Death Valley National Park | Scotty's Castle

Tuesday | 31 October 2000 | Death Valley National Park: Happy Halloween! Lucky for us we were well rested, as we had a BIG DAY in our future! We are camping in a National Parks Service campsite - which means we are paying the NPS $17 per night to park on their (our) land. No electricity, no water, no nuttin. It is, of course, one of the nicest places you can ever stay - and we were just here in April. We are camped at just over 200 feet BELOW sea level, in Death Valley National Park, totally surrounded by mountain ranges and the sky at night is so black the Milky Way is clearly seen.

We had a 9 a.m. tee time at The Furnace Creek Golf Club - the "lowest golf course in the world", a course where you can honestly say "I shot my lowest round ever...” Furnace Creek is a year round spring, an endless source of fresh water. Very popular for centuries with the Shoshone as a place for hunting and rest, the spring is now diverted for use in the hotel and ranch, campground and golf course, with the Shoshone finally getting a small park-sized chunk for their use in the 1960s. The course is planted with now-60-year-old Tamrisk pines - very tall, broad, fluffy-looking pine trees - which are easy to hit through (according to DTs swing this morning). There are also groves of date palms - very popular with the local ravens, lizards and hawks that like to dine on the lizards which are dining on the dates... We saw the biggest and darkest coyote on the 1st hole - and then saw several other smaller and lighter coyotes during the round, along with many species of birds: coots, ducks, black birds, doves, pigeons, ravens, hawks and even one lone Canadian Goose and a flock of SEA GULLS. Probably lots of visitors stopping by the desert oasis on their route to-or-from somewhere.

5th tee box with view of Panamint Range

The course itself is fun and LONG. It is very strange to see all that green in the middle of the desert! Furnace Creek is very much like a municipal golf course, except you are surrounded by the Funeral and Panamint Mountain ranges and are at 214 feet below sea level. I guess it must have been the altitude that was to blame for the lack of distance in my drives??? The weather was very warm and sunny.
 
After all that excitement and a spin through the pro shop for tacky souvenirs we went back to Goldie for fuel (lunch) and a shower before heading out in the BC2 to Scotty's Castle at the north edge of the Park. It took nearly one hour to arrive at the Castle, but we had beautiful views along the way, as the highway goes through the center of the valley and we could see salt flats, washes and fabulous mountains on either side.
 
Scotty's Castle, actually the Death Valley Ranch, was built by Bessie and Albert Johnson. Johnson was an insurance magnate from Chicago. Somehow Walter Scott (Scotty), a con man who once rode with the Wild Bill Cody Wild West Show, convinced Johnson to invest with him in non-existent gold mines in Death Valley. To make a long story short, Johnson ended up loving the desert, adoring Scotty and Johnson's wife was terrified of snakes, so he built her a "castle" in the desert as their summer home, so she wouldn't have to camp and the three of them lived together.

Scotty's Castle

DT and I had a walking tour of the grounds and then a guided tour of the house. The ranch was built around 1920 and was filled with the most interesting things. Johnson was a very wealthy man, earning in excess of one million dollars per year at this time - an amazing fortune. He tapped a spring 3 miles away from the property and used it as a water source for the ranch and also to make power to run the lights.

Every bedroom has a bathroom, and there was a huge swimming pool. In the Great Room a fireplace stands at one end and a waterfall at the other - heating AND cooling. The draperies in the Great Room are made from mule skin. All the banisters, railings and trusses are made from California Redwood, which Johnson had singed to make a darker color. All the floor tiles are imported from Spain and Italy, as is most of the furniture. Famed guests - politicians and movie stars - graced the guest rooms (Oddly enough, Mr. Johnson charged his guests $15 per night to stay in his home and $1 more if they wanted breakfast!).

Mrs. Johnson's bed/desk

Our guide kept talking about the "special friendship" Scotty and Mr. Johnson shared. I was understanding these two men were total buddies, until I noticed Scotty and Mr. Johnson had their initials monogrammed together on the family china in the dining room (instead of Mr. and Mrs. Johnson's initials). At this point I became a little suspicious. All three had their own bedroom suites; Scotty's being decorated in Western style motifs. I seriously adored Mrs. Johnson's bed. Look at the above photo and you will notice a dark panel from the wall flipped-down to serve as a table - she loved breakfast in bed and love writing sermons for hours. Every employee was ordered to attend her hours-long sermons each Sunday or they were fired! (Where is the ACLU when you need them?)

The snake on the lamp above the kitchen sink (right) was especially made on orders of Mr. Johnson to keep his wife away from any housework - she was terrified of snakes and creepy crawlies of any sort. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson died with no children. Scotty lived in the castle until his death in 1954. The US Government took over the property in the 1970 and now charges its citizens $8 to tour the property. Really, it is a beautiful home, filled with extravagant treasures from around the world and wondrous gadgets - just in the strangest place to build a vacation home. Oh, not to mention that, after nearly finishing the home, Johnson discovered he did not actually OWN the land! Oops! He then bought the land from the US Government for $1.25 per acre. The property also includes a powerhouse, stables, a cook house (cooks made meals for 80 people every day - the Johnson's, Scotty, guests, ranch hands, servants, stable boys, etc.), stables and garages.

We arrived back to our campsite in Furnace Creek just as the sun was setting. It was Halloween, but there was not a child in sight and it did not look too promising for a goblin to come calling. We fired up the generator, watched the Portland local news and then headed over to Furnace Creek Ranch for grub.

We walked into The Saloon and Austin Powers served us an icy brew. About 10 people, including Ellen Degeneres, Anne Heche and Ed Grimley were seated at the bar. Another bartender, a cowboy who obviously had been dragged 50-miles on his face (it was make-up from Wal-Mart he told us) asked if we needed a refill, but we walked next door to the restaurant for dinner - salad. The restaurant was filled with European tourists, hikers and kids doing their "gap year from uni" in the UK. By the time we finished our dinner and walked back to the bar - the place was packed. We chatted with several people and soon discovered that, except for a west coast Subaru meeting (17 men) and the occasional tourist (us), the bar was filled with AMFAC (the park concessionaire) employees out for a big night and a Halloween costume contest. The UK gap kids were too young to get into the bar! There was a monk and a nun, several cowboys, witches, gruesome accident victims, clowns, African princesses, mummies, vixens of many sorts, ghouls and even a man dressed as a condom. The saloon was hopping, the best-costume contest was beginning and the party was flowing out to the patio and onto the parking lot when we managed to push our way through the door and back to our camper - it was 9:30 p.m.! Gosh, aren't we an exciting couple?