Jim Bishop, builder of Colorado’s Bishop Castle, dies at 80

The 80-year-old man who spent nearly five decades building a castle by hand in southern Colorado, died Thursday.

James Roland Bishop passed away early Thursday morning in Pueblo, surrounded by his loved ones, his family said in a post on Facebook.

Bishop spent 44 years of his life building Bishop Castle, one of the state’s quirkiest roadside attractions, which sits along Colorado 165 near the small town of Rye. At an elevation of 9,000 feet, the handmade castle overlooks the San Isabel National Forest.

Bishop’s son, Dan, took over the day-to-day operations of the castle in January 2022 but said he felt weird continuing construction on his father’s work or selling the land.

“If someone picked up a Picasso and started painting on it,” he told The Denver Post that year, “then it’s not a Picasso anymore.”

Bishop originally bought the 2.5-acre plot of land at 15 years old for $450 as a way to escape from Pueblo. Over the next 10 years, he and his father Willard began laying the groundwork for a family cabin, using stones from nearby mountains.

As they built, neighbors remarked that the building looked awfully like a castle. Bishop’s father wanted nothing to do with a project of that magnitude, but Bishop saw something there. So he continued to build… and build… and build.

Bishop’s wife, Phoebe, died of cancer roughly five years ago. While he managed to win his own battle with cancer, Bishop struggled with Parkinson’s disease and bipolar disorder.

Bishop was known as a colorful character, and numerous signs outside the castle let visitors know exactly how he went about his life.