KNOX COUNTY -- Did you know that, sitting 200 feet above the Niobrara River, sits a castle?

“My motto has been, ‘any idiot can build a million-dollar home,’” said Roger Tacey, a farmer and experienced construction worker who worked the past 15 years to build his dream retirement home.

“It takes a lot of thinking, forethought, planning, to build that million-dollar home for 2 or $300,000.”

It’s a construction that’s on a budget, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at the place.

“In my mind, I see 90% of this before I ever do it,” he said.

“It’s taken us 14 years to put it together,” said Joyce Tacey, Roger’s wife. “We’ve got a little more time to find stuff that you could find in an antique store or whatever. And that’s kind of what the journey’s been. Finding this, and then ‘how can we use this?’”

One man’s debris is this man’s creativity. Bits and pieces from scrap yards, wholesales, and more constitute the Heritage home. Some parts from outside the state, most found within Nebraska.

Even what was left in the wake of natural disasters, like destroyed power lines after the tornado in Wayne, has gone towards the building of their home.

It’s a place rich with the history of not just his family, but the history of the state as well.

“We’ve had a wedding here which was extremely special,” Roger said, “and we started the Osmond Community Foundation. We had a bus-load of people come up here, we had a big supper. And that was real special, to be able to do something like that. And that’s what this place is for.”

A place of tranquility and meditation. With a view of the Niobrara River that, the Tacey’s say, is particularly beautiful during winter.

“At this point in time at our life, and the way things are going in this country, I look out here at the serenity and the peace and I’m glad we live where we do live.”

There’s a story behind every screw and plank of wood here. Roger would be more than happy to tell you all about them.

If you manage to find the place.

“Not too bad for a 70-year-old man!” Roger said.