In The Middle Of The Mojave Desert Is An Oddly Named Ghost Town That Was Built On A Scam
In the middle of the Mojave Desert, just two hours outside of Las Vegas is an abandoned settlement with a really odd name: Zzyzx.
At this ghost town, you can find the ruins of a natural spring system that was once called “Soda Springs.”
For many generations, the natural spring water at the site was used by Native Americans, Spanish explorers, miners, and railroad workers who were traveling through the area. But in 1944, Zzyzx became something more.
A man named Curtis Howe Springer capitalized off of the spring’s apparent healing powers, which turned him into a millionaire.
Throughout the 1940s, he founded and operated the Zzyzx health spa around the natural spring, claiming that the water could miraculously cure any number of ailments. People traveled from across the country to visit his spa.
Of course, the whole thing was a scam. The spring water was not an effective remedy for actual health issues.
Springer was a master grifter, spinning lies everywhere he went. The only fact about him known to be true was that he was born in 1896 in Birmingham, Alabama.
In the mid-1930s, Springer had landed in Chicago, where he had his own radio show. He referred to himself as a doctor even though he had left school after the ninth grade and started advertising miracle medicines that didn’t actually cure anything. Eventually, he moved to Pittsburgh, which was when his radio show really took off.
Because of the popularity of his radio show, he decided to head to the Mojave Desert to open a wellness retreat near a small oasis.
sborisov – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
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He filed a mining claim on 12,800 acres in the Mojave and established Zzyzx. He chose the name so that it would be the “last word in health.”
Zzyzx consisted of a cheap hotel, a dining hall, a lecture room, a library, a goat farm, a pool house, and rabbit rooms.
At the resort, Springer sold 27 different miracle cures and declared that the natural spring was a hot spring, which was a lie.
He discreetly installed heating pumps to warm the water. Zzyzx became a major tourist destination, drawing in crowds of visitors.
Over the course of 30 years, he sold over four million packages of his so-called treatments, including Antediluvian Herb Tea and Hollywood Pep Cocktail.
By the late 1960s, Springer’s operation began to crumble. He was still raking in business, but complaints from customers about the efficacy of his treatments increased.
The IRS and the FDA also accused him of tax evasion and false advertisement. Finally, in 1974, the Bureau of Land Management forced him off the property.
While Springer had mining claims to the land, he did not have the right to occupy and develop it. He was given 36 hours to evacuate.
The whole case exposed him to be a phony, and he spent a couple of months in jail for his crimes. Afterward, he spent the remainder of his life in Las Vegas.
In 1976, California State University took over the Zzyzx complex, converting it into a Desert Studies center for students and researchers.
Today, Zzyzx is open to the public. Visitors can walk around the site, observing the ruins of the site’s past.
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