BGuthrie Photos: CA -- Death Valley Natl Park -- Scotty's Castle

CA -- Death Valley Natl Park -- Scotty's Castle:

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[1] SCOTTY_020601_001.JPG	[2] SCOTTY_020601_002.JPG	[3] SCOTTY_020601_003.JPG	[4] SCOTTY_020601_004.JPG	[5] SCOTTY_020601_006.JPG	[6] SCOTTY_020601_007.JPG
[7] SCOTTY_020601_008.JPG	[8] SCOTTY_020601_009.JPG	[9] SCOTTY_020601_010.JPG	[10] SCOTTY_020601_011.JPG	[11] SCOTTY_020601_012.JPG	[12] SCOTTY_020601_013.JPG
[13] SCOTTY_020601_014.JPG	[14] SCOTTY_020601_016.JPG	[15] SCOTTY_020601_017.JPG	[16] SCOTTY_020601_018.JPG	[17] SCOTTY_020601_019.JPG	[18] SCOTTY_020601_021.JPG
[19] SCOTTY_020601_022.JPG	[20] SCOTTY_020601_025.JPG	[21] SCOTTY_020601_027.JPG	[22] SCOTTY_020601_029.JPG	[23] SCOTTY_020601_031.JPG	[24] SCOTTY_020601_033.JPG
[25] SCOTTY_020601_035.JPG	[26] SCOTTY_020601_037.JPG	[27] SCOTTY_020601_039.JPG	[28] SCOTTY_020601_041.JPG	[29] SCOTTY_020601_043.JPG	[30] SCOTTY_020601_045.JPG
[31] SCOTTY_020601_047.JPG	[32] SCOTTY_020601_049.JPG	[33] SCOTTY_020601_051.JPG	[34] SCOTTY_020601_053.JPG	[35] SCOTTY_020601_055.JPG	[36] SCOTTY_020601_057.JPG
[37] SCOTTY_020601_059.JPG	[38] SCOTTY_020601_061.JPG	[39] SCOTTY_020601_063.JPG	[40] SCOTTY_020601_065.JPG	[41] SCOTTY_020601_067.JPG	[42] SCOTTY_020601_069.JPG
[43] SCOTTY_020601_071.JPG	[44] SCOTTY_020601_073.JPG	[45] SCOTTY_020601_075.JPG	[46] SCOTTY_020601_077.JPG	[47] SCOTTY_020601_079.JPG	[48] SCOTTY_020601_081.JPG
[49] SCOTTY_020601_083.JPG	[50] SCOTTY_020601_085.JPG	[51] SCOTTY_020601_087.JPG	[52] SCOTTY_020601_089.JPG	[53] SCOTTY_020601_091.JPG	[54] SCOTTY_020601_093.JPG
[55] SCOTTY_020601_095.JPG	[56] SCOTTY_020601_097.JPG	[57] SCOTTY_020601_099.JPG	[58] SCOTTY_020601_101.JPG	[59] SCOTTY_020601_104.JPG	[60] SCOTTY_020601_108.JPG
[61] SCOTTY_020601_110.JPG	[62] SCOTTY_020601_112.JPG	[63] SCOTTY_020601_114.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. SCOTTY_020601_004.JPG: I loved the weather vanes
2. SCOTTY_020601_017.JPG: The railroad ties were left-over from Scotty's benefactor's failed railroad business. They were brought here to be used as fireplace logs.
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Wikipedia Description: Scotty's Castle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Scotty's Castle is a two-storey Spanish Villa located in northern Death Valley National Park, California, USA. It is also known as Death Valley Ranch. Scotty's Castle is not a real castle, and it did not belong to the "Scotty" from whom it got its name.

