Dyersville, Iowa.

Reach for your dreams, no matter what they may be.
Be true to yourself. And dare to make a difference in the world.
– Denise Miarecki Stillman

Iowa isn’t known for baseball, but Dyersville Iowa, nestled amidst the rolling farmlands of eastern Iowa, exudes a charm that blends small-town hospitality with historical significance and an unexpected attraction. The town of about 4500 residents is arguably most famous for being the filming location of the iconic baseball movie “Field of Dreams.” The movie’s diamond-shaped field with its white farmhouse backdrop still remains a major draw for fans, who come to walk the grounds, play a game, and relive the film’s heartwarming message.

Though the movie, “Field of Dreams” is based on a novel written by W. P. Kinsella, the story is woven around events in the history of baseball. The story and the movie released in 1989 are a tribute to The Boys of Summer and Major League Baseball. The story and the movie are historical fiction, but this post is as much about the movie as it is about the drive and inspiration of an Illinois woman whose dream was inexplicably tied to the movie.

In 2012, Denise Stillman came to Dyersville and purchased the field and movie set. She spent the rest of her life pursuing Major League Baseball (MLB) to bring a game to Iowa. She began her quest with MLB in 2015, and shortly thereafter she was diagnosed with Liver Cancer. She passed away in 2018 and her husband, Tom Mietzel now manages her legacy in Dyersville.

One of the hurdles to overcome is the fact that the movie baseball diamond is not a regulation size for MLB. Indeed, the large set of light poles in the left background of the image above is Stillman’s story coming to fruition. Behind the cornfield is a regulation baseball field that seats about 8,000 fans. Iowa’s first regulation Major League Baseball game was played at Dyersville on August 12, 2021, the White Sox beat the Yankees 9-8 in regulation play. The second game in Dyersville Iowa was held on August 12, 2022.

Visitors arrive at the site and park in a large lot that is a short walk from the field and the movie set. Kevin Costner starred in the movie based on Kinsella’s novel Shoeless Joe. Costner plays a farmer who builds a baseball field among the fields of corn. The field attracts the ghosts of baseball’s early history including Shoeless Joe Jackson and the Chicago Black Sox.

In the article here from WQAD8, the focus is on Denise Stillman’s quest and dying wish. The fruition of her dream is a real-life version of Field of Dreams. Regarding that first game, Tom Mietzel noted, “It’s heartwarming and a little bit heart-wrenching for me personally. I wish she was the one standing here instead of me. We didn’t get as much time as I’d hoped, but at some point, you’ve got to be thankful for what you get. You’ve got to be enjoying every day.”

The plaque in the photo above shows the comparative size of the two ball fields, the movie field on the right and the MLB regulation field on the left. If you are interested in learning more about the project to bring major league baseball to Iowa, this article from the Chicago Tribune tells a more complete story. One of the brightest parts of the story is that Stillman knew before she passed away that the game would be coming to Iowa and that her dream would come to fruition.

After the second major league game held at the field in 2022, further games are on hold while a new youth baseball and softball complex is under construction there. MLB continues to support the field and will hold future MLB games there. Admission to the movie site is by donation and the attraction is supported by gift shop purchases.

John Steiner

Council Bluffs, Iowa.

From our hotel in Council Bluffs, Iowa, I could see a railroad bridge off in the distance. It wasn’t long and I could hear the unmistakable sound of a train. I was able to capture the freight train as it crossed the Missouri River into Omaha, Nebraska. There is a wealth of information on the history of this important bridge on Wikipedia. The bridge completed the final connection between the western and eastern parts of the transcontinental rail system.

The original bridge was completed in 1872, rebuilt twice, and since 1916 has carried traffic in its current configuration. The rail truss bridge stands 62 feet (19 m) above the river and uses piers built from the 1880 bridge. The total length of the bridge is 1,750 feet (533 m). There is much detail on the history of the three bridges built on this site on one of my favorite bridge reference sources at John Wicks’ site here.

About the photo: I used the 10X telephoto mode on my Samsung S23U as I was quite a distance from the bridge. Still, I needed two images to create this extra wide panorama. The resolution of the image as posted on my WordPress site makes it appear out of focus slightly. I recommend clicking on the image to view it on my Flickr site in 2K HD resolution.

Panoramic stitching was completed in Luminar Neo and the final image was tweaked with Enhanced AI. I added just a bit of Golden Hour to emphasize the color in the sky as sunset approached.

I encourage fellow bloggers to create their own Cellpic Sunday posts. I never have a specific topic for this feature, and the only rules are that the photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or another mobile device… If you have an image from a drone or even a dashcam, that’s acceptable as well. The second rule is to link your challenge response to this post or leave a comment here with a link to your post in the comment. Oh, and, you don’t have to post it on a Sunday.

John Steiner

Just over a month ago, we headed back from Arizona to our home in Fargo, North Dakota. Normally we take three to five days, visiting family and friends along the way and taking time to capture some “local color” as we go. Given that we are in good health and looking toward the upcoming 14-day state mandated quarantine for snowbirds returning home, we decided to throw some sandwiches in a cooler and drive straight through. Lynn and I alternated driving and napping and we made the trip in 29 hours, stopping only for driver swaps, rest stops, and fuel.

After driving through Nebraska in the wee hours of the morning, we transited from I-80 to I-29 near Omaha and started northward on the highway that would bring us to within a mile from our home. We had just swapped drivers and before I settled down to nap, I started fiddling around with my camera hoping to catch the nice sunrise. It would be a good time to learn how to set the camera in my Samsung S20U to “Pro” mode so that I could adjust shutter speed, lens opening, and ISO.

About the photo: In order to eliminate the foreground motion blur that images suffer when shooting from a high speed moving vehicle, I set the camera’s exposure to 1/2000 sec. To get a decent exposure, I would need to set the ISO higher than default. Putting the ISO on 400 is a good compromise between noise and light sensitivity and that ISO allowed me to set the lens to f/1.8. As I rode along the Iowa countryside in the passenger seat, I looked for interesting compositions as the sun started appearing through the misty clouds in the distance. As we rolled along at somewhere near 75 mph, I snapped the shutter as we passed by a lone tree. I happened to catch it in silhouette as the sun rose just above the horizon. The image was transferred into Adobe Lightroom, tweaked, then editing finished in Luminar Flex. In most browsers, you can click on the image for a better view.

John Steiner