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The Land of Oz

Small museums sometimes offer their visitors a rare opportunity to participate in another individual's dreams. The Land of Oz Park on Beech Mountain, North Carolina, is such a space. In a walled off forest on the peak of a mountain, Jack Pentes transformed his obsession with Frank L Baum’s classic narrative and its film adaptation into a literal fantasy environment. From a memorabilia collection inside a recreation of Dorothy’s house to a Yellow Brick Road trailing through an enchanted forest, the park represents a life’s work invested into escapism and the otherworldly. Closed since 1980, the park’s gates are re-opened on occasion so that local residents might experience local history and nostalgia. In 2013, we gained access to the Land of Oz in order to experience and document its lonely decline. 

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The Museum of Fear and Wonder recognizes, and expresses its gratitude for, its location on the traditional territories of the people of the Treaty 6 and 7 Regions of Alberta, and of the many First Nations, Métis, and Inuit whose footsteps have marked these lands for centuries.

© Brendan Griebel and Jude Griebel

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