Deep in the Nevada desert stands a four-storey castle complete with its own gold mine – and it could be yours for just $750,000 (£600k). Built from scratch by an ordinary man who fell in love with the secluded site after stumbling upon it by chance, it’s the result of a labour of love – and of remote Esmeralda County’s extremely relaxed building regulations. Take a tour of this fascinating property…

The Hard Luck Mine, where the castle is now built, was in operation from 1897 to around the time of World War II. There is evidence of gold on the site dating back to 1897 signed by President William McKinley that include the two 20-acre patent claims that comprise the Hard Luck Mine: the Emerson and Hard Luck Lodes.

Goldfield – the area within Esmeralda County in which the castle is located – was full of promise for the hopeful gold miners that flocked to the area during the early 20th century. In 1908, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported “big dividends” from the area, in its section that covered mining conditions. Hard Luck Castle even has its own miner's hut included in the sale. 

Edward Ryan, Nevada’s state mining inspector, recorded more than 20 mines in Goldfield by 1912, but many of them ceased production over the years. By the time Johnston stumbled across the Hard Luck Mine and its cabin in the 1980s, it was long abandoned.

Although it the gold mine at Hard Luck Castle was closed at the end of World War II, the real estate listing promises that it is “still high in gold content”. The sale of the property includes 40 acres of patented private land, with a small secure storage/work area and rail-car access. 

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Productive but dormant, the 160-foot gold mine shaft is in serviceable condition. Entered through a cute red arched doorway, you can still see the tool marks on the walls of the roughly hewn tunnel. There are even rail tracks for a mine wagon to haul out the booty. But seriously, would you dare to go in?

Johnston found the site and cabin by accident when he travelled to Esmeralda County in the 1980s with his son. Driving their VW buggy through a snowstorm, they were searching for somewhere to camp for the night when they pulled up alongside the old miner's cabin from out of the fog.

In the 1990s, Johnston started travelling to the cabin, wanting a place that offered him seclusion and an escape from the snow in Lake Tahoe, where he lived. When he discovered that the cabin and its 40 acres were for sale, he bought them in 1998.

Johnston found that he didn’t have to get any permits, pay any fees or undergo any inspections in order to build the property. Unusually, there are no residential building codes in remote Esmeralda County, giving him a lot of freedom to build the castle however he wanted so there are lots of quirky touches dotted around the place. Who wouldn't want their own cannon? 

The castle's construction was a labour of love and features so many unique architectural details. To fund his new home, Johnston sold his 10 cottages in Lake Tahoe, which he’d rebuilt and rented out, and used the proceeds for the project, along with a sizeable inheritance he’d just received.

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Though he only originally intended to fix up the cabin and live in it, Johnston started building Hard Luck Castle after buying the land. The four-storey, Gothic-style castle cost him a total of $3 million (around £2.4m) to build, and has since become an unconventional tourist attraction.

With the help of two friends, Johnston built 16-inch concrete walls for the sturdy 8,000-square-foot home. He jackhammered the granite to pour the concrete footings in 2000, laying 24,000 blocks and fabricating the metal for the home himself.

In order to function as a family home, there were some necessary additions, like this well-equipped kitchen. The castle also has four bedrooms, three bathrooms and another kitchen, all split across four levels. There's also a home cinema on the ground floor. 

One of the most spectacular rooms in the home is what Johnston calls "the great room", where a rebuilt Wurlitzer organ from the 1920s hangs from the 28-foot ceiling – Johnston has several pipe organs throughout the castle, and plays them regularly. There's also a fireplace to warm the room on cold winter days.

A Wizard of Oz theme is at play in this enclosed entryway – the labyrinth on the floor represents the Yellow Brick Road, with the green colour on this grand arched door giving a nod to the film’s Emerald City. 

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A castle wouldn't be complete without its grandiose passageways. A spiral staircase in the centre of the building leads to the third and fourth storeys. An ornate fountain sits at the bottom of the staircase, while a chandelier hangs from the ceiling above. 

Perfect for stargazers, at the very top of the castle there's a gorgeous glass appendage. Johnston built this observatory himself for looking at the night sky, as well as peering over at the nearby military test site.

Each room in the property has its own propane heaters but there is no cooling system, with Johnston relying on the cinder block walls to keep the home cool in the summer. The castle is powered by solar panels and wind power, while water is supplied via a 4,000-gallon underground tank.

