HOLLAND, Mich. — With the worldwide success of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, one might think author L. Frank Baum always had success as a writer.
However, that wasn't the case.
Thankfully, his big break book brought in enough money for him to vacation with his family in West Michigan. Without that, we might not have the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
Baum went through several changes in the early parts of his professional career — moving to different cities and across different industries multiple times.
He spent time as a newspaper editor, a playwrite and a journalist, among others. He realized there was one skill all of those jobs had in common — writing.
So, he put his focus toward being an author. Finally, in the late 1800s, he broke onto the scene with his first major publication, Father Goose.
The success of that book allowed Baum and his family to purchase a cottage in Holland. As the story goes, that's where he was influenced with ideas for the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
"It is said, from his great grandson, that a lot of the inspiration for the stories in the book came from while he was vacationing in Holland," said Linda Hart, Executive Director, Holland Convention and Visitor's Bureau. "There was a little girl. Her name was Dorothy, two doors down."
Baum would apparently sit out on the porch of his cottage writing down the things he observed.
Just like the water on the shores of Lake Michigan, the ink of Baum's pen kept flowing onto the surface of his notebook.
Piece by piece, the book was coming together.
"There is a yellow brick that's manufactured — or was manufactured — here in Holland back in the 1800s," said Hart. "That brick is predominant in not only his story of the yellow brick road, but was part of their sidewalks and their streets in that particular area. “
There is also a castle located in a private community in Holland that is said to have inspired his vision for the royal castle of Oz in his book.
You can see the Holland's tribute to Baum and the Wonderful Wizard of Oz with a sculpture garden that features 10,000 yellow bricks, along with life-size statues built based on the artistic renderings of the characters in the book.
On the other side of the street, at the edge of Centennial Park, is a 10-feet wide, 12-feet tall Oz book filled with 6,000 flowers. That living mosaic can be seen from mid-May to early October.