Near Baker in San Bernardino County, California — The American West (Pacific Coastal)

The Desert Studies Center

Zzyzx

<i>Panel 1:</i> 1776 - 1830: Early Explorers image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Michael Kindig, October 2, 2009

1. Panel 1: 1776 - 1830: Early Explorers

Inscription.
[Panel #1]
1776 - 1830: Early Explorers

Francisco Garces 1776 - As the Revolutionary War broke out, California was still a province of Spain, and the Spanish government decided to help feed a hungry Mexico by farming the fertile valleys around Monterey and San Francisco bays. While Juan Bautista de Anza explored a possible trade route south of here, Father Francisco Garces followed the Colorado River northward. He eventually met Mojave tribesmen who led him west, across the Mojave Desert to Mission San Gabriel. Garces, probably the first European to cross the Mojave Desert, stopped with his guides at this dry lake on their way west.

Jedediah Strong Smith 1826 - Trapper and horse trader Jedidiah Smith is the first known Anglo-Saxon to visit this area. A soft-spoken, Bible-carrying mountain-man, Smith passed these springs on his way to the Pacific coast. The following year, while on another westward journey, he again took advantage of this refuge.

Christopher "Kit" Carson 1829 - As word of trails and water across the dreaded Mojave spread, other trappers and explorers were drawn towards the coast. Several such

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parties made camp at these springs the next few years. The Ewing Young and Yount-Wolfskill group was among those guided by frontier scout Kit Carson.

[Panel #2]
1830 - 1860: Pioneers and Settlers

The War with Mexico When eastern pioneers arrived in what is now California, they found a sparsely-settled land with a few Spanish ranchers and a Russian settlement that farmed mammals from the sea. In 1846, following the successful "The Bear Flag Revolt," American settlers removed these powers. Two years after a major 1848 gold strike east of Sacramento began to draw emigrants westward, California was made a state.

Government Survey Teams Roads for wagons were scarce, so survey teams were sent to locale suitable routes, find reliable water supplies and eventually to survey railroad alignments. In 1853, Robert S. Williamson's survey team stopped here. During another railroad survey in 1854, Lt. Amiel Whipple first named Soda Lake, from which Soda Springs gets its name.

The Army's Great Camel Experiment In 1857, one year before the Butterfield Overland Mail began running between Missouri and California along the great Southern

<i>Panel 2:</i> 1830 - 1860: Pioneers and Settlers image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Michael Kindig, October 2, 2009

2. Panel 2: 1830 - 1860: Pioneers and Settlers

route, Edward Fitzgerald Beale established the Mojave Road, a more-northerly freight and postal route across the desert. Camels, imported from the Middle East, were used as pack animals along the Mojave Road as part of the U.S. Army's Great Camel Experiment.

After walking from Texas over rock-strewn trails, Beale's camels were pronounced capable. The Army, however, abondoned its "ships of the desert," partly because the great shaggy, spitting beasts scared every horse and mule they met half out of their wits!

[Panel #3]
1860 - 1870: Army Outpost

Hancock's Redoubt was a temporary stronghold built here by the U.S. Army in the 1860s along the Mojave Road, which stretched west from Prescott, Arizona Territory, through the mountains, beyond the Colorado River, and across the Mojave Desert to the Cajon Pass. Redoubts offered protection to civilian as well as military travelers. Hancock's Redoubt is mentioned in dispatches written to Major James E. Carlton of the 1st Dragoons at Camp Cady from 1st Lt. Milton T. Carr, Detachment Commander:

"May 1st Left camp at daylight and marched to Soda Springs, where I arrived at 11 o'clock

<i>Panel 3:</i> 1860 - 1870: Army Outpost image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Michael Kindig, October 2, 2009

3. Panel 3: 1860 - 1870: Army Outpost

a.m. ... Found plenty of tule grass and water here. There are three springs, one large and two small. The water is impregnated with some alkaline substance and is unpleasant to taste. The redoubt erected at Soda Springs is about the same size as that erected at Bitter Spring: it is called Hancock's Redoubt. (Named in honor of Army Quarter Master Winfield S. Hancock.) Should small parties hereafter be required to operate from this point, five or six men on foot in this redoubt can guard the supplies during the absence of the scouts.

"June 4th ... Loop-holes are arranged around the top, that men inside of the redoubt can command all the ground around, without exposing themselves to the fire of the Indians. Had the front traverse so arranged, also, that it will afford secure shelter for three or four horses."

