DYERSVILLE, Iowa — Should we build it, and would they come?
Those are the questions being debated in the Iowa town where “Field of Dreams” was filmed as it considers a $38 million proposal to turn the farmland around the famous cornfield diamond into one of the nation’s largest youth baseball tournament and training complexes.
An Illinois couple has announced plans to buy the farmhouse and baseball field featured in the 1989 film, along with surrounding land, to build the “All-Star Ballpark Heaven,” a complex of 24 baseball and softball diamonds, an indoor training facility, and lodging that would draw teams from all around to compete in major tournaments.
While the project could provide an economic jolt and breathe new life into Dyersville’s most valuable asset, it has unleashed fierce emotions that have pitted neighbors against each other and raised difficult questions for leaders of the town of 4,000.
Should the city extend water and sewer service to make the project viable? Would enough people come to make it succeed? And if so, would the development ruin the nostalgic, country feel that made this part of rural Iowa a draw in the first place?
“This is one of those projects that has a high risk, but a high reward,” said Jim Heavens, a cattle nutritionist who has been the city’s part-time mayor for nine years. “If everything goes according to Hoyle, it would be a boom for the town and a boom for the state and do something nice for youth. If it doesn’t work out, there’s going to be a lot of pieces to pick up.”
Dyersville, surrounded by lush farmland in the hills 30 miles west of Dubuque, has barely grown in recent decades and some residents say that’s fine. The town has low unemployment and low taxes.
Since the filming of the movie, about a farmer who builds a baseball field that attracts the ghosts of “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and other White Sox players banned for throwing the 1919 World Series, the farm has attracted a stream of visitors despite few amenities: a house that is usually closed and a well-kept baseball field surrounded by corn. One of the most popular activities is a simple game of catch at the site.
But some businesses and attractions, such as the National Farm Toy Museum, got used to the tourism and were hurt when it began to drop in recent years. Two years ago, owners Don and Becky Lansing put the farm up for sale.
The most vocal opposition to the proposed development comes from a small group of the farmers who raise cattle and pigs and grow corn and soybeans nearby.
They worry the 193-acre project, expected to draw caravans of players and families every year, would disrupt their rural life. They worry about driving farm equipment in the traffic, and whether they’ll face regulations on spraying crops and spreading manure with so many children nearby.
Wayne Ameskamp, whose family sold its portion of the movie site to the Lansings in 2008 after years of feuding between the families over its use, has spoken out in public and private meetings with city officials and neighbors.
“Don’t let them build these baseball diamonds out in the country and take our farmland out of production and ruin our piece of heaven,” he told the city council recently. He worries his family would no longer be able to peacefully gather around a fire at its private campsite, nicknamed “Hillbilly Heaven.”
Jeff Pape, whose family farm dates to 1851, said he worries the development, if done incorrectly, could “totally destroy” years of work by farmers to reduce runoff and pollution in a creek running through the site.
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