Happy to.
We answered this question originally in QoD 6/20/14, though we told only part of the story. It's a good tale to complete.
Also, it's particularly timely, since Scotty's Castle, and the road through Grapevine Canyon leading to it, were flooded out during the recent heavy rains in California; the Park Service estimates that the Castle won't reopen until 2019 at the earliest.
Anyway, Scotty’s Castle is one of the more remarkable historic residences in the U.S. west, especially considering it’s not really a castle and it was never owned by Scotty.
It’s a 32,000-square-foot Moorish-style villa in a remote northern corner of Death Valley National Park, roughly three hours from Las Vegas; tours to Scotty’s stop first at Beatty, a two-hour drive northwest of the city (where you can see the El Sueno sign); Scotty’s Castle is a little more than an hour from Beatty.
The Castle was built in the 1920s and 1930s by Albert Johnson, a Chicago insurance executive, who years earlier was introduced to Death Valley by a con man named Walter "Death Valley Scotty" Scott.
Scotty ran away from Kentucky in his teens to join an older brother working on a ranch in Nevada. Traveling around the west and working various job in the 1880s, he spent some time in Death Valley, falling in love with the place. At the age of 18, he joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show for a 12-year stint; when he was 30, he returned to Death Valley and took up gold prospecting, though his prospecting seems to have been targeted more at wealthy businessmen than digging in the ground.
As he failed to unearth any precious metal, all but one of his investors cut their losses. Albert Johnson kept fronting Scotty money, who kept reporting calamity after calamity, until finally Johnson made the trek to Death Valley to take a personal look at things.
Scotty figured a few hard days in the desert would send Johnson packing. In fact, Johnson and his wife Bessie loved Death Valley and stayed a month, with Johnson's health, compromised from a serious train accident, improving dramatically.
Johnson, it's believed, knew he was being conned, but he liked Scotty and felt well in the desert. Over the next 10 years, Albert and Bessie often wintered in Death Valley, staying in tents; finally, Bessie suggested they build a second home, "to get away from the rattlesnakes and scorpions."
The $2 million Death Valley Ranch came into being, with Scotty claiming to be building it with his gold-mine riches. Ever the good sport, Johnson backed up the story, telling reporters and tourists that he was Scotty's banker.
However, partway through construction, it was discovered that due to a surveying error, the "castle" occupied federal land. Scotty's Castle was never completed to plan, but enough to open as a hotel.
The Johnsons retired to southern California, often making the trip out to the Castle, now a popular hotel and tourist attraction: "Built by one of the world's richest gold miners!"
The Johnsons passed away in the 1940s and willed the Castle to a charitable foundation, which operated the place and allowed Scotty to live out his remaining years there. Scotty died in 1954 at the age of 82 and is buried nearby.
In 1970, the foundation sold the property to the National Park Service, which conducted tours till a few weeks ago. The house features heavy wood ceilings, hand-crafted wrought iron, imported finishes, custom European furniture, fine tapestries, even a 1,121-pipe organ. A separate tour took visitors through the basement of the villa for a look at the technology, considered highly advanced for the time and place, that provided water and electricity to the villa.
We'll have to wait see how the tours go when and if they're reinstituted.
