This is a picture I took the first night in DVNP. We were staying at Mesquite Springs, a national park camp ground. It costs us $6. Thank you old age. :) One of the good things that come with growing old. But before this we toured Scotty's Castle, both the house and what made the house work.
Here's the short story behind Scotty's Castle. A cowboy, turned showman in Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show, turned con man named Walter Scott was selling "shares" in a gold mine to rich easterners like Albert Johnson. Johnson was from Chicago. He was doing this in the mid 1910's. He figured the easterners would never come to Death Valley to actually see the mine. But Johnson did just that.
Terrified, Walter Scott came up with a plan to scare off Johnson. Scott got some of his friends to stage a "holdup" of Scott, his brother and Johnson. Scott was late getting to the "holdup" spot, and his buddies had gotten drunk. They started shooting and wounded Scott's brother. Scotty yelled for his friends to stop shooting.
At this point, Johnson knew the fix was in. But instead of being upset, he became fast friends with Scotty. Johnson also fell in love with the beauty of DV. He decided to build a get away place there.
He started building it in 1922. Grapevine Canyon was chosen because there is a natural spring that puts out over 200 gallons of water per minute. Although he made his vast fortune in insurance, Johnson was a Cornell University trained civil engineer. He piped the water in from the natural spring. He also put in Pelton water wheels to generate electricity, and supply mechanical energy to other machines.
He continued to build on the house until 1930. When the Federal government decided to make a national monument at DV, it was determined he had built the house on land he didn't own. By the time he and the government came to an agreement on price for the land, the Great Depression happened. This wiped out a lot of Johnson's fortune.
He did continue to visit and spend about 6 months each year at Scotty's Castle. Johnson, not wanting any notoriety, let it be known Walter Scott owned the "castle" even though Johnson built a small place for Scotty to live about a mile away. Whenever Johnson had friends or associates over, Scotty was there though. They even built in a bedroom for Scotty although he never slept in it. He'd retire to the bedroom, then go out a back door in the bedroom and then to his place.
This is a shot of the court yard.
After touring Scotty's Castle, we drove out to Ubehebe Crater. It last erupted 2,000 to 7,000 years ago.
While we were there, some folks had walked down to the bottom, 500 to 700 feet below.
Here is another photo taken our first night in Death Valley.
This is all for Part One.
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