Guest Author - Beth Green

“If you build it, they will come”. And they keep coming. The first visitor to the “Field of Dreams” movie site arrived from New York City in May of 1989 after watching the movie. Since then over 80,000 visitors a year have stopped by the site since it opened to the public more than 15 years ago.
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The 1988 movie phenomenon starring Kevin Costner, and based on the book “Shoeless Joe” by W.P. Kinsella, made the town of Dyersville, Iowa a major tourist attraction. Built in just three days, the majority of the movie field was built on the Lansing family farm just outside of Dyersville; however, left field and center field were built on a neighboring farm. Once filming was complete, the portion of the field on the Lansing farm was left intact; but the owner of the adjacent farm where left and center fields were, returned the land to its original farming use. A year later, the owner restored his portions of the “Field of Dreams”. Both owners operate souvenir stands at the field.

The field is open to the public from April to November. Hours are 9:00am to 6:00pm daily. From Memorial Day to Labor Day, hours are expanded until 8:00pm daily. No admission is charged. To preserve the integrity of the field and make it accessible to all tourist, the field in not rented out for any organized activities or events.

Bring your own baseball equipment, or borrow some from the Left and Center concession stand, and play catch or hit a few balls, run the bases, or just sit on the bleachers and imagine Shoeless Joe Jackson and rest of the ghost players coming out of the corn field to play their favorite pastime.

A community team called The Ghost Players does walk out of the corn field every Sunday at noon from June to September, to play an hour-long game for visitors. The team is made up of many of the extras from the movie.

While visiting the Field of Dreams, be sure to stop by one of the two souvenir stands; the Lansing family’s, located near third base, or the Left and Center Field shop behind the bleachers; and take home a little piece of heaven from the world’s most famous ball diamond.

Dyersville is located in Dubuque County in Eastern Iowa, 25 miles west of the town of Dubuque; and approximately 200 miles west of Chicago.