We started early today since we had two goals: hike a loop trail in the South Mountain area then drive about 3 miles and visit the Mystery Castle before it closed at 4:00. We’ve done the hike before, liked it and thought it a good hike to combine with a museum visit. We like loop hikes and this hike combines 4 trails to make a square in the South Mountains. The first trail takes us to the ridgeline of the mountain chair but also has a turnoff to take us up to Dobbins Point with some marvelous views over the Valley of the sun with Phoenix in the foreground, Camelback Mountain to the right and Mount Piestawa behind us in the background - when you can see them through the ever present smog.
It seems as if everyone else takes the Dobbins turnoff since, once we had returned to the original trail and continued on our loop, we were alone. And, that was fine with us. We finished about 1:00, ate lunch and headed on over to the Mystery Castle.
And, what, you may ask, is the Mystery Castle? A very interesting home made out of ‘found’ materials located in the foothills of South Mountain Park. Simple answer but, as is often the case, the background is more intriguing and goes back to the 1930’s when a Seattle husband and father, Boyce Gully, found out that he had tuberculosis and only 6 months to live. Rather than sharing this knowledge with his wife, Frances, and daughter, Mary Lou, he secretly moved to the Phoenix area without them, surprisingly lived for another 15 years, built a life without them and never contacted them again. After he had died, his lawyer contacted them and told them that he had left them something in Phoenix and, rather than describing it, told them to come down to see for themselves.
When they arrived they found out that he had left them a home that he had built from materials that he had scavenged from a local dump, from the desert lands that surrounded his lot, from a local brickyard which gave him their irregulars,
from the car he had driven down to Arizona, and from anywhere he could find them. Because he built so far out of town, the 18-room castle had 13 fireplaces but no electricty and plumbing, fascinating nooks and crannies, marvelous views (here’s Phoenix in the distance from the kitchen window),
a ceiling made of scavenged boards and telephone poles and, an interesting experience. But, to keep the house, they had to stay there, and stay they did. In fact, Mary Lou just died in 2010, still living in the house and giving tours.
It was such an interesting story that it attracted national attention and soon a Life Magazine reporter and photographer were there to spotlight them in a 1948 article in the magazine. The headline was: ‘Life Visits a Mystery Castle: A Young Girl Rules Over the Strange Secrets of a Fairy Tale Dream House in the Arizona Desert.’ That same year, Mary Lou and her mother began to offer tours of the house. I especially like the rolling guest bed. Built on rollers, during the day it could be rolled back under the loft in the guest room.
The housing boom in Phoenix brought development closer to the home and electricity and plumbing were added to the home in 1992. Tours are given regularly these days to bring in money to keep the house as it is. Our tour had about 15 people in it.
8 mi, 1560’
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