Chesterton, Indiana - Wizard of Oz Museum

Just outside of Valparaiso in a town called Chesterton (rt 49) is the Yellow Brick Road Gift Shop and Museum, which boasts a collection of photographs and homemade Wizard of Oz paraphernalia. The museum is one-room big and only costs a quarter to get into. Outside on the lawn are wooden cutouts of various characters and buildings from the movie. The gift shop is bigger than the museum itself. Be careful not to go on Tuesday, that's new beanie baby day.

In Valparaiso itself is a restaurant called Kelsey's Irish Pub that has a large fiberglass bull next to its sign. Also, Valparaiso is the birthplace of Orville Redenbacher, and every year in September (the weekend after Labor Day) they have a popcorn festival. Valparaiso University is home to the largest chapel on a college campus. [Darlene Maloney, Christine Breecher, 02/27/2000]

[RA: Tipster J. Mitchell tells us that Chesterton has no real ties to the Wizard of Oz -- but that the store proved so popular that it spawned a separate annual Wizard of Oz festival, which itself proved so popular that it had to move to a park in Valparaiso.]