Yellow brick road
The actual road is believed to be one in Peekskill, New York, where L. Frank Baum attended Peekskill Military Academy. According to a local legend, the Yellow Brick Road was derived from a road paved with yellow bricks near Holland, Michigan, where Baum spent summers. Ithaca, New York, also makes a claim for being Frank Baum's inspiration. He opened a road tour of his musical, The Maid of Arran, in Ithaca, and he met his future wife Maud Gage Baum while she was attending Cornell University. At the time, yellow bricks paved local roads. Yellow brick roads can also be found in Aberdeen, South Dakota; Albany, New York; Rossville (Baltimore County), Maryland; Montclair, New Jersey (Parkhurst Place and Afterglow Way); Bronxville, New York (on Prescott and Valley roads); Chicago, Illinois; Liberal, Kansas; Sedan, Kansas and Chittenango, New York, as well as a school in Abington, Pennsylvania, and abroad in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Geology of Kansas
The Red Hills cover a section of southern Kansas in Clark, Comanche, and Barber counties along the Oklahoma border. The Red Hills are named for their color derived from the Permian red beds which outcrop and underlie the region. The red color is produced by abundant iron oxides in the weathering sediments. The region is underlain by red shales, siltstones, and sandstones along with interbedded dolomites and gypsum evaporite layers. Massive gypsum deposits are mined near Sun City in northwestern Barber County. The Gyp Hills near Medicine Lodge were named for the gypsum of the Blaine Formation. The soluble gypsum, anhydrite and dolomite produce many caves in the area. The Big Basin of Clark County is a 2 km diameter, 35 m deep, dissolution collapse feature that formed by the dissolution of salt beds in the subsurface.