peekskill, new york. ♪ follow the yellow brick road follow the yellow brick road ♪ >> reporter: anyone who's seen the 1939 classic "the wizard of oz" or read l. frank baum's children's book on which it's based knows the adventures of dori gayle, a girl from kansas who awakens in a mysterious place and travels a golden path to an emerald city with a lion, a tin man and a scare crow. >> this yellow pavement dates back to at least the 1830s. >> reporter: if you ask peekskill town historian john curran, the man who penned the novel back in 1900 got his inspiration from this stretch of clay brick as a boy. so this is the yellow brick road? >> as far as we can tell from the maps and the documents, and frank's own accounts in the story, yes it is. >> reporter: as curator of peekskill's town museum, he has dug deep into the time baum spent here while attending the military academy in 1968. now it's just a block of golden pavement next to a parking lot. but then, it covered most of the town. and for a homesick kid