ABC Wednesday--S is for...

S is for spiral staircase at Scotty's Castle.

Last week we visited Death Valley National Park and took a tour of Scotty's Castle.

Although it has long been known as Scotty's Castle, the magnificent home in the desert actually belonged to his good friend Al Johnson, a Chicago banker, who built it as a vacation home for his wife. It started out as just a "box," but Mrs. Johnson told him that if they were going to spend weeks at a time there, that that was not enough.

Our very knowledgable guide for the tour was attired in period dress as she explained the relationship between the Johnsons and the legendary Death Valley Scotty. Scotty's stories were so fanciful and entertaining that the staid and consevative Johnson let him live in the castle and claim it in his tales.

The home is filled with all the original antiques that were gathered from Europe. The Johnsons themselves never went to Europe, however. I did notice the fire extiguisher in the corner when I took this picture, but not the block of wood--is that holding the old desk level? I'm not sure.

   S would also be for Scotty's unique security system. Scotty had the notion that if bandits came to plunder his gold mine,  the entrance of which he claimed to be under his bed, one would go to the door to the right and another to the left to come in the window. For that reason, he devised this contraption covering a hole in the wall of the room. If he heard the bandits, he would poke his shotgun throught the hole and the device would divide the shot between the two invaders. He never used the device. It wouldn't have worked if he had.                                 

And besides, he never had a gold mine anyway--under his bed or anywhere. It was another of his stories.

You know I couldn't have passed up taking a shot of the old hand crank sewing machine.

                                                                                     You will find other ABC participants at the meme's own blog. And you can visit the originator, Denise Nesbitt, at her blog Mrs. Nesbitt's Space.