| Zzyzx- pronounced "Zye - Zex" (it sort of rhymes with Isaac’s) A bizarre little pseudo town that was founded by a medical quack who conned people out of their money with his claims of a fountain of youth......................of COURSE we had to drive down a long dirt road to check it out. Zzyzx is now an unincorporated community within the boundaries of the Mojave National Preserve. It is the former site of the Zzyzx Mineral Springs and Health Spa and is currently the site of the Desert Studies Center. In 1944, LA radio evangelist Curtis H. Springer, a self-proclaimed minister, decided the mineral springs were the ideal location for a health resort. He and his wife filed a mining claim on a 12,800 acre parcel of what were public lands. He named it "Zzyzx Mineral Springs and Health Resort," and billed it as "the last word in health" and the last word in the English language. He made a fortune promoting his useless medical products, shipping them all over the world to cure various ailments. He planted rows of palm trees to enhance the oasis atmosphere and they are still there and they really do look like every typical image you have of a dessert oasis in the middle of now where. The "natural" hot springs were fake and the water was heated by a hidden boiler. He was such a master conman that the American Medical Association proclaimed him "King of the Quacks" in 1969. Yes, he did some jail time for his misdeeds. And now we can say we have visited Zzyzx. I know, you are terribly jealous. |      |