Zzyzx Mineral Springs— Cultural Treasure and Endangered Species Aquarium
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Cultural and Natural Resources: Conflicts and Opportunities for Cooperation Zzyzx Mineral Springs— Cultural Treasure and Endangered Species Aquarium Danette Woo, Mojave National Preserve, 222 East Main Street, Suite 202, Barstow, California 92311; [email protected] Debra Hughson, Mojave National Preserve, 222 East Main Street, Suite 202, Barstow, California 92311; [email protected] A Brief History of Zzyzx Human use has been documented at Soda Dry Lake back to the early predecessors of the Mohave and Chemehuevi native peoples, who occupied the land when the Spanish explorers first explored the area early in the 19th century. Soda Springs lies in the traditional range of the Chemehuevi, who likely used and modified the area in pursuit of their hunter–gatherer econo- my.Trade routes existed between the coast and inland to the Colorado River and beyond for almost as long as humans have occupied this continent. These routes depended on reliable springs, spaced no more than a few days’ walk apart, and Soda Springs has long been a reliable oasis in a dehydrated expanse. The first written record of Soda Springs Soda Springs, dubbed “Hancock’s Redoubt” comes from the journals of Jedediah Strong for Winfield Scott Hancock, the Army Smith, written in 1827 when he crossed Soda Quartermaster in Los Angeles at the time. The Lake on his way to Mission San Gabriel. Army’s presence provided a buffer between Smith was the first American citizen to enter the emigrants from the East and dispossessed California by land. He crisscrossed the west- natives. California miners also traveled the ern half of the North American continent by Mojave Road on their way to the Colorado foot and pack animal from 1822 until he was River in 1861. During 1867 and 1868, the killed by Comanches in 1831. In his journal, army established “Soda Station,” or “Fort Smith wrote of his Soda Lake sojourn: “I Soda,” an army outpost at Soda Springs sub- came to border of a salt plain and at this place ordinate to Camp Cady. From Soda Station, found some holes of brackish water. The the army provided escorts to the stages and water was in holes dug about two feet deep U.S. mail carriers along the Mojave Road and quite brackish. Making some new holes I (Casebier 1999). After the army withdrew in found the water some better.” 1871, Soda Station and other similar posts The U.S. Army followed on Jedediah were sporadically manned by civilian station Smith’s heels. Various government and, in keepers. particular, Army surveys were conducted in The early 20th century brought mining, the 1850s. Lieutenant Robert S. Williamson railroads, and religious colonization to Soda provided one of the earliest written descrip- Springs. The Pacific Salt and Soda Company tions of Soda Lake in 1853. Lieutenant Amiel ran a sporadic mining operation there Weeks Whipple gave Soda Lake its name in between 1907 and 1911. Evidence of the 1854, and in 1857 Edward F. Beale laid out a Pacific Salt and Soda evaporation ponds is wagon route through the Mojave Desert for still apparent. In 1906, Francis Marion emigrants bound for southern California. “Borax” Smith had built the Tonopah and This route would eventually become known Tidewater Railroad through Soda “Dry” Lake as the Mojave Road. Numerous massacres of to serve his borax mines near Death Valley. these emigrant parties by the Mohaves led the From 1907 to 1940 the T&T averaged one Army to establish a permanent post in 1859 at train per day between Ludlow, California, and Fort Mohave near present-day Needles. Goldfield, Nevada. The rails were for removed Shortly thereafter, they established a camp at for raw material during World War II and the 84 Cultural and Natural Resources: Conflicts and Opportunities for Cooperation graded bed now marks the boundary of somewhere in the middle. The fish population Mojave National Preserve south to Crucero on in West Pond was killed in 1984 when water the Union Pacific line. conditions became too bad, even for the Pastor Charles T. Russell founded the incredibly tough Mohave tui chub. Hypoxia Watchtower Bible and Tract Society at Soda associated with algae blooms was blamed; this Springs in 1914. Only two written records of may have been triggered or exacerbated by this religious colony, the “Russellite” sect of sewage. Jehovah’s Witnesses, exist. Russell died The present-day Desert Studies Center, October 30, 1916, and David G. Thompson, operated by a consortium of California state a geologist working for the U.S. Geological universities, was conceived by Dalton Survey, reported the site abandoned in 1917. Harrington at California State University–San Curtis Howe Springer and his wife moved Bernardino when it became apparent that the onto the site in 1944, filing mining claims with Bureau of Land Management was finally going