The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 14

tlttTMS MOINFS SUNDAY REGISTER February 18, I WO IOWA JOURNAL IMAGES OF IOWA HAMV iAUMf TTM fttw 1. -f 1 NEWSMAKER On the stand Johnny Deases, a l-year-old whose brothers Ruben and Edward are accused of killing and decapl-, tating Jennifer Gardner In May. chilled Story County courtroom last week with a gruesome Ule of drugs and death. Testifying against Ruben, 18. he said Ruben and Edward strangled Gardner and then Ruben had sex with her corpse.

He said the brothers killed Gardner because of her threats to turn In her boyfriend, Eustaquio, another Deases brother, for cocaine dealing. Johnny admitted to contradictions and even lies, but held firm in his account of Gardner's death. V. A 0, Johnny Deases QUOTE 1 ((One way or another, I'm dying Harold MesecherJr. of Muscatine, his bid to escape a Missouri jail fell apart and he threatened to kill five hostages and himself.

FOLLOWUP. ThRgwtw 'I 1 IV Farrar fSfBaxter POLK COUNTY y1 'Jja Ankeny fja (uj) "TIT i-Prairie jASPER w4 No arrests Officials from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation haven't solved the slaying of an Ira man, described by other residents of the small town as something of a bully. Robert Larry Anderson, 48, had been dead for months before his body was discovered in the basement of his home in March. One resident said it was so quiet without Anderson around that nobody complained that he was missing. Anderson was said to have raced motorcycles and terrorized people at a pig roast, and some said they often heard gunshots at his house.

ill Give this man some peace Ron Grubb of Dei Moines wasn't demonstrating for something so great recent University of Iowa basketball game with two tickets and four as world peace, but be was after some peace of mind recently for him- bodies, only to discover that Carver-Haw keye Arena In Iowa City was self and the three eager young fans he had In tow. Grubb went to a sold out. He was able to obtain the needed tickets. DATELINE IOWA OUR PEOPLE Iowa cornfield to return to world of dreams Tha Raglalar Woman killed doing chores TIM Ritr' lowi Ntwt Sirvic DENISON, IA. A rural Denison woman was killed Friday while doing evening farm chores.

Sandra Claussen, 38, was found by a brother ly Deniton "We ate a lot of dust," Ameskamp said. His wife, Rita, recalled that "one day I looked out the kitchen window and all I could see was one big cloud of dust." The sightseers saw half of The Field. The other half was back to cropland. The Ameskamps said they had no idea the movie setting would be such a tourist attraction. Now there's talk of organized tours coming from Japan to see The ing by the family Holstein cows with a severe head injury, said lone Claussen, the woman's mother.

Investigators had not deter mined Saturday whether Sandra DES MOINES Directions to Iowa's Field of Dreams Travel on Iowa Highway 136 in Dyersville to the hog-buying station, where a handmade sign pointing to the Field of Dreams is nailed to a utility pole. Turn east on County Road D-17, Go around the curve and start north; shortly after the curve is another handmade sign on a post directing you down a gravel road. Go about three-fourths of a mile to a lane. Turn north and travel 200 to 300 yards to the field. 0 MilM 300 was kicked or fell and was stepped on.

She was pronounced dead at Crawford County Memorial Hospital. "The movie people contacted Don about the field first and he said, 'I got a problem; it's not all Ameskamp said. "He came over and talked to me about using a chunk of my land for part of it and I agreed." Ameskamp was paid for that, of course, but he vows never to disclose how much. "All I'll say is that I didn't get rich on it, but it did help me get through a drought a little bit," he said. That was the summer of 1988 when Costner, James Earl Jones, Burt Lancaster and crew came to Dyersville to shoot "Field of Dreams," a movie that became a hit and contained the celebrated (at least in Iowa) line: "Is this heaven?" "No, it's Iowa." The movie also was one of the Oscar nominees announced last week in the best picture category.

