The 20th century history of the spot formerly known as Soda Springs is pretty wacky -- claimed by an early radio-evangelist and quack healer names Curtis Springer who filed a mining claim then turned the springs into a spa, he was eventually convicted of squatting on public land, making false claims about the curative power of the natural spring waters that flowed here, and kicked off the land. See more here: (
visit link)
But the true history of this place, as a spring-fed oasis on the edge of a large desert soda flat, which watered people and creatures, predates Springer by thousands of years.
From the National park Service website: (
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"Zzyzx/Soda Springs
Self-guiding trail, wayside exhibits, vault toilets, non-potable water, picnic area.
Historically known as Soda Springs and later renamed Zzyzx (pronounced Zye-Zix), this oasis is home to the California State University Desert Studies Center. The buildings and pond were developed in the 1940s by Curtis Springer, who operated a health resort at the site.
Zzyzx is open to the public—stroll around Lake Tuendae and along the shore of Soda Dry Lake. If classes are in session, be courteous and do not disturb participants."
More on the history and significance of Soda Springs can be found found here: (
visit link)
"Zzyzx Mineral Springs—
Cultural Treasure and Endangered Species Aquarium
Danette Woo, Mojave National Preserve, 222 East Main Street, Suite 202, Barstow, California 92311;
Debra Hughson, Mojave National Preserve, 222 East Main Street, Suite 202, Barstow, California 92311
A Brief History of Zzyzx
Human use has been documented at Soda Dry Lake back to the early predecessors of the Mohave and Chemehuevi native peoples, who occupied the land when the Spanish explorers first explored the area early in the 19th century. Soda Springs lies in the traditional range of the Chemehuevi, who likely used and modified the area in pursuit of their hunter–gatherer economy.
Trade routes existed between the coast and inland to the Colorado River and beyond for almost as long as humans have occupied this continent. These routes depended on reliable springs, spaced no more than a few days’ walk apart, and Soda Springs has long been a reliable oasis in a dehydrated expanse.
The first written record of Soda Springs comes from the journals of Jedediah Strong Smith, written in 1827 when he crossed Soda Lake on his way to Mission San Gabriel. Smith was the first American citizen to enter California by land. He crisscrossed the western half of the North American continent by foot and pack animal from 1822 until he was killed by Comanches in 1831. In his journal, Smith wrote of his Soda Lake sojourn: “I came to border of a salt plain and at this place found some holes of brackish water. The water was in holes dug about two feet deep and quite brackish. Making some new holes I found the water some better.”
The U.S. Army followed on Jedediah Smith’s heels. Various government and, in particular, Army surveys were conducted in the 1850s. Lieutenant Robert S. Williamson provided one of the earliest written descriptions of Soda Lake in 1853. Lieutenant Amiel Weeks Whipple gave Soda Lake its name in 1854, and in 1857 Edward F. Beale laid out a wagon route through the Mojave Desert for emigrants bound for southern California. This route would eventually become known as the Mojave Road.
Numerous massacres of these emigrant parties by the Mohaves led the Army to establish a permanent post in 1859 at Fort Mohave near present-day Needles. Shortly thereafter, they established a camp at Soda Springs, dubbed “Hancock’s Redoubt” for Winfield Scott Hancock, the Army Quartermaster in Los Angeles at the time. The Army’s presence provided a buffer between the emigrants from the East and dispossessed natives. California miners also traveled the Mojave Road on their way to the Colorado River in 1861.
During 1867 and 1868, the army established “Soda Station,” or “Fort Soda,” an army outpost at Soda Springs subordinate to Camp Cady. From Soda Station, the army provided escorts to the stages and U.S. mail carriers along the Mojave Road (Casebier 1999). After the army withdrew in 1871, Soda Station and other similar posts were sporadically manned by civilian station keepers.
The early 20th century brought mining, railroads, and religious colonization to Soda Springs. The Pacific Salt and Soda Company ran a sporadic mining operation there between 1907 and 1911. Evidence of the Pacific Salt and Soda evaporation ponds is still apparent. In 1906, Francis Marion “Borax” Smith had built the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad through Soda “Dry” Lake to serve his borax mines near Death Valley.
From 1907 to 1940 the T&T averaged one train per day between Ludlow, California, and Goldfield, Nevada. The rails were for removed for raw material during World War II and the graded bed now marks the boundary of Mojave National Preserve south to Crucero on the Union Pacific line.
Pastor Charles T. Russell founded the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society at Soda Springs in 1914. Only two written records of this religious colony, the “Russellite” sect of Jehovah’s Witnesses, exist. Russell died October 30, 1916, and David G. Thompson, a geologist working for the U.S. Geological Survey, reported the site abandoned in 1917.
Curtis Howe Springer and his wife moved onto the site in 1944, filing mining claims with the Bureau of Land Management and San Bernardino County for over 12,000 acres around Soda Springs. Springer built and operated the Zzyzx Mineral Springs and Health Resort at Soda Springs for 30 years until the Bureau of Land Management evicted him in 1974. His daily radio broadcast touted the miraculous healing powers of Jesus, mineral baths, and elixirs such as Hollywood Pep Tonic and Antediluvian Desert Herb Tea.
Although the charges against him—invalid mining claims, tax evasion, and exaggerated advertising—are certainly true, his main activities may have been providing sermons and health food to lost souls and unintentionally supporting the Mohave tui chub. Springer claimed to have coined “Zzyzx” in order to have the last word in the English language.
Springer excavated an artificial pond in about 1955 and called it “Lake Tuendae.” He stocked it with a minnow-sized fish that lived in a small limnocrene spring nearby, now called MC (for Mojave Chub) Spring. This spring is natural, but needs occasional clearing of cattails (Typha domengensis) and sedges (Scirpus olneyi) to maintain open water.
Springer also enlarged a water-filled mine shaft near Lake Tuendae that became known as “Three Bats Pond” and, later, “West Pond.”
One version of the story is that Springer enlarged West Pond with dynamite to mine gold. Another version holds that he was constructing a swimming pool. Given that Springer needed to pretend to be mining in order to hold onto his claims, and that the gold he was mining actually came from the purses of his “guests,” the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. The fish population in West Pond was killed in 1984 when water conditions became too bad, even for the incredibly tough Mohave tui chub. Hypoxia associated with algae blooms was blamed; this may have been triggered or exacerbated by sewage.
The present-day Desert Studies Center, operated by a consortium of California state universities, was conceived by Dalton Harrington at California State University–San Bernardino when it became apparent that the Bureau of Land Management was finally going to evict Springer. The Desert Studies Center hosts classes, field trips, and conferences in Springer’s buildings, restored by the consortium. . . . "
Today (2016) the natural spring and the nearby lake that Springer built by tapping the spring are preserved as habitat for a critically-endangered fish, the Mojave Tui Chub, at the Desert Studies Center.