National Park Service hopes to reopen Scotty’s Castle 10 years after flood

By Kelsey McFarland

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    LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A world-famous landmark in Death Valley National Park has been closed for eight years.

Scotty’s Castle was built in the middle of the northern Mojave Desert in 1922. Hidden in the oasis of Grapevine Canyon, its walls hold many stories.

The interior is preserved with intention.

“When we reopen, we will have all of their original belongings, all of their furniture, their carpets, their curtains, their Indian baskets, their clothing, even back in the closet,” said Abby Wines, public affairs officer for the National Park Service.

The well-known man behind the mansion, nicknamed ‘Death Valley Scotty,’ was a con man with a big name.

“He’s not a household word now, but in the 1910s, through the 1920s and thirties, he was as famous as the Kardashians,” Wines said. “For probably equal reasons, people weren’t sure why he was famous.”

Scotty convinced investors to put down cash for a stake in his imaginary gold mine in Death Valley, Wines said. He also sold tall tales of floods, fires and wild west shootouts.

“Because all the rich people back east would be afraid to come here,” Wines said.

One millionaire investor named Albert Johnson couldn’t be scared away.

“By the end of that adventure, he figured out there was no gold mine. But he didn’t care because Death Valley was beautiful, and Scotty was an amazing storyteller,” Wines said.

Years later, Johnson built Scotty’s Castle as a vacation home for himself and his wife Bessie. Its original name was Death Valley Ranch. Scotty never owned Scotty’s Castle but did get a say in the construction!

“He had Albert Johnson put the shot splitter. The idea is you stick a shotgun through the hole, pull the trigger, shoot the bandit at the door and the bandit at the window simultaneously,” Wines said.

In the 1930s, Death Valley became a protected national monument, and new roads made Scotty’s Castle accessible.

“Tourists started coming in large numbers to find out the truth, find out about Scotty and whether his castle is really on top of the gold mine. Well, the Johnsons saw a way to make a little money, so they started charging,” Wines said.

Johnson died in 1948. Scotty’s Castle eventually became an asset of the National Park Service in 1970.

For decades, 100,000 visitors toured the castle every year until it closed in 2015.

Since that year, it’s been a fierce battle with Mother Nature to keep the history of Scotty’s Castle alive.

In 2015, a flood event roared through Death Valley, damaging the castle and destroying multiple roads. A year’s-worth of rain fell within just five hours.

The storm left behind feet of mud and debris and pushed walls off the foundation.

After seven years of restoration work, the National Park Service was prepared to re-open Scotty’s Castle by December of 2022.

But the hits kept coming.

A structure fire destroyed the castle’s historic garage and damaged another building in April 2022.

“This building was 37 percent done with our repairs from flood damage when it burnt down overnight, and no one was here,” Wines said. “Example of one of the many setbacks we’ve had, which is why it’s taking so long to reopen.”

The cause of the fire is still unknown.

“We do have really good scans and information about the building, so we can hopefully get the money to rebuild a reconstruction, but it will never be the same as the original,” Wines said.

Four months later, in August of 2022, more unprecedented, heavy rain brought severe flash floods closing all roads in Death Valley National Park.

The events devastated Wines, who has worked and lived in Death Valley for 18 years. Scotty’s Castle has been the focus of her career for many of those years.

“Even now, which is eight years after the flood, any time I see a small thunderhead somewhere up here in the north end of the park, I feel physically ill. I have the symptoms of PTSD when it comes to this. And so, it just feels like one series of setbacks after another here,” Wines said.

Wines anticipates at least two more years of work before Scotty’s Castle can re-open.

The National Park Service is building what they hope will be a storm proof infrastructure so the castle can better withstand more extreme weather.

“We just got this project done this winter. This gigantic berm was built to prevent a 100-year frequency flood event from attacking Scotty’s Castle,” Wines said.

Wines fears as climate change worsens, the $70 million worth of repairs may not be enough.

“All we could really afford or fit here was a berm that would control a 100-year frequency flood event. So hopefully, we don’t get anything bigger than that,” Wines added.

After a decade of repair and fortification, Scotty’s castle has a re-opening planned for December 2025.

In the meantime, the Death Valley National History Association will hold private walking tours of the landmark in 2024.

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