Now in his 70s, Johnston is ready to leave his secluded lifestyle and wants to travel the country in a trailer with his two dogs. Something for potential buyers to consider, doctors are more or less inaccessible and it's a 250-mile round trip to Pahrump, Nevada, to buy groceries.

Perhaps that's why the property hasn't sold yet. Hard Luck Castle was originally listed for $3.2 million (around £2.5m), but in 2016, it was reported that Johnston halved the asking price to $1.5 million (around £1.2m) after the home spent years sitting on the market. It’s now listed for $750,000 (£600k) – a total bargain for the right person.

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The castle even has its own road signs. Unfortunately, a massive flash flood in October 2015 caused Highway 267 to close, stopping the flow of visitors to the castle, whose tour donations had helped keep the project afloat. The road is due to reopen in 2021.

The listing promises that everything is included in the sale – not just the castle, but its outbuildings, its encompassing 40 acres and the gold mine. It boasts that the home “combines elements of the Wild West with a modern-day castle” and that it offers “8,000 square feet of living space in the private Nevada wilderness”. The property is entirely self-sufficient and operates off the power grid.

In case the castle’s four bedrooms weren’t enough, the original miner’s cabin, remodelled by Johnston himself, sleeps four people. It includes a complete kitchen and full electricity and plumbing.

While many miner's huts would have been unbearably hot in the daytime and painfully cold at night, the improvements made to this historic structure should hopefully make it much more comfortable for modern guests. It could even bring in money as a holiday home for the gold rush tourists when the road reopens...

Other outbuildings include a fabrication and welding workshop, complete with hand and power tools. There’s also an outdoor shower and toilet with modern plumbing, which can be used by those staying in the cabin, as well as a guest trailer and rustic outdoor shower stall “with a view”.

 

If it’s privacy you’re after, this property couldn’t be more ideal. It’s built on a mountain at an elevation of 6,000 feet and is situated 10 miles from Gold Point, the nearest town – which is, in fact, a ghost town. The 40 acres included with the property are covered with hillsides and desert.

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Some media coverage has portrayed Hard Luck Castle as a doomsday house. “In a lot of ways, it’s a ‘doomsday prepper’ dream home... extremely self-sustaining, secure and – admittedly – quite odd,” Jake Rasmuson, who is marketing the property with Bishop Real Estate, told CNBC Make It. Johnston, however, has said that his home was never built with that intention.

If you’ve got an appetite for remote Wild West scenes after visiting the castle, check out Cerro Gordo, a ghost town about four hours’ drive away with an equally fascinating story. In 1865, a man named Pablo Flores started mining silver from the large hills that overlooked the Owens Valley in California (Cerro Gordo means “Fat Hill” in Spanish). But it wasn’t long until local businessmen Victor Beaudry and Mortimer Belshaw caught wind…

Beaudry and Belshaw took over the property in 1869 and turned it into the largest producer of silver and lead in California. But once resources and water supplies dwindled, residents began to move away, and by 1938, Cerro Gordo was officially a ghost town and is said to have only six residents.

However, in June 2018, Cerro Gordo went up for sale. The town and all of its buildings, outhouses and mines were sold to two friends, Brent Underwood and Jon Bier, for $1.4 million (around £1.1m). The pair plan to refurbish the buildings left standing, upgrading them to include 21st-century essentials such as running water and Wi-Fi.

Hard Luck Castle isn’t suited for anyone who likes a bit of rain now and then, as Nevada is the driest state in the US, with an average annual rainfall of only 10.3 inches and an average monthly rainfall of just 0.7 inches. Most rain in Nevada occurs in January.

But potential buyers won’t be stuck for some stunning scenery – the castle is situated a short drive from Death Valley, the largest U.S. National Park outside Alaska, at 3.4 million acres. 91% of the park is protected as officially designated wilderness and features salt flats, 11,000-foot mountains, deep, winding canyons, rolling sand dunes and oases. 

Johnston believes that a potential buyer might be able to turn the castle into a bed and breakfast, and thinks it’s ideal for anyone who likes having a lot of space. “There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of miles of dirt roads to go run around on,” he told Atlas Obscura. “You can go out and do whatever you want.”

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