Scotty's Castle (also known as Death Valley Ranch) is a two-story

Mission Revival The Mission Revival style was part of an architectural movement, beginning in the late 19th century, for the revival and reinterpretation of American colonial styles. Mission Revival drew inspiration from the late 18th and early 19th century ...

and

Spanish Colonial Revival The Spanish Colonial Revival architecture (), often known simply as Spanish Revival, is a term used to encompass a number of revivalist architectural styles based in both Spanish colonial architecture and Spanish architecture in general. Thes ...

style

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house that provided an escape from urban life. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the f ...

located in the

Grapevine Mountains The Grapevine Mountains is a mountain range located along the border of Inyo County, California and Nye County, Nevada in the United States. The mountain range is about long and lies in a northwest-southeasterly direction along the Nevada-Calif ...

of northern

Death Valley Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. It is thought to be the Highest temperature recorded on Earth, hottest place on Earth during summer. Death Valley's Badwat ...

Death Valley National Park Death Valley National Park is a national park of the United States that straddles the California–Nevada border, east of the Sierra Nevada. The park boundaries include Death Valley, the northern section of Panamint Valley, the southern sect ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, US. Scotty's Castle is named for

gold prospector Gold prospecting is the act of searching for new gold deposits. Methods used vary with the type of deposit sought and the resources of the prospector. Although traditionally a commercial activity, in some developed countries placer gold prospe ...

Walter E. Scott, although Scott never owned it, nor is it an actual

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

. The ranch is located about north of

Stovepipe Wells, California Stovepipe Wells is a way-station in the northern part of Death Valley, in unincorporated Inyo County, California. Geography and names Stovepipe Wells is located at and is US Geological Survey (USGS) feature ID 235564. It is entirely inside D ...

, via

California State Route 190 State Route 190 (SR 190) is a state highway in the U.S. state of California that is split into two parts by the Sierra Nevada. The western portion begins at Tipton at a junction with State Route 99 and heads east towards Porterville before end ...

to Scotty's Castle Road, or about a three-hour drive from

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

. Scotty's Castle was severely damaged by flooding in October 2015, and a fire in 2021 that destroyed the historic garage/workshop that was used as the visitor center. These caused Scotty's Castle to be temporarily closed to the public.

History

Construction began on Scotty's Castle in 1922, and cost between $1.5 and $2.5 million. Prospector, performer, and con man

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...

, born in

Cynthiana, Kentucky Cynthiana is a home rule-class city in Harrison County, Kentucky, in the United States. The population was 6,402 at the 2010 census. It is the seat of its county. History The settlement developed on both sides of the South Fork of the Lick ...

, also known as "Death Valley Scotty," convinced

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

millionaire

Albert Mussey Johnson Albert Mussey Johnson (May 31, 1872 – January 7, 1948), was a millionaire who served for many years as president of the National Life Insurance Company, built Scotty's Castle in Death Valley, and was variously partner, friend, and dupe of ...

to invest in Scott's 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 in Grapevine Canyon, where the ranch is located. After Johnson and his wife Bessie 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. The Johnsons hired Martin de Dubovay as the architect,

Mat Roy Thompson Mat Roy Thompson (February 8, 1874 – June 8, 1962), known also as Matt Roy Thompson, Matthew R. Thompson, Mathew R. Thompson, M. Roy Thompson, Roy Thompson, and Leroy Thompson, was a civil engineer and architect who worked on a great variet ...

as the engineer and head of construction, and Charles Alexander MacNeilledge as the designer. 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 farther 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 death, died in 1954 and was buried on the hill overlooking Scotty's Castle.

Water and electricity

The springs of Grapevine Canyon provided the water supply for the ranch and were used to generate electricity. The springs, located about higher than the villa, generated enough water flow and pressure to turn a

Pelton wheel The Pelton wheel or Pelton Turbine is an Impulse (physics), impulse-type water turbine invented by American inventor Lester Allan Pelton in the 1870s. The Pelton wheel extracts energy from the impulse of moving water, as opposed to water's dead w ...

, which ran the generator that furnished the villa's electricity. The power was regulated and backed up by the large bank of nickel–iron batteries in the house's tunnels. The springs provided enough water to meet all the needs of the ranch, with enough left for other uses. A water fountain was constructed in the Great Hall, where water dripped down a rock face creating evaporative cooling and into a catch basin for recirculation. A 1930s

solar water heater Solar water heating (SWH) is heating water by sunlight, using a solar thermal collector. A variety of configurations are available at varying cost to provide solutions in different climates and latitudes. SWHs are widely used for residential an ...

, much larger than today's solar water heaters, is near the main house, and a large stock of railroad ties salvaged from the

Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad The Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad was a former class II railroad that served eastern California and southwestern Nevada. The railroad was built mainly to haul borax from Francis Marion Smith's Pacific Coast Borax Company mines located just eas ...

is in the area.

2015 flood damage

On October 18, 2015, the Death Valley area was hit by a significant rain storm, receiving nearly of rain as the storm stalled over the Grapevine Canyon area for five hours.

Flash flooding A flash flood is a rapid flooding of low-lying areas: washes, rivers, dry lakes and depressions. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a severe thunderstorm, hurricane, or tropical storm, or by meltwater from ice and snow. Flash flo ...

struck Scotty's Castle, leaving mud and debris stacked along the perimeter of the structures, up to high inside the visitor center, and the access road to the property was destroyed. The flood caused the property to be closed for an extended period of time while repairs to the property are carried out and a new access road is built. The NPS has stated that the castle itself is not likely to re-open to the public until 2023, though "flood recovery tours" of the grounds happened between December 2017 and April 14, 2018.

2021 outbuildings fire

A fire on April 22, 2021, destroyed the historic garage/workshop dating from 1922 that was used as the visitor center, along with another historic outbuilding on the property. Upon investigation, the

California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, colloquially known as CAL FIRE, is the fire department of the California Natural Resources Agency in the U.S. state of California. It is responsible for fire protection in various area ...

reported that the fire started inside the Visitor Center. However, investigators were not able to conclusively determine the cause of the fire. While the main castle building was unscathed, this delayed the property rehabilitation efforts and pushed back the public reopening until 2023. The National Park Service intends to rebuild the garage/workshop.

In popular culture

Scotty's Castle was featured in a 2023 episode of the

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...

reality show Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

Ghost Adventures ''Ghost Adventures'' is an American paranormal television, paranormal and reality television series that premiered on October 17, 2008, on the Travel Channel before moving to Discovery+ in 2021. An independent film of the same name originally ai ...

'', coming as a result of several claims surrounding the location being haunted. These claims revolve around allegations and interviews regarding Walter Scott, the 2015 flood, the 2021 fire, and recountings of activity in the mansion. The Ghost Adventures team experienced several instances of what they interpreted as

paranormal activity Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...

, including electronic voice phenomenon recordings (EVPs) and strange SLS camera footage, IR footage and photographs.

References

External links

National Park Service page on Scotty's Castle

Interior and exterior photo tours of Scotty's Castle

Death Valley Conservancy page on Scotty's Castle
{{NRHP in Death Valley NP Death Valley Historic house museums in California American West museums in California Mojave Desert Museums in Inyo County, California Buildings and structures in Inyo County, California Mission Revival architecture in California Spanish Colonial Revival architecture in California Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in California National Register of Historic Places in Inyo County, California National Register of Historic Places in Death Valley National Park 1931 establishments in California Houses completed in 1931