Today’s trivia you didn’t know you needed to know: Zyzzyx Road, a low budget indie horror movie from 2006, not to be confused with another 2006 indie horror titled Zzyzx with a different cast and rebranded Burned, is known for being the lowest-grossing film of all time.
It made a grand total of (drum roll, please) $30 dollars.
Both films were shot with a budget of about a million dollars. Zyzzyx Road’s lowest earning record wasn’t because it was a terrible movie or because they mispelled Zzyzx though.
It was due to a marketing ploy that backfired.
Photo courtesy of Zyzzyx Ltd.
Zyzzyx Road redeemed itself somewhat when it was released on DVD in 23 countries but despite good acting and favorable reviews still didn’t break even.
Just in case you were wondering because we know you were, Zzyzx is pronounced “ZYE-zix.”
Photo Courtesy of Trueben Studios.
The real Zzyzx Road, off Interstate 15, meanders south for 4.5 miles to the former site of the Zzyzx Mineral Springs and Health Spa and is now the site of the Desert Studies Center and refuge habitat of the endangered Mohave tui chub, the only fish native to the Mojave River.
Mojave tui chub were historically restricted to the Mojave River, from the confluence of the east and west forks at the base of the San Bernardino Mountains to its terminus at Soda Lake.
Curtis Howe Springer came up the name Zzyzx and gave it to the area in 1944, claiming it to be the last word in the English language. He built Zzyzx Mineral Springs and Health Spa, along with his grandiose reputation and made-up academia. The land contained the remains of an 1860 Army post and a railroad station on the defunct Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad.
Initially called Soda Springs before Springer renamed it Zzyzx, it then appeared on some maps as Zzyzx Springs. Springer built a 2500′ long and 50′ wide landing strip he called Zyport. From Zzyzx, Springer continued his syndicated radio program, at one point carried by 221 stations in the United States and 102 more abroad, mixing religious music and his own radio evangelism while selling cure-all heath tonics and soliciting urgent donations for his ministry.
What happens when you try to climb like a Bighorn Sheep? You end up perched three hundred feet up on the side of a mountain with a spectacular view of the world. Here, Soda Dry Lake and a few watering holes that are the destination of sheep, waterfowl and other animals. The desert is seldom deserted.
How many Bighorn Sheep can you spot?
Springer was eventually deemed a charlatan and was imprisoned for 49 days out of a 60 days sentence for selling bogus medicinal remedies, earning Springer the dubious title of “King of Quacks” from the American Medical Association in 1969. But his self-made woes didn’t stop there by a long shot. Springer’s mining claims never permitted him to develop a health resort, to subdivide the land or to sell off lots for a planned community. Springer offered to pay back-rent but the government refused.
So thirty years after Springer opened his ill-reputed spa, the government reclaimed the federal tract of land, about 8 miles long and 3 miles wide. Springer was evicted, as well as a few hundred local devotees. Springer and his wife retired to Las Vegas, Nevada, where he lived the rest of his days until the age of 88 years old. Apparently Sin City had met its match.
Former mineral baths at Zzyzx. Now, long gone and as dry as the surrounding mountains. Speaking of mountains, if you look through the window frames, the peak off in the distance is known as “Cowhole Mountain.” No, really. Cowhole Mountain. Even I could not make that up.
An April Fool’s Day gag photo we presented in 2016: “A desert question. No one has yet to come up with an explanation of how this late model Russian Akula Class submarine ended up in Lake Tuendae, a body of water the size of a football field, in Zzyzx. Leave our Mojave tui chub alone!” (Only a few people fell for it.)
A consortium of colleges combined funds and resources to convert the former resort into a desert research station. The Desert Studies Center was established in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management in 1976.
We would be remiss if we didn’t mention Rob Fulton, an expert in the flora and fauna of the Mojave Desert, who spent nearly four decades managing the Desert Studies Center through Cal State Fullerton and was the only resident of Zzyzx. He passed away in a car accident in Idyllwild in 2018 at the age of 63. Rob is greatly missed.
Bonus trivia: The plot of Michael Connelly’s 2004 Harry Bosch novel The Narrows revolves around a crime committed in Zzyzx.
Congratulations to Mojave Desert Heritage and Cultural Center (MDHCA) in Goffs for recently acquiring donated vintage signs from the Desert Studies Center to add to their ever growing museum. If you haven’t had a chance to go yet, or haven’t visited it recently, we highly suggest you go.
