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Mystery Castle
Sitting at the foothills of the
South Mountain Park in Phoenix, Arizona, a very mysterious sight
awaits the welcome visitor. Named aptly as the Mystery Castle, the
strange and unique looking structure was the brainchild of Boyce
Luther Gulley, who started building the special castle for his
daughter, Mary Lou, in the 1930s. When Gulley found out that he had
tuberculosis in Seattle, Washington, he moved to Phoenix and began
the construction using any materials he could find, or that were as
cheap as possible. Boyce passed on in 1945, leaving the property to
Mary Lou and her mother, whereupon they moved in. Somehow, the story
came to the attention of the nation, and soon a magazine was
interested in reporting the unusual story and the name of this quite
different structure, and in 1948, a Life magazine cover story was
printed, with the title, "Life Visits a Mystery Castle: A Young Girl
Rules Over the Strange Secrets of a Fairy Tale Dream House in the
Arizona Desert". The cover photograph showed Mary Lou standing on
the cantilever staircase that went to the roof of the castle, and
Mary Lou and her mother started giving tours of the eccentric home.
There has been a lot of speculation as to what all materials have
been used for the construction, but some ideas have included cement,
calcium, goat milk and mortar was used to hold it all together,
making the three story structure, with 18 rooms, something of an
oddity in the hot desert sun of Arizona. The solid materials that
were used included; automobile parts, adobe, telephone poles, stone,
salvaged railroad ties from an abandoned mine and other unusual
building materials. There is a dungeon, cantina and chapel among the
many rooms, with a few yet unfinished, and the plumbing and
electricity didn't get installed until 1992. By March of 2009, Mary
Lou Gulley, was still living in the castle, but unable to lead the
tours that visitors stop by to enjoy. She is always somewhere in the
castle while guides take visitors around, but in her weakened
condition, can only sit and enjoy the many memories of her father
and the wonderful house that he built for her. The castle is a
designated Phoenix Point of Pride. Boyce, sitting alone in his
home in Seattle, considered what kind of life he would have,
especially with a wife and 3 year old daughter, and the tuberculosis
that would slowly kill him. He didn't think that it would be the
kind of environment to raise a daughter, and certainly not a good
one for his wife, who would be the one taking care of him, as well
as their daughter, Mary Lou and the entire household
responsibilities. So Boyce decided to slip away in the dark hours of
the night, and went to Phoenix, where the story begans anew. It was
in 1929, that this happened, and when Boyce arrived in Phoenix, with
little money and no plans, other than dying, he bought a parcel of
land, 80 acres, that sat on the edge of Phoenix. For the next 16
years, he explored the region around his construction site,
scavenging anything useful that he could find for little or no
money. It was a constant labor of love, for his young daughter, who
would be the beneficiary of the remarkable building. He continued
working, always mindful of the death that kept growing inside him,
building slowly but surely, often remembering the many times that he
and Mary Lou had gone to the beach in Washington and built
sandcastles in the sand, only to have them washed away with the
tide, at which point Mary Lou would always cry. He would never
contact his daughter or wife, just working on the home for her, when
he was gone. It was another strange circumstance that would end his
life in 1945, as he had been riding in the desert, always on the
lookout for usable items, his horse threw him into a cactus bush,
and as he brushed himself off, he felt the pangs of pain in many
places that had needles and scraps in them, but a much sharper pain
in his stomach. Somehow, a cactus needle had penetrated his stomach
wall and became lodged in one of his organs. During the last few
weeks of his life, Boyce continued his labor of love, slowly feeling
the life ebbing away, and finally passed on. Mary Lou and her mother
came to the extraordinary castle in 1945, when she was just 18, and
learned of her father, and the strange tale that made him build the
marvelous castle for his daughter. Some 20,000 people come here to
visit with Mary Lou, although she is getting much older and slower;
but still has wonderful stories of her father and the people that
she discovered that had come here out of curiosity. Evidently many
famous folks had come by and left mementos of their visit, like the
kerchief from John Wayne. Mary Lou enjoys the visitors coming here
to see what her loving father did for her and to hear the
outstanding story of this incredible castle.
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