Jim Bishop has built the castle all by himself. He unloaded piles of rocks that he's hoisted to the 70-foot level on one of the castle towers. Yesterday when I went to commune with the Spirit, as I've done many times at the castle, I walked the outside numerous stairs up to the tower at the top of the pines to the dragon head, the equivalent to Ouroborous, to commune with the Spirit. The dragon's head is made out of stainless steel and is part of a chimney system connected to a wood stove on the second floor. When a fire is burning in the wood stove; smoke issues from the mouth of the dragon.

Every year since 1969, when I was just 11 years old, I have watched Jim Bishop single-handedly gather and set over 1000 tons of rock to create this stone and iron fortress in my beloved Custer County. Jim Bishop calls it "a monument to hardworking people" and "America's biggest, one-man, physical project." You see, Jim Bishop has always wanted a castle.

It hasn't been easy for Jim. For 40 years, Jim Bishop has been engaged in a running battle with Washington bureaucrats over the rocks that he used, which came from the San Isabel National Forest that surrounds the castle property. Bishop felt that they were his for the taking, the government wanted to charge him per truckload.

Jim Bishop, castle builder had another bone to pick. The Colorado state Chamber of Commerce refused to list Bishop Castle as an attraction in its official tourism guides.

All that has changed now. Those angry years are in the past. Both Uncle Sam and the Colorado Chamber now recognize that Bishop's dementia concretia is marketable. Jim Bishop has transformed some heavy, unwanted rocks into pure tourism gold! This is the same enduring spirit as the marketing of The Sundance Wives! Sage Sweetwater knows that alchemy pays off. Transforming property into Gold!

The Castle's Stained-Glass Window

Copyright 12/29/2009 Ms. Sage Sweetwater, firebrand lesbian novelist