Field Of Dreams | Film Locations
“if you build it, he will come”. she promised the mysterious voice. and see what they did. The unlikely and supernatural baseball crybaby has provided Iowa with a major tourist attraction.
Most of the film is shot around Dubuque, the oldest city in Iowa, in the far north of the state, separated from Illinois and Wisconsin by the Mississippi River.
The baseball field that Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) is driven to build still exists, about four miles northeast of Dyersville, just off Highway 20, west of Dubuque. the diamond, built for the film, occupied two properties, and after filming half of it was plowed up and returned to farming. but, just like in the movie, visitors came and the field was restored. Within three years of the film’s release, an estimated 60,000 people had made the pilgrimage to Dyersville.
Take your bat and ball and play your dreams at the Field of Dreams movie site, 28995 Lansing Road, Dyersville.
The school, where Annie Kinsella (Amy Madigan) opposes censorship at the PTA meeting, is Drexler Elementary School, Third Avenue in Farley, on Route 20 about six miles east of Dyersville.
the scene clearly features the name of the radical 1960s writer (who in the source book, barefoot joe, was jd salinger, notoriously publicity-shy author of the catcher in the rye), and is in the library of the university of dubuque seminar, university avenue, where ray kinsella investigates the reclusive terence mann (although the exterior shot is of the university’s van vliet hall).
dubuque itself represents ‘boston’, where ray kinsella goes to look for the retired scribe (james earl jones). a stretch of dubuque’s central avenue at 17th street dressed up as a jewish section of ‘boston’. mann’s apartment is next door to jerry’s farmhand & jewelry store, 1735 central avenue.
The baseball field, where Ray and the bewildered writer receive subliminal messages about “Moonlight” Graham on the scoreboard, really is Boston. it’s fenway park, 4 yawkey way, home of the boston red sox.
The smallest major league field in the states (and the site of Babe Ruth’s first pro appearance in 1914), you’re on a good road: the box office is at No. 4. You probably won’t see a young Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as extras in the crowd. Years later, Affleck returned to Fenway Park as director to film the climax of the town.
On the way, Ray and Terence stay at the Air Line Inn, 10784 Highway 61, south of Dubuque to the regional airport.
the quest to find ‘moonlight’ leads the intrigued couple to the small town of ‘chisholm, minnesota’. Quaint Main Street is the historic downtown district of Galena, Jo Daviess County, about 12 miles southeast of Dubuque, across the Mississippi from Illinois. Ray and Terence make it to South Main Street on Green Street, and Ray finally catches up with Dr. graham (burt lancaster) on south main street at the northwest corner with hill street.
