Dyersville, Iowa: Living Near the Real Field of Dreams

If you build it, they will come. Sound familiar? There aren't very many people who haven't heard of Kevin Costner, or his hit movie Field of Dreams for that matter. How often do you get to visit the set of a movie that is still so popular? Try living within minutes of the set. To me, it's one of the best things living in Iowa. I get to tell people that I live so close to the actual Field of Dreams.

Located in Dyersville, Iowa, the Field of Dreams set brings so many visitors from all over the world. To walk over to the visitor's book and see so many different cities and even countries listed in that book makes it such an honor to live so close to this amazing site. You would think it would be a pretty populated town, but in fact it's not. At just over 4,000 people, this small town is very well known.

Field of Dreams, released in 1989, is based on a novel by William P. Kinsella, a Canadian writer. He had attended the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop during his training. The novel, Shoeless Joe was published in 1982. The movie has recently been released in an anniversary two disc edition of the film which includes many new features such as a virtual visit to the actual Field of Dreams site. The film is about a farmer from Iowa who decides to follow the voice that leads him to building a baseball diamond in his corn field.

The famous movie set is actually a ninety something year old piece of family farm land. Driving up to the site will bring you back to the scenes of that beautiful country home in the movie. Many movie sites or scenes have been commercialized to the point where no one can truly enjoy it. The Field of Dreams movie set, however, isn't like that. Everything that can be done has been done to keep it from being that way. Having it out in the country where you have to drive on some less traveled roads makes it a little easier to do that.

It's still an amazing feeling to walk up and sit on the bleachers while just taking in the beautiful sites. You truly get that feeling as if you were there. If you close your eyes, you can almost see the ghost players walking out of the cornfield behind the ball diamond. It's a rather calming feeling, actually.