Road Zzyzx

Most people only know that there's a funny sign as you are nearing Las Vegas, marking the exit to Zzyzx Road. I actually managed to read about its history, which I found really funny, so I wanted to stop and take a look around. I'll just copy and paste this as it would take forever to type out with my words...

"In 1944, Curtis Springer, a radio evangelist in 1944, Curtis Springer, a radio evangelist from Los Angeles, decided that he would reinvent the area formally known as Soda Springs by turning the mineral springs found there into the basis for a resort. After filing a mining claim with the government, he got permission to use the lands (under false pretenses) and called it Zzyzx because he wanted to have the last word in the dictionary.
He hired several workers to help him create his resort, developed an area for people to stay, and imported various types of plants to add to the atmosphere. From there, his resort took off and brought people from all over to try his fake medicines and experience the “relaxation and healing” that he provided. In the 1970’s the government realized what he was doing on the land he claimed to have got for mining and kicked him and his followers out. Thus the land was taking over and eventually given to the CSU system which runs it now as a desert research center. "

In the end it wasn't the abandoned resort that really impressed us, but the 5 mile drive to it. It rove past a huge salt flat, that just became bigger and bigger as we drove past it (this salt flat is what the research center is here to study). We had to stop multiple times to wake around, take photos, and taste the salt (it really was salt, as we now know).Les mer