By 1867, the original "series of breastworks and corrals" had fallen into disrepair and was replaced by a more substantial stone structure, believed to resemble the above illustration. From August 21, 1867 until May 23, 1868, Army personnel were stationed here as a full-time outpost of Camp Cady, 35 miles to the east. Three

<i>Panel 4:</i> 1870 - 1905: Soda Station image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Michael Kindig, October 2, 2009

4. Panel 4: 1870 - 1905: Soda Station

men were usually posted at this lonely station. Remains of larger, similar fortifications, erected along the Mojave Road at Rock Springs and Piute Springs, can still be seen.

[Panel #4]
1870 - 1905: Soda Station

Soda Springs existed as a rest stop and refuge for eastbound and westbound travelers on the Mojave Road for about 30 years. Its name was changed temporarily to "Shenandoah Camp" in 1885 but was soon named "Soda Station" by its operator, George Hetzel. He rebuilt the outpost into a trading post, commonly called a "way station." Similar to rest stops along modern freeways, Hetzel's way station offered welcome relief to travelers crossing the desert.

To make the springs more usable, Hetzel lined a pool with rocks. Water at Soda Springs reaches the surface at a fairly constant 76º, proving a refreshing dip in summer and welcome warmth during the winter.

In 1900, Frank and Sarah Riggs lived at Soda Station, which they had renamed "Hetzel's Mill Site." The Riggs ran a mill in which steel balls pulverized ores for processing. Unfortunately, the ores from this mountain contain very few valuable minerals, and the claim was

<i>Panel 5:</i> 1905 - 1916: The Soda Works image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Michael Kindig, October 2, 2009

5. Panel 5: 1905 - 1916: The Soda Works

abandoned.

[Panel #5]
1905 - 1916: The Soda Works

The Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad Tracks of the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad, called the T&T, were laid by Francis "Borax" Smith to carry ore, cargo and passengers on a north/south alignment through the desert, reached Soda Springs in November of 1905. This line connected the rich mining districts of Goldfield and Bullfrog...and towns like Shoshone, Tecopa, Death Valley Junction and Beatty...with the outside world. It carried minerals, freight, mining equipment, and passengers between the east-west rail lines at Ludlow and mines scattered along the Amargosa River and Death Valley.

Just What is Soda? Included in the loose term "soda" are several chemical compounds: washing soda (sodium carbonate), baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and caustic soda (sodium hydrate) are only a few.

The Soda Works To extract chemicals from sub-surface lake brine, spring water was channeled through ditches and trapped in shallow ponds where it was evaporated by the sun. The resulting "trona" sludge was scraped from the ponds, spread for further drying, and shipped on the T&T for final processing.

The

<i>Panel 6:</i> 1916 - 1944: Period of Abandonment image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Michael Kindig, October 2, 2009

6. Panel 6: 1916 - 1944: Period of Abandonment

operation, owned by The Pacific Salt and Soda Company, was never financially successful. By 1912, the cost of refining solar-dried sludge into separate usable chemicals forced the company to abandon the project.

In 1914, another attempt at mining the playa began, but in 1916, flood waters inundated the dry lake for two years, forcing the miners to "pull up stakes." Soda Springs slowly crumbled into the desolate desert from which it came.

Ditches and dikes from the Soda Works can still be seen on the dry lake bed, but the narrow-gauge rails, mine cars and buildings that were once here are now only memories.

[Panel #6]
1916 - 1944: Period of Abandonment

Desert rains often produce some very destructive floodwaters where, only minutes earlier, dust-devils danced beneath a blazing sun.

Severe flooding in 1916 not only ended mining here, it also inundated the T&T Railroad grade. Between 1910 and 1920, and again in the 1930s, Broadwell Lake, the Mojave River Sink, Silver Lake and the Armagosa River all experienced floods and washouts, and the railroad never fully recovered.

As mines served by the railroad became depleted,

<i>Panel 7:</i> 1944 - 1974: Zzyzx Mineral Springs image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Michael Kindig, October 2, 2009

7. Panel 7: 1944 - 1974: Zzyzx Mineral Springs

the T&T barely remained solvent. On June 14, 1940 it ceased operation forever. Little remains since its rails were used for scrap iron during World War II. The elevated railroad grade can still be seen, heading north toward baker.

Over the years, the wooden buildings once built here were salvaged for use elsewhere in the desert. Meanwhile the stone structures crumbled into piles of rubble, overgrown with mesquite.

During these years, a few sportsmen, historians and archaeologists occasionally stopped at Soda Springs and noted the area's resources that would someday be recognized as "something special."