Dyersville farmer Al Ames-kamp decides to restore the outfield from the movie "Field of Dreams." By JACK HOVELSON Tha Raotttar'i Watarlo Buraau DYERSVILLE, IA. Put it back, and they will come. Al Ameskamp knows that people will come to see The Field even if he doesn't restore its left field and most of its center field. But he's going to do it anyway. "Back by popular demand," said the Dyersville farmer, whose house is about four long home runs away from The Field.

Ameskamp, who concedes that he's never been a baseball fan, was asked two years ago to sacrifice an acre of his farmland for the baseball field that was to be fashioned out of a cornfield near neighbor Don Lansing's farmhouse. Moviemakers had settled on the spot as the site for the movie "Field of Dreams" and it was necessary to cut into Ames-kamp's land for the baseball field that an Iowa farmer (played by Kevin Costner) builds after hearing a voice in the sky say, "Build it, and they will come." Bush to honor Iowa native Th RNHltfi Iowa Niwt Strvlc GRINNELL, IA. Robert Noyce, an Iowa native and a graduate and trustee of Grinnell College, will accept the first Charles Stark Draper 5 Hand- Ameskamp made (arm signs Field. With all of that has come a barrage of requests that The Field once more become whole. "I decided even before the Japanese thing that I'd put it back into grass this year so the field will be back like it was for the movie.

A lot of people stopped here and talked to us and we tossed the idea around for quite awhile before deciding to do it," Ameskamp said. He thinks that come 1991, however, he'll be able to go back to growing corn and beans in his portion of The Field. "I'm figuring that there will be a lot of people come to see it this year, then next summer it'll fizzle out," he predicted. Unless a voice from above keeps on saying, "They will come." GrlniMll Prize for engineering achievement from President Bush Tuesday evening at a reception and dinner at the State Department. Noyce, who graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Grinnell Col I DES MOINES 6 Mii'TX) lege in 1949 with degrees in physics and mathe- Came the summer of 1989, and Ameskamp went back to growing corn on what had been a big chunk of the outfield.

With the summer came thousands of people to see The Field. On some Sundays the traffic was nearly bumper-to-bumper on the gravel road past Ameskamp's farmhouse on the way to The Field. 1 MILE tjnatics, made the basic discoveries leading to the invention of the integrated circuit, the basic component of the computer revolution. Noyce will share the prize with Jack Kilby, who, w.orking separately, made similar breakthroughs. Lithuanian church joyful Rlitr' Iowa Nw Sarvlca SIOUX CITY, IA.

The small, predominantly -Lithuanian congregation at St. Casimir Catholic Church here today will celebrate its 73rd anniver OUR TOWNS Sioux City bringing Chief Ironhorse back to life Sioux City BILL NEIBERGALLTh Register sary and the retirement in June of Monsignor Simon Morkunas, 88, who has been with the parish for 37 years. Morkunas, who fled the Soviet 1,. i m'imrmmm I DES MOINES -1 0 200 Union after World War II, has helped bring several Lithuanian families to Sioux -i Morkunas said that when Soviets occupied Lithu-t ania in 1940, he was a hospital administrator and was arrested an average of once a week because, said, Russian agents wanted him to spy on personnel and clergy members. He refused.

During World War II, Morkunas said, he fled to Germany. He came to America in 1949. iJ' Man cited for saving two Tha Raefitaft Iowa Naws Sarvlca SWEA CITY, IA. A Swea City man has been by the Student Conservation Association and the U.S. Forest Service for saving two children I 'V The Siouxland Historical Rail Association works to restore a locomotive and a piece of the city's history.

By TIM JAMISON ReeMar Staff Writer SIOUX CITY, IA. Piece by piece and bolt by bolt, a group of civic-minded Sioux City residents is preserving part of the city's history by restoring "Chief Ironhorse," a steam locomotive. Often using borrowed tools and little wire brushes, a dozen volunteers from the Siouxland Historical Rail Association have labored on Saturdays for the past six years to return the engine to working condition. Financing for the project has been sporadic, but the group hopes its application for a $60,000 historic resource development grant through the Iowa State Historical Society will be approved allowing the work to be finished by the summer of 1991. For the workers, triumph will come when the first burst of steam breathes life back into Chief Ironhorse.

