May 7, 2009

Thursday 7~~~~ We got up early this morning to get an early start on our trip back home to Oregon, we both wanted to stop and see "Death Valley" National Park. Death Valley is about 95 miles north of Las Vegas, it is the largest national park in the United States with more than 3.3 million acres. Death Valley is open all year, but since summer temperatures frequently soar above 129 degrees F, winter visits are strongly encouraged. The highest temperature recorded is a temperature of 134 degrees F in 1913 which is the second highest temperature ever recorded in the world. The Sahara Desert topped this record by 2 degrees in 1922. Death Valley also holds a record low there in the same year 1913, for 15 degrees. Today when we were there, it was 103 and it was hot, a different hot than what we felt a few days ago in Vegas when it was 103 there. The desert flowers are known to be so beautiful in in March and April when the desert has had some rain. We missed out on seeing the beauty of a lot of them blooming at once, we saw some scattered here and there. In 1849 a group of gold rush pioneers entered the valley thinking it was a short cut to California, after barely surviving the trek across the area, these pioneers named the spot "Death valley". Most of Death Valley's mining operations failed within a few years, leaving eerie ghost towns and crumbling mines all over. Despite the the briefly successful borax mines that used the famous "20-mule-team's"(actually 18 mules and 2 horses) to haul the processed borax 165 miles across the desert to the railroad at Mojave. It took the mule teams 10 days to make the round trip. The park was proclaimed a national monument in 1933 and was redesignated a National Park in 1994. "Scotty's Castle" is one of the park's most popular destinations; Walter Scott lived the life of a real cowboy until he was hired to be a show cowboy in Buffalo Bill's, "Wild West." He worked with the show for 12 years as a sharp shooter cowboy. In 1902 Scotty retired and returned to Death Valley to become one of best know cowboy con-artists of his day. He fabricated stories about a secret gold mine and convinced several wealthy Eastern businessman to invest in his mythical mine. One such investor was Albert Johnson, president of the National Life Insurance Company of Chicago. Three years later Johnson came to Death Valley to check on the gold mine to learn there was no gold mine. He was so impressed with the area and he treasured his friendship with Scotty more than the money he lost. Scotty showed him how to relax and slow down his hard working pace of life that made him such a rich man. Scotty helped him realize his childhood fantasies about the west and after repeated trips back to Death Valley with his wife, he built a vacation home they named it "Death Valley Ranch". Scotty being typical Scotty told the reporters and locals it was called Scotty's Castle and people came from all over to stay there and to see and be in the castle. When Albert Johnson was asked about why he supported Scotty and why he allowed Scotty to claim the castle as his own, his reply was always the same: Scotty repays me in laughs. The castle is a monument of their friendship. It now belongs to the National Park system. It is well worth the drive to Death valley to see and hear the whole story of the beautiful castle that had everything way ahead of the period of time.