Greenback Castle "Fortress of Faith" Diptych #2
8.24.20 Featuring Hannah
I’d seen The Castle in a news segment on Channel 6 once while I was probably 11 or 12 years old. I was sitting at my grandmas house watching Live at Five and there was maybe a 30 second blip about the place before they cut away. I guess I thought it was somewhere else, possibly even a different world because something as amazing as The Castle could never exist around here.
In 2018, I got an alert that a new Atlas Obscura article had been added featuring a location within 100 miles of where I live. Prior to that, every once in awhile I’d remember a little glimpse of that news story. I could see in my head the stone chess set or marbles inset within the concrete walls. I’d brush it off like it wasn’t somewhere I could go. A different dimension I’ll never get to experience.
I’d gotten alerts like that before, and nothing about it rang a bell right away, so I brushed it away under a sea of notifications. Then one morning recently I was deep cleaning my emails, attempting (futilely) to organize everything once again and I came across that notification I’d gotten almost two years ago. This time, I opened it and I couldn’t believe it.
I saw the marble inlay on the stone walls and the chess set I thought I’d imagined while reading The Chronicles of Narnia, but I hadn’t. I’d seen it before.
It was real; I had to go.
And I couldn’t think of anyone better to go exploring with than Hannah.
So, maybe it was a dream briefly forgotten then come true, or maybe we really did enter a whole new realm, but I know I want to go back. We laughed and joked about being whisked away to a number of places: Narnia, Anmityville, Purgatory, Wisconsin (etc). Once we made it inside the walls, it really felt like we had stepped out of earth.
A HUGE thank you to Hannah for coming along on this adventure. I wouldn’t have had as much fun without here. You can check out her Instagram here.
Thanks so much for reading my little story about Greenback Castle. There’s not a ton of information about it online, but since returning, I’ve found this great Youtube video featuring a tour and interview from the creator himself, Junior Banks, as well as just a wonderful walk through of the castle grounds. I think if you plan on going, maybe don’t search too hard for any pictures or video, and just go explore it for yourself.
In a few weeks or so, I plan to return, just as the weather is getting a bit cooler, and really spend some time taking some video and photos of The Castle. One thing I did find that I wished I’d gotten footage of was two walls full of information about Junior and his Castle. I think it might be beneficial if someone gathered all that information and filled in the holes on the timeline of what all has gone on there, and share it with anyone who might be interested.
Anyways thank you so much for reading. If you have any questions and don’t want to email me directly here, you can reach me here.
See ya soon.
-Forrest