the Bureau of Land Management and San to evict Springer. The Desert Studies Center Bernardino County for over 12,000 acres hosts classes, field trips, and conferences in around Soda Springs. Springer built and Springer’s buildings, restored by the consor- operated the Zzyzx Mineral Springs and tium. Health Resort at Soda Springs for 30 years until the Bureau of Land Management evicted A Brief History of the him in 1974. His daily radio broadcast touted Mohave Tui Chub the miraculous healing powers of Jesus, min- The Mohave tui chub (Gila bicolor eral baths, and elixirs such as Hollywood Pep mohavensis) is the only fish native to the Tonic and Antediluvian Desert Herb Tea. Mojave River basin in California. It preferred Although the charges against him—invalid quiet pools in the intermittently flowing mining claims, tax evasion, and exaggerated Mojave River and tended to be swept down- advertising—are certainly true, his main activ- stream during floods. Sport fishermen intro- ities may have been providing sermons and duced the arroyo chub (Gila orcutti) in the health food to lost souls and unintentionally 1930s as live bait, and it interbred with the supporting the Mohave tui chub. Springer Mohave tui chub. A isolated relic population claimed to have coined “Zzyzx” in order to of genetically pure Mohave tui chub survived have the last word in the English language. in MC Spring. How the fish got into MC Springer excavated an artificial pond in Spring remains a mystery. The Soda Lake about 1955 and called it “Lake Tuendae.” He playa is a closed basin at the end of the Mojave stocked it with a minnow-sized fish that lived River watershed and, during wet seasons, in a small limnocrene spring nearby, now becomes a real lake with water. The fish could called MC (for Mojave Chub) Spring. This have been washed into the ephemeral lake spring is natural, but needs occasional clear- during floods, with a few becoming trapped in ing of cattails (Typha domengensis) and sedges MC Spring as the waters receded. An alterna- (Scirpus olneyi) to maintain open water. tive explanation is that the fish somehow move Springer also enlarged a water-filled mine underground through fractures in the lime- shaft near Lake Tuendae that became known stone. The Bureau of Land Management exca- as “Three Bats Pond” and, later, “West Pond.” vated a pit adjacent to MC Spring to test this One version of the story is that Springer latter hypothesis. The pit filled with water but enlarged West Pond with dynamite to mine fish never appeared. gold. Another version holds that he was con- The Mojave River originates on the structing a swimming pool. Given that northerly slopes of the San Bernardino Springer needed to pretend to be mining in Mountains and flows northeasterly into the order to hold onto his claims, and that the closed basin of Soda Lake about 100 miles gold he was mining actually came from the away.Twenty-thousand-year-old fossilized purses of his “guests,” the truth is probably fish remains in Lake Manix recall a time when 85 Cultural and Natural Resources: Conflicts and Opportunities for Cooperation Mohave tui chub lived in its favored habitat feet long in an east–west direction. Water is (USFWS 1984). Lake Manix is now a flat supplied to the lake from a well through a stretch of desert along Interstate Highway15 fountain in the lake center. Lake Tuendae is north of Barstow. The Soda Springs area lies connected to the Soda Lake aquifer by seep- on the western shore of Soda Dry Lake at an age, which has probably prevented a long- elevation of 930 feet. Most of the buildings of term buildup of salinity. Lake Tuendae gradu- the proposed Zzyzx/Soda Springs historic ally fills in with sediments and cattails and district lie on a shoreline outcropping of must be dredged about every 10 years. Permian metamorphic limestone. The Soda The tui chub was listed as endangered by Mountains are Mesozoic granitic and metavol- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in canic rocks flanked by short, low-angle, allu- 1970 and by the state of California in 1971. In vial fans and debris flows characteristic of addition to the original population in MC extreme aridity. Mean annual precipitation at Spring and the population introduced into Soda Lake since 1980 is 3.5 inches, occurring Lake Tuendae, populations of Mohave tui mostly from July through September during chub have been established in artificial the summer thunderstorm season (Mojave impoundments at China Lake Naval Air National Preserve 2002). Weapons Station and Camp Cady. Attempts There are two distinct aquifer systems to establish other populations at San Felipe influencing Soda Springs. Groundwater Creek (San Diego, California), Rio Santo below Soda Lake is part of the Mojave River Tomas (Baja California, Mexico), Paradise Sink and is recharged from percolation Spa (Las Vegas, Nevada), Piute Creek (San through Afton Canyon and Kelso Wash.