![]() In 2010 Don Lansing put it up for sale, and its eventual buyers (for $3.4 million) were not Iowa farmers, but a wheeler-dealer land development group from Chicago. It's still just the way it looked in the movie - but maybe not forever. The Field of Dreams is free: a baseball diamond with a backstop, a pair of simple wooden bleachers, a white farmhouse, and lots of corn (in season). "Thanks for giving everyone a chance to play ball." "We do not allow organized games," warns a sign. But even the film's most devoted fans can't commandeer the Field of Dreams for their own private ballgames. ![]() On occasional Sundays in the summer, a local semi-pro team dresses in old-timey uniforms as the "Ghost Players." They hide in the corn beyond the outfield, then walk out to toss a ball around with happy visitors. If you look up at the light towers, all of the bulbs have been removed. "They don't," replied the girl at the cash register (The Field is closed and gated every day at 6 pm). "When do they turn on the lights?" asked one man at the gift shop. The people that we saw arrived with everything from professional baseball gear to beach balls and over-sized clown bats. Some visitors come to play ball with whoever happens to be around. Al told us he'd met people who'd seen the film "99 million times."įield of Dreams farmhouse was given its wrap-around porch and fence by the set designers. Some treat it as a shrine, happy to take a pinch of the infield dirt or snap off an ear of corn (Both are officially discouraged), or to stand on the same spot as Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, and Burt Lancaster (It was his last film). What do people do at the Field of Dreams? Mostly, they just show up. The gift shop carries a selection of t-shirts with the movie's best-known catchphrases.ĭon Lansing finally bought out Al Ameskamp on August 17, 2007, and the Field was united at last. "We try to keep things pleasant," the now-deceased Al told us during a 1990s visit. It was not quite a dream, more like a schizophrenic episode. Ameskamp and Lansing quickly restored the Field to its original appearance, and for the next two decades they ran competing attractions, only a few feet apart, each with its own gift shop selling nearly identical stuff. But when the movie became a hit and tourists began arriving, he realized he'd made a mistake. After the film crew left, Ameskamp plowed up his half and planted a new crop of corn. The Field was built across the property line of two farmers, Don Lansing and Al Ameskamp. (For those who don't know, Field of Dreams tells the story of an Iowa farmer who plows up part of his corn crop to build a baseball field, and then the ghosts of famous dead players come and play baseball on it.) The steady stream of cars pulling into its parking lot confirms their continued affection. The scene neatly introduces the name of the 60s radical writer (which in the source book, Shoeless Joe, was JD Salinger – notoriously publicity-shy author of Catcher in the Rye), and it’s in the Seminary Library of the University of Dubuque, University Avenue, that Ray Kinsella researches the reclusive Terence Mann (though the exterior shot is of the University’s Van Vliet Hall)." Field of Dreams has affected the public in a way seldom matched in movie history," according to a sign at the Field. The school, where Annie Kinsella ( Amy Madigan) stands up against censorship at the PTA meeting, is Drexler Elementary School, Third Avenue in Farley, on Route 20 about six miles east of Dyersville. Take along your bat and ball and play out your dreams at the Field of Dreams Movie Site, 28995 Lansing Road, Dyersville. It’s estimated that, within three years of the film’s release, 60,000 people had made the pilgrimage to Dyersville. But, just as in the movie, visitors came, and the field was restored. The diamond – constructed for the film – straddled two properties, and after filming, half of it was ploughed up and returned to farming. The baseball field that Ray Kinsella ( Kevin Costner) is impelled to build still exists, about four miles northeast of Dyersville, just off Highway 20, west of Dubuque. Most of the film is shot in the area around Dubuque, the oldest city in Iowa, at the northern edge of the state, separated from Illinois and Wisconsin by the Mississippi River. The unlikely supernatural baseball feelgood weepie has provided Iowa with a major tourist attraction. “If you build it, he will come.” promised the mysterious voice. Field of Dreams location: the magical baseball diamond: Lansing Farm, Dyersville, Iowa | Photograph: Flickr © Lumberjacklukee
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