A Magical Day at Land of Oz - Beech Mountain, NC

As a parent I am always looking for opportunities to create magical memories for my children. Having four kids, I have discovered that for some children it’s easy to come up with ideas for these special occasions. And for others…well…it’s a little more difficult.
For me that child has always been Cullan. Cullan was 3 when he first discovered the Wizard of Oz and fell in love with Dorothy. He is 9 now, and still obsessed with all things Oz related. I never thought that his interest in the Wizard of Oz would last this long.
Let me give you some examples of the difficulties that a parent faces when their child is obsessed with a 1939 movie in the 21st century. When Cullan was 4 he would cry because there was no Wizard of Oz aisle at Walmart. He didn’t understand why his brother and sister could always find the toys they wanted (Spiderman and Paw Patrol).
There were never any coloring books or art projects he could buy, so he made his own crafts and Perler bead creations instead.
Buying birthday party decorations and a cake topper were also not an option. Room decor was easier to find, so that was a plus. Everywhere we would go Cullan would find something Wizard of Oz related. When he was five we were grocery shopping when he begged me to buy this loaf of bread because the package looked like Dorothy’s dress.
In the summer of 2015 when Cullan and I were visiting family in Texas we were lucky enough to be in town during a traveling exhibit called Fantasy in Sand. We had finally found an exhibit that was right up his alley – they even had a gift shop! I had never seen Cullan so happy before – made my mama heart so happy!
Over the next few years we went to several theatre productions of the Wizard of Oz, and even though I could tell he enjoyed every single one, I could also tell he wished for something more.
Several years ago Cullan had heard that there used to be a Wizard of Oz theme park, but that it had closed down. I don’t know why I never looked into this at the time. Then earlier this year I saw a few Facebook posts about Land of Oz, and I immediately started looking into planning the ultimate surprise trip for Cullan.
Land of Oz is a theme park in Beech Mountain, North Carolina that originally opened in 1970. The idea behind Land of Oz was for guests to feel like Dorothy as they walked through the park and ventured from Kansas to Oz, and down the yellow brick road to the Emerald City. After a devastating fire in 1975, they finally closed their doors in 1980. Over the past several years, the current owners have slowly restored the park and open it to the public for special events a couple of times a year. We were able to attend during their Autumn at Oz Festival and 80th-anniversary celebration of the 1939 movie release.
One night in September, after baseball/softball games, we came home and told the kids to shower quickly and come downstairs for a surprise. While they were getting ready, I snuck outside and loaded up the van with our suitcases. When everyone was ready we told them to get in the van because we were headed to a hotel in Tennessee for the night. We wanted to wait as long as possible before letting Cullan know where we were going because we knew how hard it would be for him to wait. I strategically booked a hotel in Tennessee because I knew if I told him we were going to North Carolina, he would immediately know where we were headed.
The next morning we surprised them with matching shirts that I had made, and Cullan knew right away that his dream of going to Land of Oz was coming true. After a quick hour’s drive to Beech Mountain, we were ready to start our adventure.
At the base of the mountain there is a parking area, and a place to check-in and shop, eat, and enjoy some entertainment while you wait for a bus to take you to the park entrance at the top. Our bus driver was great – very entertaining and provided us with a lot of history about the park.
After you get off the bus there’s a short uphill walk where you can enjoy the view before walking into Kansas. Every 30 minutes there is a live production of a few scenes from the movie. We arrived in the middle of the scene, so we just walked around on our own for a bit while we waited for the play to start over from the beginning.
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