Bishop Castle survives Aspen Acres fire … so far

As the Aspen Acres fire exploded in late June in southern Colorado, the evacuation orders went out: to the tiny towns of Beulah, Wetmore and Rye. And from Lazy Acres to Bishop Castle, this state”s most unlikely landmark.

By early Monday, July 6, the Aspen Acres fire had grown to more than 90,000 acres and ranked as the seventh-largest wildfire in Colorado history. It’s currently 14% contained, and the Alaska Complex Incident Management Team, which was brought in to focus on Aspen Acres as other fires blaze around the state, reports that firefighters are actually getting ahead.

And Bishop Castle is still standing.

Jim Bishop was just 15 in 1959 when he paid $450 for a 2.5-acre parcel of land at 9,000 feet in the San Isabel National Forest, just outside of Rye. “It was money saved from mowing lawns, throwing newspapers and working with his father, Willard, in the family ornamental iron works,” according to bishopcastle.org. “Jim had dropped out of high school that year over an argument from his English teacher, who yelled at him, ‘You’ll never amount to anything, Jim Bishop!’”

But Bishop had towering ambitions. For the next 10 summers, he and his father would work together at Bishop Ornamental Iron Shop, then head up to the mountains, where they’d camp and think about building. In 1967, Jim married Phoebe, and “in 1969, at the age of 25, he decided it was time to start building a cabin in the mountains they so loved,” the site continues. “Since rocks were plentiful, everywhere, and free, he chose to start building a one-room stone cottage…”.

He didn’t stop there. Over the years, Bishop hauled enough rocks to the site to create not just a modest cottage, but a 160-foot-high castle in the middle of nowhere, adding staircases and steeples, and showing off his work to anyone who stopped by.

In the process, he also attracted the attention of a con man.

In 2015, David Merrill talked Bishop into making him a trustee of Bishop Castle. Soon, Merrill claimed that he owned the property and was turning it into Castle Church for the Redemption, according to the Custer County Clerk and Recorder’s Office.

The Bishops hired a lawyer and won back their castle, but they acquired some hefty legal fees in the process. And there soon were other challenges, including ongoing health problems and a 2018 fire that destroyed a cabin and the gift shop — the sole source of income for Bishop Castle, since admission has always been free. (Archived articles reporting that blaze created lots of confusion over the July 4th weekend, as fans hunted for news about the state of Bishop Castle in the midst of the Aspen Acres fire and came across old, undated stories.)

Still, Bishop kept on, always adding to his 160-foot-high castle and chatting with visitors who’d heard about the place on travel shows and in roadsideamerica.com.

Bishop Castle plays a starring role in Charmaine Ortega Getz’s book Weird Colorado, billed as “Your Travel Guide to Local Legends & Best-Kept Secrets.” When she visited Jim Bishop, he was graying and a little stooped, but still vigorous. “I asked him if he intended to go on with this project for the rest of his life,” she recalls. “He said, ‘This is what I want to be doing on the last day of my life.’ He promptly lay down flat on the ground, stretched a hand and put one pebble on top of another. And smiled.”

JimxBishop passed away in late 2024, following the death of Phoebe. By then, his son, Daniel, had become the Castle Caretaker.

Daniel was in the hospital himself late last week, after breaking numerous bones while working on another project. As the Aspen Acres fire approached the property last week, his wife had to evacuate the premises and wait for news on the fate of the family’s castle.

“I generally don’t celebrate until I really know it’s time to celebrate. Until I lay my eyes on the property and know exactly what’s happened,” Daniel Bishop told KOAA News. “The truth is the fire is still burning, and fires are very predictable, and it could turn around and come back from the other direction.

On July 3, firefighters reported that the fire had come within 200 yards of Bishop Castle. But the next day, the family learned that Bishop Castle still stands…for now.

In a state full of natural marvels, it remains a towering achievement.