Nov 12, 2008 3:02 pm US/Mountain
Colorado Man's Castle An Ever-Growing Project
BEULAH, Colo. (CBS4) ―
The landscape is a work in progress on a central Colorado mountainside. It's a project 39 years in the making and the brainstorm of Jim Bishop, a castle builder.
Bishop started work on his castle in Beulah in 1969. He believes the ever-growing structure may be the biggest one-man construction project in the world.
"These hands have done all this," said Bishop. "I've handled each rock about six times on average."
A balcony attached to the castle was built without scaffolding. Bishop says he just hung from a rope to do the job.
Bishop's diligence is evident when climbing up to the square tower. From the ground level to the last step in the steeple there are 199 steps.
Stone by stone, rail by rail, the iron worker from Pueblo has single-handedly forged his life's work into the sky of Colorado's Wet Mountains.
Bishop, 64, says he feels great and plans to keep right on working.
"When I'm dead, I'm done, so I don't want to be done anytime soon," Bishop said.
Bishop said his castle is sacred to him.
"These rocks are full of radiation from the sun and are more important to me as rocks than if they were full of gold."
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