July 11, 2018

Dyersville Iowa to Tinsley Park Illinois

A bright sunny hot Iowa morning. It seemed like a perfect time to go visit the Field of Dreams movie site. It was outside this small town in far eastern Iowa.

Our first stop of the morning was a visit to a medieval Gothic-style basilica in Dyersville Iowa. This was an amazingly lovely large church designated a Basilica, one of only four such places in rural U.S. It looks large and beautiful from the outside, and inside it was amazingly lovely. We enjoyed walking around and soaking in the beautiful artwork, stained glass, and woodwork. It was built in 1888. We were left wondering what brought this church which could probably seat over 1000 people to this small town.

It was outside this town in 1988 Universal Studios filmed Field of Dreams, starring Kevin Costner. Here 30 years later, the farmhouse where the movie was filmed, as well as the baseball diamond made from mowing down a cornfield. It is open to the public and fans from all over come each year. They built it and we came. In order to prepare we watched the movie the night before and got extra credit from our guide for our attention to detail. The field was free to visit, with a charge for a guided tour of the house. It was a lovely tour, and we enjoyed the camaraderie of meeting people who were drawn to this rather obscure site. We really enjoyed talking with a father and two high school girls softball players. The girls were clear, "This was really cool!” We were able to be out on the field and take photos pitching and hitting. 

And we were also able to have that experience of walking and disappearing into the cornfield like the baseball ghosts in the movie. It was quite a moving experience being there.

From the Field of Dreams, we drove through the beautiful farmland looking at all the green, and the corn and soybeans. This is indeed the nation’s breadbasket. The farmland and the black soil are so gorgeous here.

Our destination for the afternoon wasn't a farm, but the small town of West Branch Iowa. What's in West Branch? This is the home of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum. This is part of the Patti and Dick’s rolling seminar program, presidential library chapter. We have for the past several years been visiting the presidential libraries that are under the auspice is of the National Archives of the United States.

The Herbart Hoover Library and Museum was the third presidential library established under the archives. Hoover was president from 1928 until 1932. He has a terrible reputation of being the person that caused the Great Depression in the U.S. and then did nothing to try to stop it. Neither of us knew a lot about Hoover besides that reputation before the library. We understood that belief was being challenged but didn't have much information before our visit.

We found the visit to be very interesting. As is usual, presidential museums always begin with telling the story of these presidents their early life their adult life their legacy. One of the things we found out was that before being president, Hoover had quite an interesting life which included being in the first graduating class at Stanford University studying engineering, and then headed off to Australia to be in charge of a mining operation there. He then was responsible for the operation of a mining company in China at the time of the Boxer Rebellion.

One of the things that was very surprising to learn is that Hoover at several points was in charge of in enormous projects that involved feeding hungry people in war-torn areas. He did this in Europe in World War I, in Russia, and in Europe and Germany following World War II. Hoover is credited at saving perhaps tens of millions of people's lives in his compassionate humanitarian programs on behalf of the US government and did a lot of piloting of private/public partnerships.

In many ways it appears that the Hoover became rather a scapegoat on whom to blame everything about the Great Depression. We learned that he had made many efforts to stop speculation in the stock market, and problems with the banks. Thanks to speculations by banks in the stock market there was a great crash, but it wasn't that he didn’t care. He also made many efforts to help people in those early days of the Depression. However, he was by temperament and also because he was a Quaker, quite hesitant to blow his own horn and speak emotionally about the efforts he was doing. This contributed to him looking like he was cold and uncaring.

Following his presidency, Hoover lived another 30 years, wrote 40 books, and had many other efforts such as providing help to the Boys Club of America. And he consulted with many leaders both in the U.S. and around the world.

We left the museum having again learned a lot about our country by visiting one of these institutions dedicated to one of our presidents.

Then we hopped in the car and headed to Tinsely Park. Illinois, south of Chicago. We drove through more beautiful farmland in Iowa and Illinois. Finally, we were ready to stop for a good night’s rest after an interesting day of sites.