History:

A man named Walter Scott, also known as “Death Valley Scotty”, convinced Chicago millionaire Albert Johnson to invest in his (fraudulent) gold mine in the Death Valley area. Johnson made many trips to the area, eventually bringing his wife, Bessie Johnson. Over the course of his visits Johnson came to terms with the disability that lingered from a 1894 accident. Bessie apparently became convinced that Death Valley was good for his health. She encouraged the idea of building something more comfortable than the rough shack Johnson had built earlier. Construction began on Scotty's Castle (Death Valley Ranch) in 1922, at a cost of $1.4 million dollars.

The stock market crash of 1929, dealt a blow to Johnson's source of capital, but did not immediately affect his sizable personal fortune. Another event in 1930, however, did make it impossible for Johnson to finish construction: President Herbert Hoover ordered the withdrawal of 2 million acres (8,000 km�) of land in the Death Valley area from public domain pending the creation of Death Valley National Monument. The surveyors sent to map out the boundaries of the potential new National Park discovered that the surveys done of the region in the late 1800s in service to the original homesteader residents had been completed incorrectly. As a result, it was found that Johnson had not actually acquired title to the land where the "castle" had been built because the original homesteader in Grapevine Canyon, Jacob Steininger, had not filed on the ground in the canyon, but filed on 120 acres of land near Grapevine Springs, 6 miles from the "castle". Following this discovery, Johnson immediately ceased construction. He locked up the grounds and returned to Chicago. Johnson's property fiasco was rectified in 1935 after five years of negotiations with the government by the passage of a law which allowed Johnson to purchase the property, and by 1937 Johnson had acquired more than 1,500 acres (6 km�) in Grapevine Canyon, where the ranch is located. However, Johnson's main business interest, the National Life Insurance Company, had gone into receivership in 1933. This left Johnson with little capital with which to continue.

Albert Johnson became less interested in visiting the castle in 1943 following the death of his wife, Bessie, in an automobile accident at Townes Pass in Death Valley. Initially, Johnson attempted to sell the castle to the Federal Government. Due to the involvement of the United States in World War II, however, the federal government did not have sufficient funds on hand to purchase it. In 1947, upon realization of his own imminent death and in acknowledgment of his lack of heirs, Albert Johnson created the Gospel Foundation, a charitable organization given the specific task of caring for his properties and funding charitable work. Johnson named family friend Mary Liddecoat president of the foundation in part because her gratitude for Bessie's assistance in caring for her dying father years before compelled her to carry out Johnson's wishes exactly. Albert Johnson died in 1948 of cancer. In 1970, the National Park Service purchased the estate for $850,000 from the foundation. Walter Scott died in 1954 and was buried on the hill overlooking Scotty's Castle.

Tours:

During the summer, the Park Service offers tours of the house approximately hourly between 9:30 AM and 4:00 PM, and when staffing permits, four underground tours as well, scattered throughout the day.

During the rest of the year, the Park Service offers house tours more frequently, usually every 10-30 minutes throughout the day between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM, and also offers 5-10 underground tours from 9:15 to 3:45.

Water and electricity:

The springs of Grapevine Canyon provided the water supply for the ranch, and were used to generate electricity. The springs were located at an elevation about 300 feet (91 m) higher than the villa, and there was enough water flow and pressure to turn a Pelton wheel, which would run a generator to generate the villa's electricity. After an organ and mechanical piano were added to the castle, the electricity requirements increased beyond the Pelton wheel's capacity. To overcome that problem, diesel generators were added. The generators were very loud, so to allow the music to be enjoyed without their noise a large battery bank was added.

The springs provided enough water to meet all the needs of the ranch, with enough left over for other uses. A water fountain was constructed in the Great Hall, where water dripped down a rock face into a catch basin for recirculation.

Additional information:

The Scotty's Castle Visitor Center and Museum is currently open year-round, and approximately 60,000 people tour the villa each year. The original furnishings and even clothing of Scotty and the Johnsons can still be seen today. The ranch is located about 45 miles (72 km) north of Stovepipe Wells, California, on the Scotty's Castle Road, and is about a three-hour drive from Las Vegas, Nevada via US 95 and SR 263.
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