Many years ago I was looking for photographic workshops to attend. I'd heard about the ones offered by UCSC Extension. I thought to myself, “ Ansel Adams started the program; they must be great.” Of the ones offered, one in particular stood out because it was in a place with an impossible name...Zzyzx (ZYE zix). My curiosity got the better of me and before I knew it, I was off to the lonesome East Mojave Desert and Baker, California. A right turn off I-5, several miles shy of Baker, took me onto a dirt road headed for Soda Springs, which sits on the edge of an enormous playa. This oasis has been used for hundreds, if not thousands, of years by people traveling through the high desert. Four and a half miles later I arrved at the Desert Studies Center, a field station of California State University. I was amazed at what I saw. Palm trees, a large pond with a rock fountain and cement buildings.
The Center use to be a resort, the
Zzyzx Mineral Springs and Health Spa, founded by Curtis Howe Springer, a radio
evangelist, self-proclaimed medical doctor, Methodist minister and maybe a bit
of a con man. In 1944, Springer and his soon-to-be bride filed mining claims for a
12,000 acre parcel of federal land surrounding the Soda Springs. They made up the name,
so it would be last in the telephone book, bottled the spring water and offered
it to travelers. Always an enterprising soul, Springer planned and built a sixty-room
hotel, a radio broadcasting station, a church, a cross-shaped health spa, a
private airstrip, which he named “Zyport,” a pond with a fountain he called
Lake Tunedae, and several other buildings on the property. Springer traveled
numerous times into Los Angeles to gather up workers, usually derelicts. He’d
offer them room and board in exchange for their labor. At the height of his
enterprise, 221 stations in the U.S. and 102 overseas syndicated his radio
program, a mixture of religious music and his own brand of evangelism. He
solicited “donations” that would buy listeners his special cures for everything
from hair loss to serious diseases. These concoctions were a blend of
celery, carrot and parsley juice. At the resort, visitors could avail
themselves of goat’s milk and an allegedly life-prolonging “Antedeluvian Tea.”
They were also offered a $25 dollar self-administered hemorhoid cure. Each
day, Springer gave two sermons over the loud speakers that were spread
throughout the resort and ended with more solicitations for donations. All went well until
the federal government caught up with Springer. He was charged with squatting on
federal land. Springer offered to pay back rent, but the government refused the
offer and in 1974, he and a 100 of his followers were evicted. He was also
charged and convicted of making false claims about his products. 
In 1976, the Bureau of Land
Management allowed a consortium of California State Universities to take over
the management of the property and its facilities. Today the facility is used not
only by people who study and learn about desert fauna and flora, but those who
attend special classes and workshops.
All my stays at Zzyzx have
been very comfortable. Electricity was provided by both solar and wind power, the
water was pure, the food was wholesome and the dorm rooms were as good as can
be expected.
So how do I feel about Zzyzx? I would
go there again in a quick Mojave minute.
