Scottys Castle

Howdy, took a day off, I was sorta 'Blogged out!', but here I am, and there is the tower that is part of Scottys Castle, what a sight to see in the desert, and it is waaaay out!

This is what you see when you come into the parking lot, awesome.

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At one time, there was also fuel there, although now there are signs on the way in saying "No Gas at Scottys Castle", you are smart if you read signs in this valley, that's for sure!  don't ya love the old pumps?  To the right of this is the Welcome Center.

Thar she blows, ain't she gorgeous?   The hole you see should have been a swimming pool, but after the crash of the stock market they had to stop construction. Keep in mind, this is JUST a vacation home. Yowza!

Sorry, don't know the lady, but she was one of our party of about 8, and there are the gates that keep folks at bay, great huh, I think so!

Of course whiles we are waiting, Sweet William noticed the car, a 1937 Packard that belonged to Mr. Johnson, yep, you heard me right.

This is

really the name of the place, just look at that door!

Our Docent, that is someone that shows you around and tells you the story of the place, was also a Ranger, and told us they had found their first rattlesnake, and it was time for her to leave!  Had a picture, lost it, sorry.

Upon entering, this beautiful chandelier hangs, and look at the ceiling and upstairs hallway.  hold on to your hats, it just gets better!

Mrs. Johnson like casual elegance...............the thing right under the hanging is a water place, sorta like a fire place, but it was for water to keep the interior cool.  Awesome!

All the furniture you see was made especially for them, and it is real leather. Whooeee it is elegant!  Also I might add, all the furniture was left here, and is still in the original spots except where moving it was necessary to take tours through.

This was Scottys bedroom, he only had a single bed, but check out the closet below!

Having worked for Buffalo Bill Cody, Scotty had to keep his image up ya know, red bolo ties and all!  Check out the tooled leather, pure class.

This was his desk, how about that radio, and the window shutters.

The Johnsons indulged Scottys whims, this is a hole they had drilled in case someone came to get Scottys gold, or break into his safe, you just put the double barrel shotgun in the whole, fire away, and..........

This was on the outside so that if there was one trying to get in the door, one barrel got him, and if one was coming in the window, the other barrel would get him!  RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!  'Course they didn't believe that, but as most of the tales Scotty told, it made life interesting.

This is part of the Tower, originally built to house water tanks, but when that changed, it housed a set of 25 chimes.  The 'Westminister" sequence was programmed to play on the quarter hour, automatically.   You could hear it in the house and it would play music other than the bells  as well.  It works inside now, but not outside.  Only showed the top cause I have to many pictures on here now!

Aren't these tiles gorgeous?  Each one was hand made for this house!

Here is another 'water place', Mr Johnson loved technology and design, pretty clever.  There were several in the house!

This is one of the amazingly beautiful fireplaces, it does get cool in the desert!

Very pretty way to hide the heaters.

Look at the hardware and the wood,  All Dark, Italian & Spanish style, but pretty.  Mrs Johnson wanted it to be more of a vacation cabin, not like their house in Chicago.  Hey, I like vacation cabins, how about you??

These were the curtains in the living room, they are real leather that has been designed.  Some of the fringe was worn off, but they were still quite elegant.

The everyday dishes, made just for Mrs. Johnson.........

Here we are in the kitchen, you are looking at the sink area.

It even had a refrigerator freezer,  several in fact. Scotty use to bring his dogs in and throw ice cream on the floor to show off, the hired help LOVED him! ha ha

They even put in a fake well, it was really the garbage, the castle had running water, even back in the '20's & '30s.  Ain't it purdy??

Don't ya love the typewriter?  The desk is amazing too.

Mrs. Johnson was a very religious woman, and use to sit on this day bed, at this little desk and write sermons that she would preach to the hired help every Sunday, whether they liked it or not!

These are some of the original clothes, left by the Johnsons.

An amazing sewing machine, and just look at those baskets.  I can't afford one, she had at least 50! sniff.  A basket like the one you see would be well over $300 or more today.

Aren't these beautiful.  All made by Shoshone Indians for her.

This was taken upstairs, the other was downstairs looking up.

Just thought these curtains were magnificent, all hand woven.

These were in another room , such detail, marvelous!  Of course I love handy work, so this impressed me!

How about this bathroom, one of many.  Holy,Moly how beautiful, every detail was perfect!

After the depression, money was tight, so they rented out rooms, travelers to this area could stay in the castle, for a fee, of course.

I think this was my very favorite room, the only room with regular drapes.  It was the music room, and aptly named!  You can see the organ on the right side.  don't ya love that door??

There was a wonderful fireplace, and chairs set around for listening.

Here you can see the bellows, I tried to get them to show you.  They still play today with a push of a button.

Here is the Pipe Organ, but they also had rolls of music that you could play automatically.  It was Awesome!!!!

Here is another view of that wonderful room, told ya I loved it!  Oh, forgot to tell you the music is played on CD's now, but the bellows still work too.

WOW, a sky light, even back then, and a beautiful one to boot!

A view of one of the hallways.  It was really well lit for it's time.

And OH that staircase, so many things to see, but couldn't put them all on here, so just put a few of my favorites.

And here is Sweet William, heading up to what use to be the cook house, it is now just a place telling you about the cook house cause it burned down,  oops, someone wasn't paying attention, right?

This is a picture of the construction workers, they were treated well, and had many, many years of work in the winter.

There is so much to tell you, it is called Scottys Castle, because Scotty told everyone it was built over his gold mine, truth is, he had no gold mine!  He convinced some bankers, one of which was Mr. Johnson, with one of two nuggets given to his estranged wife.  Mr. Johnson, who loved the desert and loved camping here, just went along with it, bought property, and after a few years of tent camping, MRS. Johnson talked him into building a little? vacation home.

Mrs. Johnson was killed in a car wreck, and when Mr. Johnson died he didn't leave the place to Scotty, knowing the money would be gone very fast, because Scotty was a big conman, but willed it to a religious group with the understanding that Scotty could live there until his death, then would be buried there as well.  Scotty never had a gold mine, and Johnson knew that, but it was beneficial to all of them, so when asked about his connection to Scotty, he always said, "Oh I'm just his banker!    There was so much more, and for those I will see, I have some brochures to show you, but this is all for now, hope you got a little idea of what it was like!

Until next time, from our little Whody castle, Love, prayers & hugs.  Arlette & Bill too, and the Sassy