|
The Land of Oz was first introduced in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) by L. Frank Baum, and described and expanded upon in the Oz Books. Baum wrote fourteen children's books about Oz and its odd inhabitants.
Stage 1:
In 1929 John Campbell Gilliland bought the general store once located at this intersection and became the postmaster for the village of Oak Hall. The store is long gone, but the site is now a small, Emerald City-green, park with a great summer swimming hole. Additionally, it characterizes the three virtues Dorothy's friends sought in The Wizard of Oz (Brain, Heart and Courage)...and is also where you'll find the coordinates for the final cache location down the yellow striped road.
- Scarecrow's Brain: Use your Brain to calculate (the year the store was purchased) + (the year the store closed) - (the year they were marrried) = 19XNXW*
- Tin Man's Heart: (1975, the year heart throb Olivia Newton John won a Grammy for "I Honestly Love You"**) - (the year the store owner shared his Heart) = 19YNYW
- Cowardly Lion's Courage: Do you have C-C-C-Courage?!? Use the nearby rope swing to swing out a little and get a better view of the last 2 digits (ZNZW) that appear facing the stream up high on the tree--about 20-25 feet up! (The rope is solid and has repeatedly held 3 people-though swinging alone should suffice. Simply stand with your foot (or sit) in the bottom of the loop and push off gently.) There's absolutely NO need to get a running start and I'd leave your GPS, wallet and camera on land--even if you don't plan on letting go!*** (we'd love it if you'd post a picture of your effort.)
N 40° 47.XYZ
W 077° 47.XYZ
|
 |
Additional Notes:
*Remember, Scarecrow did not have a brain when looking for Oz. Don't get too mathematical, simple arithmetic will do! (N=North coordinate, W=West coordinate)
**Why is that tidbit of info relevant to this OZ cache you ask? Believe it or not...In searching for a "heart" related event in 1975, we were happy to come across this grammy-winning 1975 hit, "I Honestly Love You", sung by Australian heartthrob, Olivia Newton John. We were satisfied and about to move on when we noticed the song appeared in a 2003 Broadway musical "The Boy from Oz". The song, we discovered, was originally written by Australian singer/songwriter Peter Allen, whose story is told in the musical . "How appropriate a connection--it even has a reference to something 'Oz'" we thought, but continued our web search. As it turns out, Peter Allen was married to Liza Minelli. Her mother discovered his singing talent when he was a 16 year-old bar singer in the Aussie (Ozzie) outback. And who was Minelli's mother? None other than Judy Garland, star of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz! What a weird coincidence! A random 1975 song choice turns out to have uncanny relevance to this cache. Fact is often more bizarre than fiction!
***If it wasn't challenging, there'd be no need for courage, now get out there!...But, if you are completely devoid of c-c-courage, see the stage 1 hint.
|
Stage 2:
|
 |
Over a decade ago, the talented and skilled property owners (Stan and his father) built and placed the Tin man on the site to replace a scarecrow that had been stolen from the garden. The new tin man would be too heavy for anyone to walk away with, and would serve the same purpose as the original scarecrow. Over the years and just for fun, additional Oz characters were fashioned and added to the Land of Oz. Toto went missing once too, but was thankfully returned after news of its disappearance spread in the local community and media.
(cache placed with permission)
|
This location was also momentarily (1 day) the site of a previous travelling geocache--" The Postcard Cache" came through these parts on Sept 10, 2005.
Here, you'll also learn of Tik-Tok, a relatively unknown, fictional copper character who first appears in the book Ozma of Oz (1907) where Dorothy Gale discovers him locked up in a cave, completely run down. He becomes Dorothy's servant and protector despite his tendency to run down at crucial moments. As a mechanical man, he runs on clockwork springs which periodically need to be rewound, like a wind-up toy or clock. He has separate keyholes for thought, action, and speech. If any of these run completely down, Tik-Tok is unable to wind them back up himself. He becomes frozen or mute. As Baum repeatedly mentions, Tik-Tok is not alive and feels no emotions. He therefore can no more love or be loved than a sewing machine, but as a servant he is utterly truthful and loyal. It is surmised that if Tik-Tok were set in our day, he'd continually have Geocaching on his mind and would still be attracting quest seekers from Kansas and beyond.
|
Additional Tik-Tok info:
The film "Return to Oz" (1985), is an unofficial motion picture sequel to "The Wizard of Oz". It was made by Walt Disney Pictures who owned most of the Oz book rights, and is unrelated to MGM, the company that made the classic 1939 film. Note that when Dorothy first meets Tik-Tok, he tells her that he will be her humble servant, takes off his hat and bows before her. When he's bowing if you look closely you can see the "puppeteer" crouched behind him.
An acrobat walking upside down on his hands (see photo on right) made the Tik-Tok character move for the film. Tik-Tok is also one of the very first robots to appear in literature, though that term was coined two years after Baum's death in 1919.
Information on Tik-Tok was gleaned primarily from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tik-Tok and http://www.returntoozthemovie.com/
|
|
|
|