The Strange Story of How a Mysterious Indiana Castle May Be the Gateway to the End of Times

If you had, "The second coming of Jesus will happen in a small town in Indiana" on your state BINGO card, then you may be a winner. Or, a loser, depending on how you look at it.

The Mysterious Metamora, Indiana Castle on the Hill

I was recently scrolling through my Facebook news feed when a post from the Indiana Landscape Photography group caught my eye. It was a picture of the "castle" above posted by a member of the group named Margie Clark but from State Highway 52 that runs by it. In Margie's picture, the castle sits on top of a big hill overlooking the surrounding countryside with what appears to be a long gravel driveway running to it. While the purpose of her post is to simply share her amazement at the structure every time she passes through the area, one of the group's members mentioned it had a "strange" backstory that led other members to ask for an explanation. Instead of offering one, he told them to Google "the castle of Metamora," so I did, and wow, I don't know if "strange" is a strong enough word.

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The search led me to an article written in 2012 by an aspiring writer, filmmaker, and Ball State University graduate named Logan Moeller in the Virginia Quarterly Review. In the article, Logan writes about meeting a man named Paul who built the castle that sits just outside of the small town of Metamora (about halfway between Indianapolis and Cincinnati) in 2010. Logan had noticed the castle while driving through the area and thought it could be the basis for an interesting story. It turned out to be more interesting than he could have ever imagined.

According to Logan, during their first meeting at a local café, Paul told him he believed Logan was sent to him by God to "fulfill a prophecy." He went on to say the castle was home to a couple of "sacred relic stones" he had acquired that would "open up a portal to let Jesus through," and "start the end of the world."

At Paul's request, Logan reluctantly traveled to the castle to see "some stuff." Once on-site, Paul took Logan into a shed on the property that was filled with "voodoo dolls... Native American art...a Mayan death rattle, shrunken heads, and glass cases full of skulls." You can read the full story here.

Despite his initial reservations, Logan kept in touch with Paul for the next couple of years, visiting the castle frequently and filming over 200 hours of footage for a film he intended to make about Paul and his castle. To my knowledge, the film was never made however, Logan did release a trailer for it on his YouTube channel back in 2012.

Fast forward to today and obviously whatever prophecy Paul expected to take place over a decade ago never came to fruition. A deeper scroll through the comments on Margie's post in the Indiana Landscape Photography Facebook group revealed that while Paul was on the eccentric side, he is a sweet person who sold the property at some point in time since he shared its story and his belief on its purpose with Logan.

It's unclear if Paul is still alive, although the comment about him being a sweet person leads me to believe he is. And while it's easy to read Logan's story, or watch the video, and write Paul off as some type of weirdo, his beliefs are his beliefs. As long as those beliefs don't cause harm to anyone else, who are we to judge? With that said, I do find those beliefs to be a fascinating look into the human psyche. Specifically, how far people will go when they truly believe in something with every part of their being.

It seems to be unknown based on the comments in Margie's Facebook post whether or not the castle is open to the public. However, the same member who mentioned Paul no longer owned the property also said it sits on private land. So, I would air on the side of caution and either admire it from the road below, or through this drone video from the IDEC YouTube channel.

Legal Disclaimer - WARNING: Under no circumstances should you enter this property. By doing so you risk bodily harm and/or prosecution for trespassing on private property.

If you happen to have any other information about the Metamora Castle on the Hill, shoot me an email, I'd love to learn more.

[Sources: Virginia Quarterly Review / Indiana Landscape Photography on Facebook]