz. It opened in the summer of 1970 and Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher cut the opening day ribbon.” 

It was hugely successful initially – over 450,000 people visited that first year. But by 1981, financial issues and a fire had forced its closure. It sat mostly vacant until the Leidy family, who own the land, hosted the first Autumn at Oz festival in 1993. 

Behind the curtain

Back then, Barrett was an Oz-obsessed kid and his mom was looking for an outlet. She heard about the festival, and drove hours from their home in New Jersey just so they could visit. It became an annual tradition. And then, he became a part of the show, playing the Scarecrow from ages 15 to 28. He says the park was different when he was a performer. 

“It was just kind of a meet and greet, meet the characters, you take photos, and that was it. But I wanted the show personally to change from a performing aspect, because it's more fulfilling," he says. "And so the first year, we added the shows in Kansas. The next year, we added the Emerald City show. And so every year we kind of try to add something to just bring it up to the next level.”

In all there are eight short shows throughout the park, and it takes 124 crew members and 66 actors to mount them. Some of them have been at it for decades. 

“A lot of our original cast members were cast members in the 70s," Barrett says. "So the Miss Gulch, she was a Dorothy. We have a couple of Aunt Ems and Glindas who were Dorothys. Our Professor Marvel was a Tin Man, and he's married to one of the Glindas who was a Dorothy, and their daughter is now Dorothy."

Barrett says cast members here become incredibly tight-knit, living and working together 24/7 for six weeks. Most come from western North Carolina and Nashville, but some travel from as far as New York to be a part of the show. He says 90% return to the production year after year. 

“It's like summer camp for adults, essentially," Barrett says. And everybody is very passionate about it, and they all have the same love for it. And so I think by the time it's all over, we're all exhausted, but we're all kind of like 'Jesus, like, let's get started again immediately.'”

Their jobs are far from easy though – Land of Oz has to contend with issues that traditional theaters never encounter. 

“We come back and the road is two shades lighter. Or we'll have a minor mudslide along the yellow brick road, or any number of things will happen. And this paint starts peeling up after each winter," he says. "So we get it straight through September, and then come December, it's like all hell breaks loose.”

And when urban exploring started becoming popular on YouTube, vandalism became a problem too. Vandals have stolen a slew of yellow bricks and even a 300 pound witch’s cauldron. 

When they start getting frustrated though, Barrett says it’s easy to shift focus back to their mission: creating a world where everyone is welcome. 

“It's the whole point of The Wizard of Oz," he says. "Dorothy is going down the yellow brick road and no qualms just was like, ‘You need help. Come with me. I need help too’ She didn't care who they were, what their background was. She was just like, 'let's go do this. We're in this together.'”

This year Barrett added a new song to the finale, one where Dorothy thanks her friends before clicking her heels together, and saying goodbye. 

Cast and crew members will say their own goodbyes after this weekend, when Autumn at Oz concludes for 2024. Pre-production for the next year’s festival will start all over again in February.