Once upon a time, Bruce Busboom decided he would build a house fit for royalty. So he searched the countryside until he found a forest near Fisher.
He then designed and built a stone castle, complete with turrets, gargoyles on the roof and a drawbridge for a front door.
Busboom wanted a house that looked different from the rest, would last for generations and, he said, “We wanted to live happily ever after.”
He broke ground for the project more than two years ago. But Busboom, a carpenter, spent years before that building 58 triple-paned windows, concrete parapet caps and scores of other castle-like odds and ends.
The castle rests in the midst of five wooded acres south of Fisher. The walls are 15 inches thick and the concrete foundation is 5 feet deep. The drawbridge stretches 10 feet and weighs 640 pounds.
Busboom estimates that more than 4 million pounds of material were trucked in to build his castle.
There are twin 34-foot towers and a great hall with 22-foot ceilings.
“I wanted something different,” he said. “I wanted a challenge. I’ve been a carpenter for 22 years and I wanted a mountain to climb.”
Busboom has one-upped the castles of old by installing an elevator.
Visitors to the castle under construction became so frequent that he wasn’t able to get much work done.
Last fall he posted a sign at the gate that said visitors could see the castle on Sunday afternoons only, and he asked that they give a donation. He assumed that would stem the tide of onlookers, but he was wrong.
Since last August, more than 1,000 people have been through the castle.
Deciding that Sunday afternoon visits had to stop, Busboom put a sign on the gate saying it would be the last tour. It was a cold, miserable day. He assumed only a few of the curious would show up, but hundreds did.
Busboom still needs to sand and finish the drywall in the house, paint, install the bathrooms and kitchen, and lay carpets before he and his family move in.
“Yeah, I’m about ready to crack,” he said of the pressure. “If you see some guy riding down University Avenue on a white horse with a lance… that’s me. Pick me up and put me away.”
Busboom said people who’ve gone through the castle aren’t shy about asking how he could afford such a large house on a carpenter’s salary. He didn’t win the lottery, but he did begin working and saving for his castle 10 years ago.
He worked two part-time jobs in addition to his full-time job. His wife Marcia also worked.
“They don’t realize how long he’s been working at this and what he’s sacrificed,” said his stepfather, Al Siewert. “Everything he owns is in this place.”
As Busboom approaches completion of his home, he admits he’s getting burned out. He wonders occasionally if he wouldn’t have been better off just building a nice little ranch.
“The thought has occurred to me that I would have been happy just to have the front facade of those towers and that king’s entrance there, and then parked a Roger Huddleston home right behind it, like a Hollywood set.
“Next castle,” he laughs, “that’s what I’ll do.”
