Built from red sandstone quarried within sight of the castle, Cleveholmmay have been the fanciest home in the 600 kilometers between Denver,Colo., and Salt Lake City, Utah

Beside a rushing Rocky Mountain trout stream lie two Americanrarities: a castle and a company town in which a single company onceowned every building - even people's homes. The castle belonged tothe man who owned the company.

By 1892, Cleve Osgood, a cousinof U.S. President Grover Cleveland, controlled several Rocky Mountaincoal mines and the only steel mill in the West. Osgood moved to NewYork, bought an entire city block, built a mansion on it, and became acigar-smoking pal of other industrialists. These were the men whommany called the robber barons of America's Gilded Age.

The Crystal River, which flows past Redstone, is a trout fisher'sparadise in a narrow alpine valley that is still largely unspoiled andlightly traveled

Cleve Osgood also coveted a summer address as big as the West. So hebought 7,700 hectares of the wild Crystal River Valley of Colorado andbuilt Redstone, an American feudal kingdom with 84 framed cottages, aguest inn, and a schoolhouse. The residents were workers from Osgood'snearby plant that made superheated coal called coke. Redstone's namecame from the red sandstone mountain right across the river.  

The Osgoods furnished Cleveholm with treasures from their world travels and trophies of their hunts in Redstone Valley

And towering over the town was Cleveholm, the 42-room Tudor castleof Osgood's dreams. Cleve came from his name; holm from the Swedishword for home. His wife was Swedish. Osgood filled Cleveholm withtrophy animal heads, Tiffany lamps, ruby velvet drapes, and importedleather wall coverings. He brought his New York friends to see it inhis equally opulent private rail cars, hauled down his own railroadspur.  

Cleve Osgood eventually lost control of both his steelcompany and the town. Cleveholm became a dude ranch, a resort, andthen a bed-and-breakfast inn. In 2005, the century-old castle was soldat auction following a scandal in which investors were bilked out of$56 million. One of the ringleaders was sentenced to 330 years in jail.

Nowin one owner's hands and still open to tours, the great Redstone castleis undergoing extensive renovation with an eye toward yet anotherrebirth… as a grand hotel.