Zzyzx

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.