Quiz It: Arizona - How much do you know about mysteries and castles

Question: Within the foothills of Phoenix’s South Mountain Park, the largest city park in the United States, is a landmark called Mystery Castle. For whom was this castle built?

Your choices are:

1. The castle was built in honor of Queen Elizabeth II as a tribute honoring her visit to Phoenix in the early 1950s.
2. The castle isn’t really a castle. It is the location of the first water park in Phoenix, which was also the first water park in the United States.
3. The castle was built honoring all the Olympians who participated in the 1920 Summer Olympics, which took place in Phoenix. It was used as housing for several prominent international judges during the Games.
4. The castle was built by Pima Indians in honor of a royal tribal princess.
5. The castle was built in the 1930s by Boyce Luther Gulley for his daughter, Mary Lou

The Answer Is:

Mystery Castle was built in the 1930s by Boyce Luther Gulley for his daughter, Mary Lou. After learning he had tuberculosis, Gulley moved from Seattle to Phoenix and began building a house from found or inexpensive materials. He never informed his family where he went. It is said to be held together by a combination of mortar, cement, calcium, and goat milk. The materials used include stone, adobe, automobile parts, salvaged rail tracks from a mine, and telephone poles. Some see Gulley's creation as a recycled masterpiece.

It has 18 rooms, is three stories high, and features a chapel, cantina, and dungeon. He died in 1945. Mary Lou and her mother were notified by an attorney that they had inherited the property. They moved into the structure. After a story about this house appeared in Life Magazine, Mary Lou and her mother began offering tours of the home. Parts of the castle remain unfinished. Electricity and plumbing were not added until 1992.

Has Anyone Seen Montezuma

Montezuma Castle National Park is a famous Sinagua (sin + agua = without water) Indian cliff dwelling in the Verde Valley of Yavapai County. The misnomer here is that Montezuma never was at the location and it is not a castle. Montezuma, the Mexican emperor, was born 100 years after Montezuma's Castle was abandoned.

This four-story cliff dwelling built in the 14th century, hangs on its precipice 80-feet above the valley floor. It is believed that a dozen or more families lived in the twenty rooms of Montezuma Castle and gained access by climbing long ladders.

Near Montezuma Castle National Park is Montezuma Well, which is not a well but a flooded limestone sink hole 55 feet deep formed by the collapse of a large underground cavern.