Field of dreams

DYERSVILLE, Iowa -- More than 15 years after Ray Kinsella built it, people still come to the Field of Dreams.

Just like Shoeless Joe Jackson, throngs of baseball fans -- 65,000 a year -- are drawn to Dyersville, Iowa, to see the ball park Kevin Costner's character built in a cornfield in the 1989 movie "Field of Dreams."

The field reopens for the season April 1, two days before the first major league baseball game takes place. But while the famous corn field is by far the town's biggest attraction, there are many other things to do and see here.

Dyersville calls itself the "Farm Toy Capital of the World." Here you'll find the National Farm Toy Museum, doll and woodcarving museums, and several companies that manufacture die-cast replicas of farm equipment -- Ertl, Scale Models and SpecCast. Annual toy shows held in November, March and June also draw visitors.

"All the other attractions were here before the Field of Dreams," said Karla Thompson, executive director for the Dyersville Chamber of Commerce.

Dyersville is also home to the St. Francis Xavier Basilica, built in 1889, featuring twin gothic spires, 64 windows and a marble foundation beneath the altar. Services are held every Sunday, including two in Latin. "People come up from Des Moines (190 miles away) just for the Latin mass," Thompson said.

The National Farm Toy Museum opened in 1986, three years before the movie. It features over 30,000 toys and exhibits with tractors, implements, trucks, miniature farm dioramas, and toy manufacturing information.

More than just baseball

On March 19 and 20, the Farm Toy Museum welcomes the Midwest Toy Truck show, a smaller version of the bigger show held each November, which typically attracts 8,000 to 10,000 people. The Summer Farm Toy Show is scheduled for June 3 to 5.

Dyersville's Dyer-Bostford Doll Museum boasts a collection of more than 1,000 dolls as well as a German Feather Christmas tree and a hand-carved wooden circus model. The Becker Woodcarving Museum is just outside of Dyersville.

But there's no denying that the Field of Dreams is why most people come to Dyersville. Everything is as familiar to ardent fans of the movie as an old ball glove.

In the last 15 years, a million people have come to see the field. The first visitor, a man from New York, traveled to Dyersville after watching the movie.

"One morning when my brother was getting ready to go to work, he saw him sitting on the bleachers," said Becky Boeckenstedt, whose brother, Tim Lansing, owns most of the property that the field sits on. "After that, they slowly started coming. They played on the field that whole summer."

She estimates 7,500 people visited the first year, with the number doubling the following summer. Visitors come from all 50 states and dozens of countries.

"There's not a day goes by that a car doesn't come down the lane," Boeckenstedt said. "...Mainly, they've seen the movie, love the movie and want to come to some quiet little place and that's what this is."

There's often a game going on, but the lineup is never written down.

"It's just a pickup game from morning to night," Boeckenstedt said. "A family from California meets a family from New York and they all play together."

Denny Grall made the six-hour trip from Escanaba, Mich., where he works as a sports editor for the local paper, The Daily Press, with his family to see a fantasy game sponsored by Upper Deck, the sports trading card company.

"We had a chance to see (former Cleveland Indian) Bob Feller pitch for two innings, which was a big thrill," he said. "That's what Field of Dreams is all about -- living out a fantasy, living out a dream." Feller is a native Iowan.

Fans who bring gloves can take the field, but equipment can also be borrowed from the Left and Center Field shop behind the bleachers. The Lansing family operates a separate concession at the site.