Zzyzx, California

San Bernardino County

The region Zzyzx [ zaɪzɪks ] in San Bernardino County, California, is the seat of the Desert Research Center at California State University. Attached is a hydrological institute called Zzyzx Spring. The names were confirmed in 1984 by the United States Board on Geographic Names and set the current time (2006) confirmed all place names in America the last in the alphabet dar.

Was invented the name Zzyzx from the impostor Curtis Howe Springer, who posed as a doctor and Methodist pastor. In 1944, he earned with his fiancée mining rights for the Set amid the Mojave Desert area. Although the country was still in federal possession, he built until the late 1960s, a complex of spa, hotel, church, radio station and airfield. The funds for this came mainly from donations of its supporters who trusted in his quack generic medicines. The illegal use of the land was finally suppressed in 1974. Together with a conviction for fraud, this meant the end of Springer's success story.

The property is currently under the administration of the National Park Service and is used by the California State University since 1976 as the Institute for the Study of the desert ecology. It provides the connection between the Mojave National Preserve and Death Valley National Park dar.

The word Zzyzx was used by a number of individuals and companies as a brand name. The best known of the hardware producer Zzyzx Peripherals Inc. The American heavy metal band Stone Sour 2007 brought a ballad entitled Zzyzx Rd on the market, further there is an album by the Norwegian band Zeromancer named Zzyzx.