Points of Interest in Wamego
Oz Museum
The Oz Museum features one of the largest privately owned collections of Oz memorabilia in the world. From the earliest books of Oz creator, L. Frank Baum to today’s collectibles that can be purchased in the Farmyard Gift Shop, visitors both young and “young at heart” will treasure a visit to the Oz Museum.
For more information, visit www.OZmuseum.com.
Old Dutch Mill
The Old Dutch Mill, overlooking Wamego City Park,
was built in 1879 on the Schonhoff farm 12 miles north
of Wamego. It stands 40 feet high and is 25 feet in
diameter at its base. The family-operated mill did
custom grinding of feed and grain for a few years but
ceased operation around 1890. In 1924, a group of
Wamego businessmen conceived the idea of moving
the structure to Wamego. Drawings and photographs of the mill were made and the layers of stone were
numbered, as were the stones in each layer. The
stones and the machinery were hauled to Wamego by
horse-drawn wagons and the mill was reconstructed at
its present location. In 1988, the community
commissioned a milling expert to design a plan to
restore the mill to its original function and today flour
and corn meal made from grain ground in the mill are
available in the community.
 
The Columbian Theatre
The Columbian Theatre, Museum & Art Center is the
center of cultural activity in the Wamego area. It has
been elegantly restored for exhibits, performances and
special events. The Columbian Theatre was built in the
late 1890s by businessman J. C. Rogers to house
artifacts he retrieved from the 1893 World Columbian
Exposition at Chicago. The theatre closed in 1950, but
was reincarnated in 1994, following a $2 million
fundraiser and complete restoration. Today, the facility
is home to six giant oil paintings (11 x 16 feet) which
hung in the U. S. Government Building in the 1893 fair.
The paintings have been fully restored and, along with
14 other paintings discovered in the building in 1992,
are thought to be the only decorative art remaining from
the 1893 World's Fair. For more information on The
Columbian Theatre, visit its web site:
www.columbiantheatre.com
 
Wamego City Park
If you're looking for a good picnic spot, you can't do
better than Wamego City Park, listed as one of the top
10 "Favorite Kansas Picnic Spots." The park includes a
two-acre pond spanned by a 70-foot pedestrian bridge,
several flower gardens, a bandstand, stone
shelter house, statuary believed to have come from the
1893 Chicago World's Fair, and a miniature train which
delights youngsters during summer months. The latest
addition to the park is a five-foot bust of an Indian chief,
carved with a chain saw from the stump of a giant pin
oak.
   
Museum Complex
Wamego's historical complex sits at the eastern edge of
Wamego City Park and includes a museum, a restored
one-room schoolhouse, a log cabin and jail. The
museum addition which opened in the spring of 1997 is
a replica of the original Wamego Town Hall.
   
Ditto/Leach House
The Ditto/Leach house, located at Fifth and Poplar, was built in 1890
by Louis B. Leach, a prominent Wamego businessman. The 22-room
home was built from memory to resemble a villa in the suburbs of
Messina on the island of Sicily. The house was purchased in the mid
1980's by Bill and Rose Ditto, who have completely restored the
house.
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