Brian & Patty's Awesome Adventure!: Death Valley, NV, Part 2

This time we are doing the ranger led tours at Scotty's Castle.

Scotty's Castle

First a little background about who Death Valley Scotty, and Scotty's Castle.

Construction began on Scotty's Castle in 1922, and cost between $1.5 and $2.5 million. Prospector, performer, and con man Walter Scott born in Cynthiana, Kentucky, also known as “Death Valley Scotty,” convinced Chicago millionaire Albert Mussey Johnson to invest in his gold mine in the Death Valley area. Though initially angered when the mine turned out to be fraudulent, Johnson was fascinated with the colorful Scott and the two men struck up an unlikely friendship. By 1937, Johnson had acquired more than 1,500 acres in Grapevine Canyon, where the ranch is located.

After Johnson and his wife made several trips to the region, and his health improved, construction began. It was Mrs. Johnson's idea to build something comfortable for their vacations in the area, and the villa eventually became a winter home.

Unknown to the Johnsons, the initial survey was incorrect, and the land they built Death Valley Ranch on was actually government land; their land was further up Grapevine Canyon. Construction halted as they resolved this mistake, but before it could resume, the stock market crashed in 1929, making it difficult for Johnson to finish construction. Having lost a considerable amount of money, the Johnsons used the Death Valley Ranch to produce income by letting rooms out, upon the suggestion of Scott. The Johnsons died without heirs and had hoped that the National Park Service would purchase the property, and in 1970, the National Park Service purchased the villa for $850,000 from the Gospel Foundation (the socially-oriented charity Johnson founded in 1946), to which the Johnsons had left the property.

Walter Scott, who was taken care of by the Gospel Foundation after Johnson's passing, died in 1954 and was buried on the hill overlooking Scotty's Castle next to a beloved dog.

Scotty's Grave

The first tour we are taking is the "House Tour". This tour guides you through the Johnsons house. Scotty never lived or even slept here. Mr. Johnson bought property down the canyon at Lower Vine Ranch and built a cabin for Scotty there. We took the tour there which we will tell you about in the next blog entry. You won't want to miss that!

First Floor

During his high earning days in the early 20's Albert Johnson was making 2 million dollars a year as head of his life insurance company. A very rich man! This was his wife's bedroom.

Mrs. Johnsons Bedroom

This is the upper level in the castle.

Second Floor

This is the propane powered refrigerator in the kitchen,

Refrigerator

The Johnsons really loved music. They had a music room with several organs and pianos including a huge pipe organ.

Music Room

The courtyard connecting both sides of the castle.

Courtyard

After the "House Tour", we did the "Underground Tour". Tom led the tour and is a volunteer ranger. What's funny is after the tour we talked to him for a little while. Then we saw him again at the worship service on Sunday. Then this last Sunday while at Pahrump, Nevada after church we went to the grocery store and guess who we saw? Yep, Tom and his wife Karen! :)

Underground Tour

This is one of the underground tunnels. The wall on the left is the pool wall. The pool was never finished because of the property rights dispute mentioned earlier. You can see tiles lined up against the wall. At the end of the hall was a huge window that would have looked under the water in the pool.

Underground tunnel

Here is the unfinished pool. You can see the windows into the tunnel.

Swimming Pool

They had a generator system with both a pelton wheel that used the spring water system to push the wheel and generate electricity and also a huge diesel generator.