Curtis Howe Springer
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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.
By the late 1960s, Springer had begun marking off lots on the land and allowing donors of large sums of money to his ministry to build homes on the lots. This caught the attention of federal officials. While Springer had posted mining claims in the area, under the General Mining Law of 1872, it was still public land until such time that he validated the claims for patent by proving to federal government geologists that the claim contained locateable minerals that could be extracted at a profit.
Springer broadcast a syndicated radio program via 221 stations in the US and 102 more abroad combining his mix of folksy religion and health philosophy. He urged his listeners to send him donations for miraculous cures via "magic potions" which were actually little more than a blend of celery, carrot and parsley juices.
He was arrested for making false claims about his products. He was represented in court by criminal attorney Gladys Towles Root. In the trial, Springer was convicted of false advertising. He filed several appeals on this conviction, and two years later ended up serving 49 days of a 60-day sentence.
The federal government took Springer to court claiming he was squatting on federal land. In 1974, he was found guilty of the charge. He offered to pay $34,187 in back rent on the land to the Bureau of Land Management, but the government refused the payment and evicted him and his followers from the land.
Following the eviction, in 1976, the Bureau of Land Management allowed the California State University to manage the facilities and land in and around Zzyzx. A consortium of CSU campuses now use Springer's former resort as their Desert Studies Center.
Springer died in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 1985 at age 88. He was buried in the Riverside National Cemetery, Riverside, California on April 26, 1991.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Zzyzx. Retrieved on July 20, 2005.
- Burial site. Retrieved on December 18, 2007.
