Group photo including Albert and Bessie Johnsons in front of the main house of Scotty's Castle.
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Courtesy National Park Service
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Topline:
A little more than a century ago, a Chicago millionaire visited Death Valley after being conned into investing in a non-existent gold mine. Albert Johnson loved the heat and sparse landscape so much, he built a castle in the desert.
Why it matters: The story of Scotty's Castle is built on an unlikely friendship between a conman named Walter Scotty and a wealthy Chicago couple. It's a tale as improbable as it is befitting of the American West.
Why now: The castle has been in recovery since 2015, after damage from a flash flood. The National Park Service is conducting its yearly limited tours of the site to raise money to continue to renovate the compound.
What's next: The renovated Scotty's Castle is expected to reopen in 2026.
If the history of the American West is one of reinvention, then one of its prime canvasses is the California desert.
People have been drawn since time immemorial to that vast emptiness of harsh elements and healing quietude to make something out of nothing, by hook or by crook, where the line between delusion and oasis is always thin.
In a nutshell, that is the story of Scotty's Castle, a Spanish revival villa that started construction in Death Valley in the 1920s and was built on a bold-faced scam. The mansion has been largely closed to the public since 2015 after damage from a historic storm. This weekend, the National Park Service is holding limited tours of the site through March.
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There's a damaged castle out in Death Valley with a wild history. It's now open for tour
The conman: Death Valley Scotty
The Scotty's Castle compound —with a main house, an annex, a hacienda, an unfinished pool and more — is called Death Valley Ranch, but as it's often the case, it's the nickname that tells the fuller story.
"It was kind of always called 'Scotty's Castle,'" said David Blacker, executive director of the Death Valley Natural History Association.
Walter Scott, also known as "Death Valley Scotty".
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Courtesy National Park Service
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The "Scotty" in question is Walter Scott, a performer in Old West shows who had worked with none other than Buffalo Bill Cody himself, according to Abby Wines, a spokesperson for Death Valley National Park.
"He was an amazing storyteller, a great entertainer," Wines said of Scott.
Scott eventually landed in the desert after he stopped performing. One day, Blacker said Scott rode into L.A. with a bag of gold.
"He said that he had found a mine out in Death Valley and that he was, you know, going to be rich," Blacker said.
Blacker said Death Valley Scotty, a nickname he'd come to be known by, proceeded to spend that money freely and loudly.
He followed that up with a bigger publicity stunt — by chartering a train from L.A. to Chicago around 1905 and breaking the train speed record. The feat, as intended, launched him into the national spotlight.
The cover of a booklet released by Santa Fe Railway to commemorate the record-breaking train ride commissioned by Walter Scott in 1905.
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Courtesy National Park Service
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"So when he finally arrived in Chicago.... Everybody knew that Walter Scott had this rich mine in Death Valley, and he was coming to Chicago to look for investors," he said.
One of them he hooked was an insurance magnate by the name of Albert Mussey Johnson.
Albert Johnson the millionaire
Johnson was a religious man who made his millions in insurance, but always had an interest in prospecting.
Johnson decided to grubstake the desert mining operation from Chicago.
Albert Mussey Johnson, the Chicago insurance millionaire behind Scotty's Castle in Death Valley.
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Courtesy National Parks Service
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But, "he didn't hear anything from [Scott]," Blacker said. "And he started writing him letters saying, 'Hey, Walter, how come I'm not hearing anything? What's going on?'"
When Scott finally wrote back, it was always to solicit more funds.
"He'd send a telegram and say, 'A heat wave killed my mules, send more coin. Or a flash flood washed away the mine headframe, send more money,'" said Wines from NPS.
Finally, Johnson got fed up and made the trek to Death Valley, solo. "There's nowhere for Scotty to hide," Blacker said.
Essentially, that's when the jig was up, but not before Scott staged a failed attempt to cover up his lies.
"So Scotty roped in a couple of his brothers and a couple friends and had them agree to pretend to rob them or to pretend to attack them," Wines said.
Shots were fired at the group, and unintentionally hit Scott's brother.
"Scotty sees this, and he jumps up, and he starts waving his arms, and he says, 'Stop shooting you fools, you've hit Warner,'" Blacker said.
At that point, it was clear to Johnson that he'd been had.
