Bishop Castle
June 2, 2004 6:44 PM   Subscribe

Bishop Castle. A lone man has been building a 160 foot tall castle in the Colorado mountains for the past 34 years.
posted by split atom (25 comments total)
 
I think I liked the project of the guy who dug a big hole in his backyard (recently on Metafilter) and then covered it over and hung out in the hole with his rifle, occasionally shooting small animals.

It had the same eccentricity quotient and was very endearing in it's own way, but took about 1/10,000 of the effort it took to build that castle.

Sometimes - often - more is less.

Oh well. I liked the castle-man's Thoreau quote and - with that sort of energy - it's a good thing his dreams are socially benign.

But as far as castles go, the "Coral Castle" intrigues me much more, and it doesn't have any fire breathing dragons.

Just big chunks of weirdly shaped coral.
posted by troutfishing at 7:08 PM on June 2, 2004


i don't see how this scale of single human endeavour can be judged in any way except "wow".

All power to the man, i don't think he gives a rat's ass about what you think anyway, troutfishing :P~
posted by elphTeq at 7:30 PM on June 2, 2004


in some bizarre way it has a very gaudi feel to it. I like how from far off it looks vaguely classical but then close up is very organic.
posted by dorian at 7:34 PM on June 2, 2004


Dorian - The reason I posted this is that I just happened to notice the castle on a drive this past weekend. Upon seeing it, the first thing I thought of was Barcelona and seeing Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia.
posted by split atom at 7:42 PM on June 2, 2004


Thank you split atom!
posted by ericost at 8:06 PM on June 2, 2004


Indeed, it is quite Gaudí. Thanks for sharing. I'll have to add this to my "must see in Colorado" list. That state's got some interesting sights, including that giant sand dune in the middle of nowhere.
posted by shoepal at 8:30 PM on June 2, 2004


I heard once there is enough energy in a human being throughout one's lifetime to tear down all of New York City and rebuild it completely. Anyone else ever hear that or know what I'm talking about?
posted by banished at 8:34 PM on June 2, 2004


A roller coaster around the outer walls? That would ruin it!
posted by kenko at 8:44 PM on June 2, 2004


From the FAQ:

Q: Will his children continue to build the castle after Jim is gone?
A: NO. That is like asking whether someone will continue to paint a canvass that Van Gogh left unfinished when he died. The Bishop Castle is a unique WORK OF ART.


That strikes me as somewhat odd.

But then, the whole thing is "somewhat odd."
posted by davidmsc at 8:47 PM on June 2, 2004


i like it (especially his stained glass), but his signs are just creepy.
posted by amberglow at 9:16 PM on June 2, 2004


"I think I liked the project of the guy who dug a big hole in his backyard (recently on Metafilter) and then covered it over and hung out in the hole with his rifle, occasionally shooting small animals."

AHA! I was RIGHT!
posted by mr_crash_davis at 9:28 PM on June 2, 2004


amberglow - It's odd to me that the castle-man invokes Christianity, and religion, so much.

Isn't the building of momuments a sort of grasping at immortality ?.... But, religion is really about things that are quite ephemeral - not chunks of stone.

elphTeq - I did like the "fire breathing dragon" .
posted by troutfishing at 9:28 PM on June 2, 2004


mr_crash_davis - well, maybe about the hole itself. I don't actually agree with the random shooting of small animals part - I like to behave as if the God in all life mattered.

Even in life forms I happen to consider quite delicious.

If God is in all life, then God is delicious, right ?

Wouldn't denying that be putting constraints on God ?

Pass the hot sauce.
posted by troutfishing at 9:37 PM on June 2, 2004


Troutfishing – I was just bein too clever by 'alf about the whole rodent-hole thing :)
posted by elphTeq at 10:08 PM on June 2, 2004


trout, I don't go for shooting animals either, but I'll join you in the hole in the backyard and we'll drink bathtub gin and imagine we built a 160' tall castle.

Good enough?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 10:28 PM on June 2, 2004


(sorry to buttress on this chat..)

Watts Tower in LA is another example of this type of character. When he was done 30 years later he handed the keys to a neighbor and walked away.
posted by stbalbach at 10:37 PM on June 2, 2004


I hope we don't nuke their site. I'm guessing they have the 50Gb/mo account. Hate to cost 'em an arm and a leg (makes it tough to carry the rocks!)
posted by five fresh fish at 11:35 PM on June 2, 2004


Imagine the world we could be living in if only the Castle Man and the Time Cube guy would work together...
posted by gluechunk at 11:55 PM on June 2, 2004


Hmm....will that make him PK Dick's "Man in the High Castle"?
posted by paddbear at 6:30 AM on June 3, 2004


I hope I'm just as eccentric when I'm his age.
posted by Shane at 6:46 AM on June 3, 2004


stbalbach - now, the Watts Tower.....

THAT has style.

mr_crash_davis - hee hee. Don't you know, I'm never serious except when I am ? ( And then I'm often not quite )

If we hang out in the hole I'm digging in my backyard to weather the coming financial panic (or maybe some weird cloud of interstellar junk that's gonna pummel the earth soon, or - who knows? ) and drink bathtub gin, when we got drunk enough we could ambush the huge herd of huge turkeys (genetically modified ?) which roams into my backyard from the woods.

They're big, and mean. I bet they'd be tasty too, if we survived.

Mano a mano - me, you, and a herd of thirty-odd 40-60 pound turkeys.

It's that primal, life or death struggle that makes a man a man.
posted by troutfishing at 8:13 AM on June 3, 2004


Oh yeah....

The castle.
posted by troutfishing at 8:14 AM on June 3, 2004


Here's another Colorado castle. Perched above Colorado Springs is a castle shrine to Will Rogers. While visiting I trekked up to check it out, and found that inside the castle tower are ornate murals depicting Will Roger's escapades, and in the tower basement is a very small chapel. The tower looks pretty spooky up there on the hill from down in town, but the view from the top is incredible.
posted by lpqboy at 11:26 AM on June 3, 2004


I have dozens of detailed drawings of the house that I will probably never live in. I have these insanely detailed sketches, plans of this massive castle. I have no idea why.
posted by bargle at 11:35 AM on June 3, 2004


Perhaps it represents the architecture of your wider psyche, a la Jung.

You could use your castle as a "Memory Palace" .
posted by troutfishing at 1:23 PM on June 5, 2004


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