Zzyzx: A nice place to visit ...

... but you can’t stay at this scientific outpost in the Mojave Desert

The Desert Studies Center, located between Barstow and Las Vegas about five miles south of Interstate 15 on the asphalt and dirt Zzyzx Road, is surrounded by rocky hills, desert mountains and (left) Soda Dry Lake. Ron Ham

By Ron Ham
12:01 a.m., May 29, 2011
Sign On San Diego, The San Diego Union-Tribune

Zzyzx — “Zzyzx”

The sign along Interstate 15 on the way to Las Vegas is full of questions.

Is it a town, or what?

Would it be OK to take the off-ramp and check it out?

Where did the name come from?

Well, first off, there is no town. The sole resident of the place between Barstow and the Nevada state line is the Desert Studies Center, a field station operated by a handful of California state universities to teach about and research the local environment.

Yes, casual visitors are welcome to drop by, and there’s even a self-guided tour.

Zzyzx was named by Curtis Howe Springer, who opened a health spa on the property in the mid-1940s featuring its mineral spring.

“The self-proclaimed Methodist minister and physician (he was neither) broadcast daily a folksy, fundamentalist religious program from the radio station he built there asking listeners to send donations for miraculous cures, which were a mix of vegetable juices, shipped throughout the United States and abroad,” the research center’s website says.

He wanted to give it a name that sounded like sleep, one that had no vowels, and came up with Zzyzx — “pronounced Zee–zix or Zie–zix, whichever source you read,” the website says.

Springer was arrested in 1974 for unauthorized use of federal land and for violation of food and drug laws. The spa was shut down, and two years later the California State University system decided to operate a field station there.

The oasis is now managed by the California Desert Studies Consortium, an organization of seven CSU campuses: Dominguez Hills, Fullerton, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Northridge, Pomona and San Bernardino.

Drive about five miles south of I-15 on Zzyzx Road and you come to a dozen dull-colored buildings that look more like a desert motel complex than a college campus. Then you see a giant panel of photovoltaic cells, electronic monitors atop a rocky hill, and the big pond with birds, palm trees, and – it turns out – an endangered fish, the Mojave tui chub.

The center – on the edge of Soda Dry Lake at the western entrance to the Mojave National Preserve — has a laboratory with microscopes and other equipment, a computer lab and wireless network, a small library, two classrooms, a kitchen, a bathhouse, and dorms that can sleep 75.

About 7,000 people a year visit the site in San Bernardino County, according to William Presch, the administrator who is headquartered at Cal State Fullerton.

“Students and researchers come in from colleges around the world,” and professionals with the federal Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Geological Survey, National Park Service, state Department of Fish and Game, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also visit regularly, he said.

“Then we have the casual visitor who drops by off the freeway.” Presch estimated their number at 400 to 500 a year.

No camping is allowed on the campus, but there is a way for the general public to stay overnight and get a closer look at what goes on there. They can take one of the extension classes offered by UC Riverside that use the facility.

Classes for April and May covered such topics as desert lizards and snakes, spring migration of local birds, the Central Mojave, and earthquakes, volcanoes and ice age lakes.

At the Desert Symposium last year at Zzyzx, geared for college students and scientists, the topics were a little more esoteric: “Radiocarbon and Optically Stimulated Luminescence Ages of Pluvial Harper Lake, Mojave Desert,” for example. Also offered were “Expanding the late Oligocene/early Miocene tectonic, magmatic and sedimentary history in the South Bristol Mountains,” and “Coalescent analysis of fifteen nuclear loci reveals low genetic diversity and Pleistocene speciation in the Mojave Fringe-toed lizard, Uma scoparia.”

Presch said education is the center’s No. 1 goal and students represent a variety of undergraduate and graduate majors, from biology, geology, geography and space science to anthropology, archaeology and landscape architecture.

Visitors to the center are studying the desert all year long – “even when it’s 120 degrees.”

“Cal Tech brought the Mars Rovers out here before they went to Mars,” and a new species of snail was discovered at the center, Presch said, but a lot of the research is long-term – say 30 years.

Casual visitors are free to stop for a picnic lunch, walk around campus, or hike and photograph the scenery around Soda Dry Lake, which actually has water in it during wet weather. The arid environment is home to a rich array of animal and plant life, and nearly 200 species of birds have been sighted over the years.

Visitors also can see dilapidated buildings that once were part of Curtis Howe Springer’s Mineral Springs and Health Spa.