[Panel #7]
1944 - 1974: Zzyzx Mineral Springs

Just before the end of World War II, Evangelist Dr. Curtis H. Springer, who operated a mission for the down-and-out in Los Angeles, filed a series of mining claims on public lands at Soda Springs. Here in the desert, at what they once described as "a mosquito swamp," he and his soon-to-be wife, Helen LeGerda, created Zzyzx Mineral Springs, a religion-oriented health resort.

Over the next 30 years, the Springers modified the natural springs and constructed numerous buildings on

<i>Panel 8:</i> 1974 - Present: The Desert Studies Center image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Michael Kindig, October 2, 2009

8. Panel 8: 1974 - Present: The Desert Studies Center

the site. Rows of Tamarisk and Palm trees were planted, Zzyzx Road upgraded, and ponds excavated. Soda Station was rebuilt from its ruins, and later used as part of a larger building which still stands.

Springer had great plans for the 12,800 acres of barren desert land between the oasis and what is now Interstate 15. A mobile home park was to be built where you are standing. There was just one problem with Dr. Springer's plans; the land did not belong to him.

The validity of Springer's "mining claims" were eventually challenged in court by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The Springer's lost their claims and were evicted from the property in 1974, which ended Zzyzx Mineral Springs.

[Panel #8]:
1974 - Present: The Desert Studies Center

After the Zzyzx era, increased public awareness encouraged the Bureau of Land Management to protect the memories of Zzyzx and the natural and cultural resources of Soda Springs. A plan was developed to manage the site so that these unique resources could be studied and appreciated, yet protected from abuse and vandalism.

That plan led to the establishment of the Desert Studies Center

The Desert Studies Center Marker image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Denise Boose, May 19, 2015

9. The Desert Studies Center Marker

at Soda Springs in 1976. The BLM and a consortium of California State University campuses manage the site as a field station, classroom and research facility.

Students, teachers and scientists stay here temporarily to conduct studies and then share the knowledge they gain about desert flora, fauna and habitats. Indoor and outdoor laboratories are available to classes of all grade levels. Weekend classes, open to the public, are offered for those who wish to learn more about the Mojave region through hands-on training at the Desert Studies Center.

Erected by Bureau of Land Management.

Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Forts and Castles • Industry & Commerce • Settlements & Settlers • War, Mexican-American. In addition, it is included in the Mojave Road (Old Government Road) series list. A significant historical month for this entry is May 1997.

Location. 35° 8.552′ N, 116° 6.26′ W. Marker is near Baker, California, in San Bernardino County. It is on Zzyzx Road 5 miles south of Interstate 15, on the left when traveling south. Located on the north wall of the restrooms at the Desert

Photographed by Denise Boose, May 19, 2015

10. The Desert Studies Center Marker

Studies Center. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Baker CA 92309, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in Greater Los Angeles,

in the Mojave Desert,

in the Peninsular Ranges,

and specifically in the Transverse Ranges.

It is also in the American Southwest.

Globally, it is in North America,

on the Ring of Fire,

in the Pacific Rim,

in the Western Hemisphere,

in the Western World,

and in the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once New Spain

and also Mexico’s Alta California.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 10 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: A Traveler's Rest (about 300 feet away, measured in a direct line); A Lost Lake (about 400 feet away); Soda Springs - Zzyzx Mineral Springs (about 600 feet away); Zzyzx Mineral Springs Resort (approx. 0.2 miles away); Francis Marion "Borax" Smith (approx. 3.9 miles away); World’s Tallest Thermometer (approx. 8.8 miles away); Bun Boy Restaurant (approx. 8.8 miles away); Marl Springs / Seventeenmile Point (approx. 9.3 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers

The Desert Studies Center Markers image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Craig Baker, April 21, 2023

11. The Desert Studies Center Markers

These markers have not faded in the desert heat.

in Baker.

More about this marker. This restroom building is only open to attendees of events at the center. The public is welcome to walk along the trail around the small lake nearby.

Also see . . . Desert Studies Center. (Submitted on January 10, 2012, by Michael Kindig of Elk Grove, California.)

Credits. This page was last revised on April 22, 2023. It was originally submitted on January 9, 2012, by Michael Kindig of Elk Grove, California. This page has been viewed 1,409 times since then and 79 times this year. Last updated on May 22, 2015, by J. Makali Bruton of Washington, District of Columbia. Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. submitted on January 9, 2012, by Michael Kindig of Elk Grove, California. 9, 10. submitted on May 19, 2015, by Denise Boose of Tehachapi, California. 11. submitted on April 22, 2023, by Craig Baker of Sylmar, California. • Andrew Ruppenstein was the editor who published this page.