WLM | home
The Heiner family came to the United States from Germany in the early
1900’s. They homesteaded one of the first places in Star Valley and his greatgrandfather, Charles, established the first sawmill. The Heiner family eventually
came to own an abundance of land in and around Bedford, Wyoming, a Star
Valley community near the bottom of his mountain. His grandfather owned the
mountain his castle occupies today, then his father, and now him.
Deon adds with a look around, “I’ve just always loved it here. I used to
come up here when I was a kid – this was paradise to me. Nobody for miles
around. Hardly anyone lived in Bedford back then, just a few houses.”
It took seven years to build the main part of the castle, a 25,000 square foot
and 40+ room family home, twelve years by the time they added the back of the
home. “The back is made of cast-in-place concrete and has the long, narrow
windows like the old castles do with all the turrets, holds and keeps. We put
big windows in the main part to take advantage of the 360 degree view. The
main spire is 100 feet high and the house sits at about 8000 feet in elevation.”
The home is kept toasty in the winter with hydronic heat, utilizing hot fluid
underfloor, and is controlled with large, automated, coal-fired boilers. There
is also heat in the roof valleys to prevent snow build-up. The home sports
massive, two foot thick copper roofs. Special limestone blocks for the ridge
caps release salt that oxidizes the copper, keeping it an eye-catching shade of
green. The castle’s turrets are also made with cast-in-place concrete.
Building the home was an impressive task in itself, as the castle sits atop a
rather high mountain with a narrow and winding road. At one point, 7000
cubic yards of concrete had to be transported up the mountain to the home.
When asked if there were difficulties, Deon laughed and remembered
challenges with separating semis and supplying cranes to set the roofs and
spires. Primarily, one contractor came to mind…
“I did have a plumber come up here one day from a plumbing supply
company in Idaho,” Deon says. “He delivered to all the other jobs, then he
came up here and obviously didn’t know that I was building {the castle} for
myself. He said to me, ‘This guy must have more money than brains. I hope
it snows 20 feet up here this winter so that he can’t even get up here!’ I said,
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Wyoming Lifestyle Magazine | Summer 2015