The Land of Oz Theme Park

[Witches of Morva]

ORDDU: Greetings to all you Yellow Brick Road loving ducklings out there! My sisters and I were wondering if anyone of you might have heard anything about the proposed theme park for New York State that is to be based on the OZ books? There had been some talk of it in the past but we haven't heard anything new as of late. Have any of you?

ORWEN: I like the idea for a theme park based on OZ. I mean, they were going to have a hanging rollercoaster called the Winged Monkey that flew you all around the castle of the Wicked Witch of the West.

ORDDU: And at the front of the park you would be greeted by some sort of perpetual tornado that would be kept 'alive' inside a huge, glass box. The entire concept was quite unique and I believe we read that Disney Imagineers were lending a hand to the whole project. Anyway, if any of you sweet little things ever hear anything about any of this, please let us know!

ORGOCH: Hmmm....the Land a Oz...they melt witches, don't they???

[Melonballer]

I remember the project from Kansas from a few years ago. They couldn't go through with it due to protestors who did not like the witchcraft in it. If they had built the park that would have given me a reason to actually stop in Kansas.

[K in KC]

The Oz theme park did not fall apart in Kansas because of the witchcraft connection - although it makes for an interesting story. It was due to the site that the developers wanted to use which was an old ammunition dump. The taxpayers did not want to clean up the site themselves and thought that the developers should have to pay at least a portion of the expenses themselves. That in conjunction with the public financing that would be required doomed the project. I don't know what the status is at this point but haven't heard anything in a few years. A shame if put somewhere other than Kansas.

[Witches of Morva]

ORWEN: Objections to witchcraft?! Why, I never heard of such nonsense. Witchcraft is a way of LIFE--for me, anyway.

ORDDU: I had heard the very same thing about the Kansas site that you just mentioned, K in KC, duckling. It was a huge political nightmare. Supposedly one of the business women on the project--who merely CLAIMED she was interested in seeing the OZ park become reality--was secretly against it all along and worked against the idea, sabataging it so that it wouldn't be built in Kansas. From what we have heard, New York is the most likely site for it, now.

ORGOCH: Which is most likely fer the best! Cain't ya all just imagine what a REAL twister would do ta blow the Kansas version away? New York don't git quite as many twisters as Kansas, so's it's a little safer ta build up there, I s'pose--less'n that dang tornado in a box they's been talkin' 'bout gits restless and breaks free ta wreck the place after it's built.

[aimster]

There was (well, still is) an Oz theme park in North Carolina at the top of a mountain that was first opened int he 60's or 70's, closed in the early 80's and now is open just the first weekend in October.

You can read about it here:

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tips/...actionNo==3764

[Witches of Morva]

ORWEN: Thank you for mentioning that, aimster, duckling. We've never been to North Carolina before--stuck here in Morva so much, you know. But we had heard about the little Oz park you talked about, too. Have you ever been there?