Image above: House today where Field of Dreams family lived, and can now be rented per night, 2024, America's Best History.
Spotlight on Lesser Known History
Field of Dreams
Movie Set,
Iowa
America's Best History Spotlight
On this page we're going to Spotlight the lesser known historic sites and attractions that dot the history landscape across the USA and are worth a visit if you're in their area. And while they may be lesser known, some are very unique, and will be that rare find. You'll be, at times, on the ground floor, or maybe even know something others don't. It'll be fun. Visit them.
Field of Dreams, Iowa
For someone who considers the 1989 movie one of his two favorite movies, there may be some bias here. However, whatever bias you may read, might just fly out the car window as you wind past the corn and into the farm movie site known from the film forward as Field of Dreams. Yes, there are changes, no real past players come out of the corn after character Ray Kinsela built the field, but plenty of visitors do. Up to one hundred thousand come to the site each year. They play catch with their loved ones, or with strangers, they wander around the immaculate field and immediately recall how Moonlight Graham stepped over the baseline to save Kinsela's daughter, turning into the old men doctor he would, in real life, become. For those not into baseball, it might take you back to a more peaceful time. For those that love baseball, and you are in Iowa, it is a must see. Bring your glove.
Photo above: Field of Dreams Baseball Field from front porch of house, 2024, America's Best History.
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Info, What's There Now, History Nearby
Field of Dreams, Iowa
The field was built for the movie to slightly smaller outfield dimensions than most Major League ballparks. The field is 262 feet to the right field pole, 314 feet to deep center, and 281 feet to the left field pole. Thus, when Major League Baseball held the first Field of Dreams game there in 2021, another field was built in the corn behind left field. There was a second MLB game and more are expected.
Much of the success of a temporary movie ballpark turned into tourist attraction was the genuine storytelling of the movie itself. Up for three Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Original Score and Best Adapted Screenplay), you can feel the atmosphere as you drive the same roads those winding car lights drove at the end of the movie. The three characters played by Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, and James Earl Jones drove home the story line with aplomb. And that's why it is such a draw thirty-five years later.
Image above: Three of the main characters of the film; Kevin Costner who played Ray Kinsela; Amy Madigan who played his wife Annie; and James Earl Jones who played Terrance Mann. Costner photo, 2003, SSgt. Dennis J. Henry Jr. (USAF). Madigan photo, 1989, Alan Light. Jones photo, 2013, Eva Rinaldi. Courtesy Wikipedia Commons C.C. 2.0. Below: Photo of the field at Field of Dreams Movie Site, Dyersville, Iowa, 2024, America's Best History.
Where Is It
The Field of Dreams Movie Site is located at 28995 Lansing Rd. Dyersville, Iowa 52040. In the middle of nowhere till you get there; in the middle of everywhere once you come.
Minute Walk in History
What is There Now
Field of Dreams
Field of Dreams Movie Set is a dream. There is the original house, the field, a gift shop, concession stands, and the ability for you, your grandson, and son to play baseball where the movie was filmed.
A house tour is available beginning 10 a.m. You can also actually stay in the actual house; it's costly, $2,200 per night.
Don't leave without walking in the corn, playing catch with friends or strangers, and if you're kinda dumb like me, running the bases.
When Open and How Much
The field is open sunrise to sunset. House tours begin at 10:00 a.m. There is a suggested donation of $20 to enter the site. It is open April 1 to October 31 each year.
Fees and hours are subject to change.
Websites
Field of Dreams Movie Site
History Nearby
Iowa contains some of the spectacular trails used by settlers to investigate and travel west, including the Lewis and Clark Historic Trail and the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail. Other National Park Service sites include Herbert Hoover NHS as well as Effigy Mounds National Monument, which is a wonderful native American site with two hundred heritage mounds.
Photos, History, and More Spotlights
Movie Facts
The movie was based on the novel Shoeless Joe by Canadian W.P. Kinsella, release date April 21, 1989. The gross receipts for the film were $84,431,625, both domestic and foreign.
It was not thought that Kevin Costner would want to make another baseball movie after the success of Bull Durham, but he did.
The Director of the movie was Phil Alden Robinson.
Photo above: The cornfield beyond the fence at the field Ray Kinsela built due to the whispers in the corn, "If You Build It, They Will Come," 2024, America's Best History. Below: Shoeless Joe Jackson before being banned from baseball due to 1919 Black Socks Scandal, 1920. Courtesy Library of Congress via Wikipedia Commons.
More Movie Info
The players who would appear from the corn to the field were the eight players banned from baseball due to their participation in the Chicago Black Sox scandal, for throwing games in the 1919 World Series. Many of those players participated in MLB during 1920. Not all of the players depicted were involved in the scandal, including Gil Hodges, Mel Ott, Lou Gehrig, and Babe Ruth. For the full scoop, watch the video.
Image above: Bleachers where family and guests would watch the fantasy players who emerged from the cornfields, 2024, America's Best History
Buy Second Edition
America's Best History Timeline
Great book to keep middle school to college students up to date on their American history.
What's to Come
There have been big plans since the two farms, Ameskamp and Lansing, both of which were used in making the field, sold to a group in 2012 called Go the Distance. They have been running the historic site, held two and counting Major League Games on a new field at the site (original field fences were too short) and have been working on a Little League Complex of fields in which to hold tournaments in a location that evokes the Dreams Park in Cooperstown.
Now an owner with controlling interest as of 2021 in Go the Distance is Hall of Famer Frank Thomas. It is unknown how large the complex will now be; initially there were twenty-four fields planned. Workers at Field of Dreams now believe the project might hold around five.
Photo above: Gift shop at Field of Dreams Movie Site, 2024, America's Best History.
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