In the winter, the weather can be cold and windy. If you hike when it’s hot, be sure to wear boots and a hat, carry plenty of water, and never hike alone.

Water, food, gasoline and lodging are available in the town of Baker a few minutes drive north on I-15, and campsites are nearby.

If you go

The Desert Studies Center

Where: Zzyzx – about 56 miles northeast of Barstow, and 4 to 5 miles south of Interstate 15.

Hours: Open daily except Thanksgiving and Christmas from sunup to sundown.

Cost: Free for day use.

Phone: (657) 278-2428

Online: biology.fullerton.edu/dsc


http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/may/29/zzyzx-a-nice-place-to-visit/

Explorers blazed trails in early Inland Empire

Mark Landis, Correspondent
The Sun
Posted: 09/07/2009 07:06:58 AM PDT

Beginning in the late 1700s, a succession of legendary explorers and missionaries started to traverse San Bernardino County to map out new overland routes, carry out military missions, and convert the local American Indians to Christianity.

In 1772, Pedro Fages, a Spanish soldier, became the first white explorer to pass through the San Bernardino Valley and cross into the Mojave Desert. For the next 50 years, explorers traveling through the region didn't show an interest in the San Bernardino Valley and their passages through the area was incidental.

The date and leader of the first exploration of the San Bernardino Valley for the purpose of establishing a settlement here has been the subject of controversy for many years. Now, with the upcoming San Bernardino bicentennial celebration, the debate among local historians has been rekindled.

According to a popular history book written by Father Juan Caballeria in 1902, Father Francisco Dumetz, an elderly priest from the San Gabriel Mission, led an expedition in 1810 to the San Bernardino Valley. Caballeria claimed that Dumetz had been sent to search for a good location to establish an inland mission outpost.

According to Caballeria, Dumetz found the area around the Indian village at Guachama to be an ideal location. Guachama was located near the present-day intersection of Hunts Lane and Hospitality Lane in San Bernardino, along the Santa Ana River.

Caballeria cites May 20, 1810, as the date Dumetz set up a crude capilla or chapel at Guachama and bestowed the name San Bernardino upon the site. The name honored St. Bernardino of Sienna, whose Feast Day was on that day. He was an Italian priest, Franciscan missionary and Catholic saint who lived from 1380 to 1444.

In the years following the publication of Caballeria's book, 1810 became the accepted date that the valley was first explored and named. But research by later historians raised questions and doubts.

Prominent San Bernardino Valley historians George and Helen Beattie noted that major American Indian attacks against the San Gabriel Mission in 1810 nearly led to the overthrow of that mission.

Documentation from the 1810 period shows that the Indian unrest halted the establishment of new mission sites beyond the military protection of the San Gabriel Mission.

One possibility is that Dumetz did visit the San Bernardino Valley in search of a good mission site in 1810, but due to the American Indian unrest, nothing was permanently established until several years later. It is well documented that the San Gabriel Mission established "Rancho San Bernardino" in the valley in 1819.

Unless new evidence is discovered, the full story of the valley's first exploration will remain a mystery.

The first American explorer to pass through San Bernardino County was legendary mountain man Jedediah Smith, in November of 1826. The Smith party had traveled south from the Salt Lake Valley and begun crossing the Mojave Desert when they veered west from the Colorado River.

Guided by two Indians who had run away from the San Gabriel Mission, Smith followed the old Mojave Trail that padre Garces used more than 50 years before.

On the last stage of his long overland journey to the Pacific, Smith described the Mojave Desert as a country of "complete barrens." The party traveled from morning until night from water hole to water hole. When Jedediah reached the Mojave River, he called it "The Inconstant River" since it ran both below and above the surface.

Smith followed the Mojave River to its source in the San Bernardino Mountains and then crossed into the San Bernardino Valley on Nov. 26, over the old Mojave Trail, near the Cajon Pass.

Upon reaching the San Bernardino Valley, the exhausted band of explorers turned west and traveled to the San Gabriel Mission where they were welcomed by the padres. Described as being "nearly naked," the tattered Smith party was clothed and treated to a great feast of beef and cornmeal.

Smith and his men were detained by the Spanish authorities who were suspicious of American intrusion into their territory. Smith finally convinced the authorities of his altruistic motives, and the party began moving again on Jan. 18, 1827.

Jedediah Smith made another trip into Southern California in 1827. On this trip, the party was attacked by American Indians along the Colorado River, and more than half of the men were killed.

