Death Valley, Part 3 (03-21-12)

I’ve been hearing about “Scotty’s Castle” since we got to Death Valley.  Honestly, I was ready to skip it altogether- it’s a tour of a mansion that was built here in Death Valley.  So many people said we should go to it though, that I changed my mind and we took both the house tour and the basement tour (it shows all the underground tunnels, electrical set up etc).

Let’s see if I can give the short version of the story behind the castle.  First of all, it was never owned by Scotty, nor did he ever live in it.  It was built and owned by millionaire Albert Johnson and his wife Bessie.  Scotty was “Death Valley Scotty”- a con man that convinced many investors, Chicagoan Alfred Johnson included, that he owned a very productive gold mine in Death Valley.  Sight unseen, many businessmen invested thousands of dollars, which Scotty promptly spent lavishly, in order to appear wealthy.  Alfred got suspicious and decided to trek out to CA from Chicago to check on his investment.  He, of course, discovered Scotty’s deception, but having been a businessman stuck in an office who always wanted an adventurous, cowboy life, he enjoyed Death Valley, Scotty’s company and especially his tall tales. They became lifelong friends and Alfred continued to “invest” in Scotty’s mine. Alfred and his wife ultimately built a vacation home, but Scotty would brag about the house as if it were his, and Alfred didn’t contradict him. He enjoyed the “show”. Often when there were visitors, Scotty would say goodnight, head to the bedroom, then walk out the door and go to his own modest house. Scotty also told people that the house was built on top of his mine, and Alfred would have the servants go to the basement and bang pots on the wall to prove that there were miners down there.

In 1931, several years after construction had begun, the Federal Government informed Alfred that he was actually building on the wrong plot of land- about a mile from his actual property. Alfred stopped building immediately, and after several years and an act of congress, he was allowed to re-buy the land.  He used the house until his death, but he never finished building it.  The picture shows half of what should have been the pool, but it was never finished.




All of the tile had been purchased, as well as all the tile to finish all of the outbuildings, and it all still sits in the basement tunnels.
Alfred was an engineer, and an innovator, so the house is full of gadgets and systems that were well ahead of their time.  Building a castle in the extremely remote area of Death Valley was challenging, to say the least.  Alfred used local materials and his engineering skills to build a castle that could survive the desert heat. That made the tour interesting (especially for Paul), but too involved to detail in a blog post!  Suffice to say that the tour did turn out to be very interesting and well worth it!




Once the weather cleared, we were able to take our drive through Titus Canyon. It’s a rough road through a beautiful canyon.  We had originally intended to hike up some side canyons along the way, but the weather was still cold and there weren’t too many places to park the truck. There were several places that I just closed my eyes and trusted Paul’s driving as we drove on the narrow road with sheer cliffs.  Not much maneuvering room for a long wheel based dually.








Once we got over the pass, the views of the canyon were amazing.  The colors are very vivid.

The rest of the drive was through a canyon with steep, tall walls.

I’ve had to rush through this post- we have extended our stay by another day or so and I bought 24 hrs of internet at a ridiculously high price, and then we went swimming all afternoon, so I have only tonight to get this finished.