Frank Baum book that became the movie: “True courage is facing danger when you are afraid,” it says under an illustration of a sobbing cowardly lion, and “Toto did not really care he was in Kansas or the Land of Oz so long as Dorothy was with him,” under a Good Witch tableau.įirst thing’s first: Why is Wamego so into The Wizard of Oz? They’d reply, “Why not?” Technically, anywhere in Kansas can lay claim to the tale: the book (and movie) just specify the state. The walls lining the walkway are painted with murals from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the L. Ney.īut that’s not all: Behind you, on the other side of Lincoln Avenue, there’s a yellow brick road-an actual yellow brick road, with its own matching gold sign (it says… “Yellow Brick Road”). Crawling around it are four life-sized flying monkey sculptures, gray and menacing, by Kansas artist Daniel E. But if that’s enough to give it away, just take a gander at the sign in big gold letters, hanging like an oversized belt buckle: Oz Museum. Large picture windows give a glimpse of what’s inside: a cartoon lion peeking out from one Tin Man cheesing in another. The façade of the building in downtown Wamego is a rich green, trimmed in a yellow that pops.
