HARTES' HOME IS THEIR CASTLE.

• Author: BRONIKOWSKI, LYNN
• Position: Historic home of John Cleveland Osgood - Brief Article

Debbie Harte insists she smelled a puff of smoke from a fine cigar.

She was sitting, alone, on a deck outside Redstone Castle on a summer day and believes still that it may have been a ghost. She thinks industrialist John Cleveland Osgood, who built the castle near Carbondale, was letting the new owners know he's still around.

"Osgood did smoke expensive cigars," laughs Harte, who with her husband, Leon, purchased the estate last April for $6 million.

Backed by an offshore investment trust, Tranquil Options, which operates wellness centers in Canada and Australia, plus restaurants in New York, the Hartes moved from Greeley in May to oversee the restoration of the castle and 150 surrounding acres.

They plan to turn the property into a corporate conference center, wedding/party site and upscale bed and breakfast.

"Cell phones don't work anywhere in this valley," said Leon Harte. "So it's the perfect place for business people to concentrate on business without everyone's cell phone ringing every five minutes. Of course, we'll put in extra lines for e-mails."

Osgood, who owned a railroad company, vast coal mining operations around Redstone, and Colorado Fuel & Iron Co. (CF&I) in Pueblo, built the Tudor-style structure over nearly a decade. It was completed in 1906.

He collected treasures from around the world and decorated...