"He also knows that he's probably not had more fun, you know, than any time he could think of, and he's out here in the West," Blacker said.
Scotty's Castle in Death Valley.
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Bob Greenburg
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Courtesy National Park Service
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Scotty's Castle in 1931.
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Courtesy National Park Service
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Construction of Scotty's Castle
Johnson fell in love with Death Valley — especially the dry heat. In his 20s, Johnson was involved in a severe train accident that left him with a badly injured back. The desert weather felt just right.
Bessie Johnson, wife of Albert Johnson.
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Courtesy National Park Service.
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Soon, he brought his wife to the California desert. Raised in Walnut Creek, Bessie Johnson was one of 150 students who started at Stanford in 1892. Two years later, she transferred to Cornell, where she met and fell in love with Albert.
Bessie took one look at the barren landscape and told her husband, "Albert, if I'm going to come out here, you're going to have to build me a proper house," Blacker said.
Thus began the construction of Scotty's Castle over some 300 acres of land in the 1920s. The main house was complete, but many outside features were not.
That's partly because Albert, an engineer by training, kept having innovative ideas for the compound, like a solar water heater and walking-size tunnels that connected the different buildings.
"The castle was like a big box of Legos for him," Wines said.
Tunnels being put in to connect various buildings at the Scotty's Castle compound.
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Courtesy National Park Service
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Construction of the swimming pool next to Scott's Castle. That project was never finished.
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Courtesy National Park Service
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Another reason for the delay was the land where the castle sat actually belonged to the federal government, instead of the original plot of about 1,500 acres Johnson bought. Construction was paused until an act of Congress granted a land swap. That took well into the Great Depression in the 1930s. By then, Johnson's fortunes had dwindled.
Albert Johnson and Walter Scott
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Courtesy National Park Service
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But Wines said even into the 30s, the Johnsons would invite guests to the castle. Sometimes, they'd send workers down in the tunnels to make a ruckus.
"They'd be walking around the grounds in between buildings and hear this noise under their feet and think that it was people mining gold," Wines said. "So they would literally pull the wool over the public's eyes."
That chapter in the long history of the castle came to a sort of an end when Bessie Johnson died in 1943. With her death, Blacker said, the impetus to finish the castle was also gone. Albert died in 1948. Seven years later, so did Scott.
Bessie Johnson, Walter Scott, and Albert Johnson in the main house of Scotty's Castle.
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Courtesy National Park Service
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"When you look at the three of them, you're really seeing three people that were born one way, and they decided to come West and be what they wanted to be instead," Blacker said.
With Albert, he left his life as an insurance man to be an engineer and live a Western adventure. For Bessie, she came out West to do things that women back East weren't normally allowed to do.
With Scott, Black continued, "he got to come West and live the cowboy life and it made him famous."
Flood damage in 2015
The National Park Service acquired the property in 1970, turning it into popular tourist attraction that drew tens of thousands of visitors each year.
But in October 2015, a storm brought close to 3 inches of rain — around a year's worth of precipitation — to Scotty's Castle in mere hours.
At the time, Wines had been managing the tours for nearly a decade. She said the rain triggered a flash flood of mud into some of the buildings. But the main house was largely unharmed.
A flash flood in 2015 washed feet of mud into the Scotty's Castle compound.
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Courtesy National Park Service
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Articulated concrete blocks have been installed at the formal entry of Scotty's Castle to prevent undercutting by future floods.
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Courtesy National Park Service
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Wines was able to survey the damage a few days after the storm. She went into her office, wearing wader boots and trudging through mud.
"I got to my desk and the mud was to within a few inches of the bottom of my chair seat. And everything from that level was untouched and everything below was devastated. And I remember just sitting on my chair and crying," Wines said.
Recovery efforts have been ongoing ever since, at a cost of roughly $66 million. Reopening of the castle is now planned for sometime in 2026.
How to join this year's tours
The National Park Service is now conducting limited guided tours at the site to continue to raise funds for recovery through March.
Here are the details:
Scotty’s Castle Flood Recovery Walking Tours Tours Dates: Select Saturdays and Sundays, Dec. 7 through March 23 Tour Times: 9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. or 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Price: $35 per person, plus a ticketing fee Participants: 20 per tour Meet-up Location: Grapevine Ranger Station Sign up here
