HOME | DD

Description

This is Zzyzyx California. Yes, you heard me right, Zzyzyx. California. Only in California. More particularly Lake Tuendae, in front of the Desert Studies Center, where apparently spelling is not on the syllabus. You can fish in the pond, if you want to be filleted and cleaned by researchers of the endangered Mojave Tui Chub, with which they stock the pond. About the only person who can spell in this whole debacle is the man who started it all, Curtis Howe Springer, one time barker for William Jennings Bryan, one time boxer, one time college level auto mechanic. After this era he became an osteologist and psychoanalyst, apparently unbeknownst to another single soul in the world, and set out seeking fame and fortune. This bit is more relevant later. After trolling no less than the AMA to denounce him as a quack, he turned his hand to radio and became a radio evangelist selling humble old-time supplements. Wikipedia seems incensed that he was selling baking soda as an antacid. The little dears. After Alex Jonesing his way through the midwest, in 1944 Springer upped the ante by filing a mining claim to 12,000 acres of BLM land. You can still do this pretty much, if someone else hasn’t already. And so he named this godforsaken tract of Mojave desert land “Zzyzyx”, presumably after a heated scrabble argument with his mother-in-law, so that he would be the last word in the dictionary. The buildings in the pic were all built by Springer in the ensuing 30 years, and I gather he made the pond too, developed the springs, brought in tourists for dubious health cures, but hey, what spa doesn’t? Everything was going great and then Springer made the mistake of subdividing his claim and trying to get a real town going. The feds took him to court for squatting, and despite the mineral spa didn’t recognize him as having accomplished a profitable mineral extraction from the claim so they forced him to forfeit the claim. Springer offered to pay back rent and he had the cash to do it. Uncle Sam didn’t want the money, he wanted vengeance. So the g-men evicted him and the hundred other people who were living there at the time. Sounds pretty vindictive to me but it was 1974. Crucifying an old quack who was preaching the value of eating your carrots & celery in the desert and sending him to prison at age 78 seems par for the course. Remember American food in the 1970’s? (Well, says Uncle Sam, the old quack wanted to incorporate) Anyways the place fell into utter disrepair, as places forcibly stripped of their inhabitants tend to do, and after a few years of trying to interest the University of California to fund its maintenance, they finally formed the Desert Studies Center and got a budget together start a research and preservation center for the Mojave Desert Critters and Weeds. Visiting Cal State Fullerton’s website you learn that they run field courses for all the biology students (winter session of course, what, are you insane?) If you want to go, head East from Barstow on HWY 15 and then take Zzyzyx road all the way out.
Just so long as Xander doesn’t subdivide anything he should be pretty safe.

Description

This is Zzyzyx California. Yes, you heard me right, Zzyzyx. California. Only in California. More particularly Lake Tuendae, in front of the Desert Studies Center, where apparently spelling is not on the syllabus. You can fish in the pond, if you want to be filleted and cleaned by researchers of the endangered Mojave Tui Chub, with which they stock the pond. About the only person who can spell in this whole debacle is the man who started it all, Curtis Howe Springer, one time barker for William Jennings Bryan, one time boxer, one time college level auto mechanic. After this era he became an osteologist and psychoanalyst, apparently unbeknownst to another single soul in the world, and set out seeking fame and fortune. This bit is more relevant later. After trolling no less than the AMA to denounce him as a quack, he turned his hand to radio and became a radio evangelist selling humble old-time supplements. Wikipedia seems incensed that he was selling baking soda as an antacid. The little dears. After Alex Jonesing his way through the midwest, in 1944 Springer upped the ante by filing a mining claim to 12,000 acres of BLM land. You can still do this pretty much, if someone else hasn’t already. And so he named this godforsaken tract of Mojave desert land “Zzyzyx”, presumably after a heated scrabble argument with his mother-in-law, so that he would be the last word in the dictionary. The buildings in the pic were all built by Springer in the ensuing 30 years, and I gather he made the pond too, developed the springs, brought in tourists for dubious health cures, but hey, what spa doesn’t? Everything was going great and then Springer made the mistake of subdividing his claim and trying to get a real town going. The feds took him to court for squatting, and despite the mineral spa didn’t recognize him as having accomplished a profitable mineral extraction from the claim so they forced him to forfeit the claim. Springer offered to pay back rent and he had the cash to do it. Uncle Sam didn’t want the money, he wanted vengeance. So the g-men evicted him and the hundred other people who were living there at the time. Sounds pretty vindictive to me but it was 1974. Crucifying an old quack who was preaching the value of eating your carrots & celery in the desert and sending him to prison at age 78 seems par for the course. Remember American food in the 1970’s? (Well, says Uncle Sam, the old quack wanted to incorporate) Anyways the place fell into utter disrepair, as places forcibly stripped of their inhabitants tend to do, and after a few years of trying to interest the University of California to fund its maintenance, they finally formed the Desert Studies Center and got a budget together start a research and preservation center for the Mojave Desert Critters and Weeds. Visiting Cal State Fullerton’s website you learn that they run field courses for all the biology students (winter session of course, what, are you insane?) If you want to go, head East from Barstow on HWY 15 and then take Zzyzyx road all the way out.
Just so long as Xander doesn’t subdivide anything he should be pretty safe.