Curtis Howe Springer

Curtis Howe Springer (December 2, 1896 - August 19, 1985) was an American radio evangelist, self-proclaimed medical doctor and Methodist minister best known for founding the Zzyzx Hot Springs resort in the California desert. In actuality, Springer was neither a doctor nor a minister.In 1944, Springer and his fiancée filed a mining claim on federal land to 12,800 acres (51.8 km²) of desert, claiming a tract about 8 miles (13 km) long and 3 miles (4.8 km) wide. The land contained the remains of an 1860 Army post and a railroad station on the defunct Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad. On this land, Springer erected a sixty-room hotel, a church, a cross-shaped health spa with mineral baths, a radio broadcast studio, a private airstrip dubbed "Zyport" and several other buildings which included a castle. The "Boulevard of Dreams" was a divided parkway leading to an oasis on Lake Tunedae, later identified as the habitat of the endangered Mohave chub.
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