Hard Luck Mine Castle near Death Valley lists for $900K — VIDEO
Hard Luck Mine Castle lists for $900,000 (Samia DeCubas/Real Estate Millions)
March 8, 2019 - 2:11 pm
Updated March 12, 2019 - 1:35 am

Hard Luck Mine Castle is in Esmeralda County, about 20 miles from Death Valley’s Scotty’s Castle. It is listed for $900,000. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

The entrance to the castle. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

Lots of off-road enthusiasts visit the castle. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

The castle sits well off the main road. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

It took Randy Johnston more than a decade to build the Hard Luck Mine Castle. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

The home is four stories and has 16-inch concrete walls. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

Randy Johnston has several pipe organs in the home and plays them often. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

Stairs winds through the round walls of what has become known as the "castle." (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

Randy Johnston did all the tile work in the main kitchen and baths. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

The dining room has views of the high-desert mountains and a mural on the wall. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

One of the four bedrooms in the castle. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

One of four bedrooms in the castle. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

In the center of the stairs is a water fountain that features a world globe. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

Stairs to the observatory. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

Windmills help generate energy for the Hard Luck Mine Castle. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

The 72-year-old Randy Johnston wants to trade in his 50-foot round house for an RV to travel the country. Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions

A fountain is at the center of the castle. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

The windows have sweeping views of the mountains. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

At the entrance is a tile design of the Yellow Brick Road. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

The front door to the castle. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

There is a picnic area on the front porch. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

The grounds have sculptures, shrines and rock art. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

The ground floor houses a small shop. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

Gaming machines are in the small man cave that serves as a small home theater on the ground floor. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

The ground floor has a kitchen and bedroom. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

A bedroom on the ground floor. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

Outside is a large garage that is fully equipped for working on cars. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

The garage is equipped to work on all sorts of vehicles. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

Randy Johnston, who built the Hard Luck Mine Castle, has created a pipe organ gallery in the four-story structure that is located in Esmeralda County. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

This pipe organ is the centerpiece of the great room. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

Randy Johnston found a working old-fashioned stove for his kitchen. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

A city street lamp swings in the center of the staircase below the observation deck. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

The main bath is on the third level. Owner Randy Johnston created the tile design. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

The home's round design and arched doors have given its castle persona. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

Atop the castle is an enclosed observatory where one can watch the stars in the clear night sky. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

The entrance to the castle greets visitors. It has become an tourist attraction over the years. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)

A second kitchen is located on the ground floor. (Tonya Harvey Real Estate Millions)
Randy Johnston started out building a home in 2000 without knowing what the result would be. All he wanted was a place that gave him seclusion some 187 miles from Las Vegas near Death Valley.
By the time he finished more than a decade ago, what started as a 50-foot round house to deal with strong winds in the desert turned into a four-story, Gothic-style castle that has became a tourist attraction.
Now the 72-year-old Johnston wants to trade that secluded lifestyle in to travel the country in a trailer with his two dogs. He has listed his home, known as the Hard Luck Mine Castle, for $900,000. The name is for the claim where gold was mined until World War II.
Johnston owned a plumbing business in the Lake Tahoe area when he traveled to Esmeralda County in the 1980s and found the property by accident. He and his son, Randy, were driving their VW buggy through a nighttime snowstorm looking for a place to camp for the night when they pulled up alongside the cabin from out of the fog.
In the 1990s, he started traveling to the cabin, which is about 35 miles south of Goldfield and 20 miles from Death Valley’s Scotty’s Castle, just to get out of the snow of Lake Tahoe. When the cabin and its 40 acres were for sale, he bought the property in 1998 with the intention of fixing up the cabin and living in it.
Johnston checked with Esmeralda County and learned he didn’t have to obtain permits, pay fees or undergo inspections. That was enough for him to return to Lake Tahoe, sell 10 cottages he rebuilt and rented out and use the proceeds for his dream home.
“I was just going to fix up the cabin, and when I found I could do what I wanted, I decided to build a home I wanted rather than what I was told I had to build,” Johnston said. “I just started building from the ground and worked my way up, and I got this.”
Johnston said he always wanted to build his own home since he was young after helping his dad and three brothers build their own homes.
All Johnston had in mind when he started building was a round design. His experience in the cabin taught him that wood doesn’t last long in a windy desert environment. He opted instead for concrete blocks, steel and glass.
“When I started building, people came up the road and asked what I was doing, and I said I was just building a house,” Johnston said. “Everybody stared, saying this is a castle, and that’s how the name came up.”
Some media reports have portrayed it as a doomsday house, but it was never built for that, Johnston said. It’s at an elevation of 6,000 feet and built on a mountain, and it’s only meant for seclusion and quiet to get out of the city, he added.
The walls are 16 inches of concrete to handle the weight of the home, which measures 8,000 square feet over four stories. Johnston jackhammered the granite to pour the footings in 2000, laid the blocks, numbering 24,000, and fabricated the metal for the home, which has 7 tons of rebar and more than 1,000 yards of concrete. He was helped by two friends.
There are four bedrooms, three full bathrooms and two kitchens.
The main entrance is on the second level and has doors and windows that look like they belong in castle with their arches and use of redwood in the door. The enclosed entryway pays homage to the “Wizard of Oz” with a labyrinth of the Yellow Brick Road and emerald in the floor to represent Emerald City.
Off to the right is what Johnston calls the great room, which was designed with pipe organs in mind. It has a 28-foot ceiling, highlighted by a rebuilt Wurlitzer organ from the 1920s. There is a second 1920s organ in the room, and it’s fitting that a musical sheet on it is from “Phantom of the Opera.”
On cold winter days when temperatures can dip below 20, there is a fireplace to warm the room. The castle has 22 propane heaters for all 22 rooms.
There is no cooling system because it rarely reaches 90, and Johnston said the cinder blocks keep it cool in the summer. The castle is powered by solar panels and wind power and has backup generators.
On the other side of the second level, there is a dining room, a kitchen and a bathroom. On the outside of the castle is a catwalk balcony.
In the center of the home is a circular stairwell that spirals against the wall and leads to the third and fourth stories. A fountain sits at the bottom of the staircase, and chandelier hangs from the ceiling above. The third level has two bedrooms and a bathroom and chamber room for the organ pipes.
Higher up the stairwell is the observatory for looking at the stars and nearby military test site. The light at the top is 62 feet above the ground.
The lower level of the home has two bedrooms, a kitchen, woodshop and theater room. Next to the home is an automotive workshop and down the hill is a miner’s cabin.
The 40 acres are covered with hillsides and desert with an unpaved road that connects to State Route 267. The place is surrounded by Bureau of Land Management acreage.
The site is suited for Jeeps and all-terrain vehicles, and Johnston said his relatives visit to take advantage of that. It’s why Johnston said he envisions the castle becoming a bed-and-breakfast.
There is no well on the site, and water is supplied to the home with a 4,000-gallon, underground tank. The sale includes mineral rights, but Johnston hasn’t pursued mining the site, according to Brian Krueger, a senior vice president with Coldwell Banker Premier Realty, the listing agent.