"There's a lot of civic pride tied up in this thing that lay dormant for years," said Larry Obermeyer the secretary and "financial whiz" of the group. Obermeyer said the group hopes Chief Ironhorse will become a tourist attraction. The locomotive would pull passenger cars on excursions, and a museum would be set up around the engine to chronicle Sioux City's rail 1 vl I i vf ''4 Swaa City from drowning last summer. Michael Lee, 22, was a volunteer river ranger at Tonto National Forest in Arizona when he saved the children from the Salt River. He received a plaque -Ides moines 0 200 1.

Chief Ironhorse is partway through Its restoration in Sioux City. praising his actions. The Student Conservation Association recruits people to work on projects on public lands. Florida man pleads guilty Tha Raoiitar'i Iowa Nawi Sarvlca CEDAR RAPIDS, IA. A Boca Raton, pleaded guilty in federal court here Friday to conspiracy and mail fraud charges after conspir road nistory.

"Sioux City used to be the southernmost point of the Great Northern Railroad," Obermeyer said. "It was the lOth-largest railway station in the United States in the 1920s and '30s." Chief Ironhorse, or engine No. 1355, was built in 1909 for Great Northern. It came to Sioux City in 1955 when train buff I.W. Reck persuaded the city to accept it as a donation.

For 29 years, No. 1355 was on display near the Sioux City auditorium. It had become an eyesore; rusted and vandalized, it looked more like a pigeon roost than a historical monument. In 1984, officials from the Boone Scenic Valley Railroad offered to buy the locomotive to use to pull excursion trains in Boone. It was then that Larry Obermeyer ing to take Kickbacks Irom Deere and Co.

in Dubuque. Robert Krebs was charged with conspiring between January 1984 and October 1986 with Gary Anderson, then a buyer Coder Repldi PES MOINESy A 200 the asbestos. No joke," he said. Obermeyer Jr. said it was never any problem finding people to work on the engine, though.

The workers come from all walks of life, including a fire captain, a truck driver, a pharmacist, a college student and some retirees. The association's technical expert, Paul Knowles, said, "They come down to help out once and they stay." Randy Bradley came to help because of his civic pride. "I think it will be something neat for Sioux City if we could get this thing running again," he said. Knowles said some Sioux City residents still remember the days when steam locomotives ran through the city. "Once we get a fire in it and blow the whistle, there will be a lot of folks around here that will remember," he said.

group. The group also got $45,000 for restoration work. Using a house mover, the group spent four days moving No. 1355 to a former Illinois Central engine stall. The building is dilapidated, but still serves its purpose.

The locomotive was taken apart and parts of the boiler were X-rayed. Many parts, it turned out, must be replaced. Some parts will have to be made. "We're trying to make it as much of an historically accurate restoration as possible," Obermeyer Jr. said.

Sitting partially dismantled in the engine stall, Chief Ironhorse still shows signs of its years of neglect. All 350 stay bolts rusted through and must be replaced. "If you think this looks bad, you should have seen it before," Obermeyer Jr. said. When workers removed the cosmetic jacket, they found a mess of asbestos insulation, which had deteriorated to dust.

"There were cockroaches as big as my hand living in with Deere, to receive purchase orders for prod- "facts from Krebs' Elmhurst, Multi-Fasteners Corp. at an inflated price, prosecutors said. Anderson pleaded guilty to conspiracy and is Serving a one-year prison term. Krebs' sentencing was set for May 21. tr.

formed the Siouxland Historical Rail Association. Saying the city shouldn't lose part of its history, Obermeyer Sr. persuaded the city to donate the engine to the.