The seven survivors came back to the San Bernardino Valley to get help for a wounded man and collect supplies. This time, Smith thought better of going to the San Gabriel Mission and departed by the same route across the desert.

Famed explorer John C. Fremont crossed through the Mojave Desert and San Bernardino County on his second great expedition in 1844. The Fremont party included renowned frontiersmen Kit Carson and Alexis Godey.

The weary explorers were on the return trip from their expedition through Washington and Oregon. They had come south through the San Joaquin Valley, crossed the Tehachapi Mountains and were headed east through the Antelope Valley, in search of the Mojave Trail (which was now being called the Spanish Trail, and portions of which later would be called the Mormon Trail).

On April 19, Fremont was greatly relieved to find the trail near present-day Oro Grande, northwest of Victorville. The trail followed the life-giving Mojave River that provided just enough sustenance for the men and animals to cross this particularly harsh section of desert.

Along the way, the Fremont party had a bloody skirmish with local American Indians near Bitter Springs (within the boundaries of present-day Fort Irwin). The American Indians had stolen a herd of horses, and Kit Carson and Alexis Godey led a vicious foray to retrieve the animals.

Fremont left Southern California over the Mojave Trail and returned to Kansas City via Salt Lake Valley and Pueblo Colorado.

Many of the routes used by San Bernardino County's earliest explorers have evolved into major roads and highways and countless names they gave the sites along the way are still in use today. Their trailblazing expeditions eventually opened the way for the great wave of immigrants who settled Southern California.

http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_13286128

Something for everyone preserved in the Mojave

Trevor Summons, Correspondent
San Gabriel Valley Tribune

"The main difference between a national preserve and a national park is that on a preserve you can hunt, mine and graze," said Anne Maasberg, a visitors use assistant for the last 2 1/2 years. "Providing you have all the right permits, of course."

At the headquarters of the Mojave National Preserve in Barstow, Maasberg and some 30 other staffers help to oversee this huge area of natural beauty, which is toward the eastern end of San Bernardino County.

"The preserve came out of the Organic Act of 1916," she continued. "It was introduced by President Teddy Roosevelt to 'conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein.'"

The size of the preserve is impressive - some 1.6 million acres. But to put it more graphically it covers all the land between the 15 Freeway and the 40 Freeway, from Zzyzx to just about the Nevada State line - a large piece of real estate. In fact, it is the third largest national preserve in the lower 48 states.

"Five or six years ago we added another piece to the preserve, just to the west of Primm," Maasberg said. "It's Clarke Mountain, and it has some unique features like white fir trees. Birders also like it out there very much."

There are a few residents within the area, and visitors are asked to respect their privacy while passing through. But there are no motels inside or gas stations. Being such a wild, open place, you must keep an eye on your water intake and supply, and also be careful not to get lost.

Scenery can look very different with changes of the light and also the direction you may be hiking. Temperatures can go up to 110 degrees in mid-July, so it's hot, hot, hot.

Camping is permitted in designated areas, and there are good sites at Hole-in-the- Wall. Providence Mountains, where the famous Mitchell Caverns are located, is another good site with all the necessary facilities. Costs are $12 per site per night.

As for wild animals, there are plenty. From the American Kestrel flying above to the pretty Kit Fox running below, there are a wide variety of species. Try to spot a Desert Tortoise, or a Bighorn Sheep. There are rattlesnakes, too, and the Colorado Desert Sidewinder, if you look carefully.

There are plenty of wildflowers and plants, too, but don't try and remove any, as it's an offense. The Mojave Yucca is all around - it can reach a height of 20 feet. Also, you'll spot the round barrel cactus plants.

If you're out hiking, or you keep the windows of the car rolled down, you will be able to smell the strongly scented Creosote Bush Scrub. These are said to be among the world's oldest living things, with some colonies in the Mojave Desert being 11,500 years old.

Roughly cutting the preserve in half from east to west is the Mojave Road. It was originally used by American Indians as a trading route before the Europeans arrived. Paiute, Mojave and Chemehuevi Indians guided the Spanish along it in the 1770s, and in the 1860s the U.S. Army improved the road and established outposts for the safety of travelers and supply wagons. The coming of the railroad in the 1890s removed the road's importance and allowed it to settle back into its natural state.

Traffic hurtles along the busy 15 and 40 freeways, and motorists may not be aware that what they are passing is a huge area preserved for everyone's benefit. But if you can make the time, try and stop, get out of the car, and just look at the scenery and listen to the quietness of it all.

