Is This Heaven? No, It’s Iowa.


Parents and children line up for their turn at the Field of Dreams Movie Site.
The farmhouse that was Ray Kinsella’s in the movie is visible here.
That’s yours truly emerging from the outfield corn.
Quick Facts:
In the spring of 1988, these were nondescript corn fields. Then Kevin Costner approached the owners with a proposition: Let’s turn a small portion of your fields into a ball field on which we can re-create parts of W.P. Kinsella’s novel “Shoeless Joe”. Soon came the infield clay, the field lights, a backstop, a few sets of low-rise bleachers, and an outfield wall whose height varied with the seasons and the success of the year’s corn crop.

Once the shoot was done, the property owners were left with a dilemma. It would cost money to remove the infield clay and make the land suitable for growing corn again. The light stanchions also had to go. But a strange thing happened: After the movie opened, people started seeking out the “Field of Dreams” Costner had described. As James Earl Jones, playing the author Terence Mann, said, “People will come.”

Since then, the owners have kept up the ball field, with contributions from visitors. Several charity games have been played, featuring players emerging from the corn field as they appear to do in the film. And the people continue to come, taking their turns, fathers and mothers pitching to sons and daughters.

There were actually two property owners, each of whom ran a concession stand. The infield, right field, and the farmhouse belong to the Lansings, while the rest of the outfield belonged to someone else. The property line is roughly along an overhead power line which bisects the field but is hardly visible on film. In 2007, the other owners sold out, leaving the entire field in the control of the Lansings.

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This page updated 28-Dec-2022