Note from the owner of Field of Dreams:
dr. mullen,what lovely sentiments of your visit here to the field of dreams movie site. thank you for writing about us, and we do hope you will have the opportunity to visit again one day.

Becky Lansing Field of Dreams Movie Site
www.fodmoviesite.com
info@fodmoviesite.com

Dyersville's Field of Dreams article
I have now logged over 7000 miles in Iowa and have spoken to well over 30,000 students. And yet, somehow I've eluded one of Iowa's most cherished baseball fields.

However, this time because of the generosity of Bill & Karen George, owners of Uptown B&B in Dyersville, I find myself only three miles away from the immortal field. It was time for me to drive the three extra miles to Dyersville East Road and turn right on Lansing Road to offer tribute to Iowa's most beloved ball diamond.

When I arrived at the field and crossed over the bridge the homestead was just as I remembered it from the 1989 movie. The grass was a lucious green, the infield had faded red dirt, the farmhouse was pristine with white clapboards, there was that indelible porch swing tucked under a wraparound porch, and a white-washed picket fence in front, serving as a reminder of what was once good could become good again.

I opted to have a seat on the wooden bleachers on the third base side. A storm from the west loomed and dark thunderstorm clouds approached. Students from a local community college were playing a pickup game on the field. Wind whistled through a stand of majestic pine trees. A songbird chirped in its effort to re-unite with its mate. Fertile soil as black as peat had recently been sown in seed. Soon, corn shoots would sprout and provide a towering backdrop just as sturdy as a home run wall. The spirits of immortal ball players like Shoeless Joe Jackson, Babe Ruth, and Lou Gehrig would emerge from the swaying field of healthy stalks to play a baseball game like yesterday of old in the traditional sense, as the game was intended to be played.

I could almost smell charcoal briquets, grilled hot dogs skewering, freshly squeezed lemonade, and movie theater popcorn handed out to the fans in brown-waxed lunch bags for a dime each bag.

A crack of a bat, fans rising to their feet, an overzealous runner trying to stretch a double into a triple, a gallant throw from the right fielder, a hush in the stadium as the ump waits for the dust to settle to make the call. "Safe! Safe!"

Over 65,000 loyal baseball fans make this pilgrimage annually to Dyersville's Field of Dreams. In their quest, fathers/sons - mothers/daughters find a way to make amends through a game called "catch". Where else can one find such an idylic setting that invites each of us to dream our own unique dream?

Is this heaven? No, it's Iowa - a bastion that serves as our final frontier. Where close-knit communities and gold-domed county courthouses remind us of what once was decent and whole can and will return again.