Status of Roads in National Parks

The following article was published in the Los Angeles Times on March 23, 2006.

U.S. Loosens Its Policy on Building Roads in Parkland

The action by the Interior Department, though not legally binding, makes it easier for counties to claim rights of way.

By Bettina Boxall and Julie Cart, Staff Writers
Los Angeles Times

Guidelines issued by Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton on Wednesday will make it easier for counties to lay claim to old trails and closed roads they would like to open across federal lands in the West, including national parks in Southern California.

In one of her final actions before leaving her post next week, Norton issued a policy dealing with right-of-way claims under a Civil War-era law that county officials in several Western states have tried to use to circumvent federal land-use restrictions on motorized access.

Norton's memo gives Interior officials nationwide latitude to grant rights of way to counties and other claimants and even approve road construction and improvements.

For a definitive legal ruling, claimants would still have to go to court. Though the policy does not bar claims in national parks and wilderness areas, Interior officials insisted that land managers would not allow destructive road building or improvements.

"Even if you have a right of way, that doesn't mean you can take a two-track and turn it into a two-lane road," said Dan Domenico, special assistant to Interior's solicitor.

"We still have the duty and obligation to protect federal lands surrounding and underlying the right of way."

But environmentalists said the secretary's guidelines amounted to an invitation to counties and other entities to claim everything from hiking trails to dry stream beds and start using them as roads.

"The barriers to [these] claims have been lowered to practically nothing," said Ted Zukoski, a Denver-based attorney with Earthjustice who was involved in a major court case on the matter. "The bar is so low that it has the effect of telling everyone: 'We're open for business. Make a claim.'

"The controversy is rooted in an 1866 law intended to give miners access to their stakes and cattlemen a way to move their herds by granting them rights of way over federal land. Congress repealed the law in 1976 but allowed claims for routes already in existence.

Claims in national parks and wilderness areas would have to be based on uses in existence before those areas were protected.

In 1997, then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt put all but the most pressing claims on hold. But that didn't quiet the controversy.

In Utah, three southern counties asserted their right to control roads and trails within national parks, monuments and other federal land. San Juan County claimed a 10-mile stretch of stream bed in Canyonlands National Park, contending that a rocky trail in Salt Creek Canyon — once open to four-wheel-drive traffic — was a "highway" the National Park Service had no right to close.

The route provides the only vehicular access to Angel Arch, one of the park's most famous geologic formations.

Another claim was made by officials in Kane County for rights of way in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, managed by the federal Bureau of Land Management.

Ruling in a lawsuit that stemmed from the Utah actions, the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals last year said the BLM could recognize local rights-of-way claims but did not have the authority to make final legal determinations.

Citing that ruling, Norton said Wednesday that agencies under her purview — which include the BLM and U.S. Park Service — could recognize rights of way as long as they adhered to state laws.

In San Bernardino County, which has inventoried 5,000 miles of roads and tracks said to be in use on federal lands before 1976, officials said they hoped the new policy would settle at least some of the controversy.

"The county is asserting rights of way . . . to protect the access for county residents and agencies to be able to get where they need to go in the desert," said Brad Mitzelfelt, chief of staff for Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Postmus, whose district includes large federal holdings in the Mojave Desert.

Mitzelfelt said the county would press claims only on the most heavily used routes, not all 5,000 miles. The old roads and trails cross BLM land as well as the Mojave National Preserve, where he said locals have lost access since its creation in the 1990s.

Larry Whalon, the preserve's chief of resources, said expanding the road system and upgrading certain roads would expose remote cultural and historical sites to increased human traffic and potential vandalism. He cited Ft. Paiute, a crumbled adobe Army post, as among the places that would be vulnerable.

"If that road were to be improved, you'd have a lot more easy access, and that could be a problem," Whalon said. "Even though it's been vandalized, it's not been completely ruined."

Utah officials hailed Norton's policy as a way to settle the claims in a more consistent manner.

"We think this memorandum is absolutely appropriate. We think the guidelines make life easy for everybody," said Lynn Stevens, chair of the San Juan County Commission and Utah's public lands policy director. "It creates consistency. That's not to say we don't have issues with aspects of it. But insofar as it embraces the 10th Circuit's decision, we are not opposed to it."

But Mark Squillace, director of the Natural Resources Law Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder, said the policy created a situation of "legal limbo" because federal agencies would be making right-of-way decisions that weren't binding.

"No one really knows if they will be meaningful," he said.