The story
Zzyzx is not quite a ghost town and not quite anything else. In 1944 the radio evangelist and self-styled doctor Curtis Howe Springer filed mining claims on federal land at Soda Springs, in the Mojave, and built the Zzyzx Mineral Springs and Health Resort — a spa of cure-tonics, mineral baths, and a man-made pond. He coined the name 'Zzyzx' so it would be the last word in the English language.
Springer ran it for thirty years on followers, guests, and mail-order remedies, until the Bureau of Land Management determined he was squatting: his mining claims were bogus, the land was public, and he was evicted in 1974 and later convicted of misdemeanors. Rather than raze the buildings, the government handed the site to the California State University system, which runs it today as the Desert Studies Center. The pond, Lake Tuendae, shelters an endangered native fish.
What remains today
Springer's resort buildings, now the CSU Desert Studies Center, with palm-lined Lake Tuendae and its endangered Mohave tui chub, inside Mojave National Preserve.
From the archives
Field of grasses on Zzyzx Road near Baker, California
Palm trees at the Desert Studies Center at the tiny settlement of Zzyzx, near Baker and adjacent to the Mojave
Palm trees at the Desert Studies Center at the tiny settlement of Zzyzx, near Baker and adjacent to the Mojave
A stout palm tree at the Desert Studies Center at the tiny settlement of Zzyzx, near Baker and adjacent to the
Zzyzx turns up on 1 digitized newspaper pages from California — read them free in the Library of Congress's Chronicling America collection.
Source: Library of Congress digital collections.
Questions from the field
- How do you say Zzyzx, and where does the name come from?
- It's usually pronounced 'ZY-zix.' Curtis Howe Springer invented the word in 1944 specifically to be the last entry in the English dictionary, for his mineral-springs resort at Soda Springs.
- Can you visit Zzyzx today?
- Yes — it's now California State University's Desert Studies Center inside Mojave National Preserve. Day visitors can walk the grounds and see Lake Tuendae; it's an active research station, so respect posted areas and bring your own water.
From the field
The most valuable part of this record is the part only visitors can write.
Stamp your passport
Check in at Zzyzx — GPS-verified visits earn an inked stamp.
File a field report
Road conditions, what's still standing, what's gone — your report joins the record.
Add photographs
Credited, dated, and preserved as part of Zzyzx's permanent record.
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Primary sources for this record
- — USGS GNIS feature 1662336
- — National Park Service — Mojave National Preserve, Zzyzx / Soda Springs
- — California State University Desert Studies Center