The "castle" is located southwest of Pueblo, Colorado in Rye on State Highway 165 in the Wet Mountains.
Named after its creator, the late Jim Bishop, construction on what was originally intended to be a simple family cottage, started in 1969.
Over the forty years it took Bishop to build this amazing structure, he not only battle the elements, and hard working conditions, he was also engaged in a running battle with Washington bureaucrats over the rocks that he used, which
came from the National Forest surrounding his property.
Bishop felt that they were his for the taking, the government wanted to charge him per truckload. That dispute was settled. In 1996, he was challenged by the local and state government over unsanctioned road signs that pointed to the site. They settled the dispute by issuing official road signs.
Jim was a man with a big heart, big ideas, and big opinions.
RoadsideAmerica.com devoted a chapter to the castle and rated it "major fun" and describing it as, "one man's massive-obsessive labor of medieval fantasy construction". But it also issued a "parent's alert," warning potential visitors that Jim Bishop was "a tough-talking man with strong, extreme beliefs, and sometimes he expresses them bluntly and loudly. If you and your children want to avoid potentially offensive rants (involving politics), you may want to steer clear."
You can get driving directions here
If perhaps this got you in the mood for a good medieval romance, please try....
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Thanks for the blog, Gini. The castle is gorgeous, and the builder was an interesting man. :)
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting structure. We have a castle in Phoenix as well, built many years ago by a dentist, I believe. It's sits on the face of Camelback Mountain.
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