The Metamorphosis of Zzyzx

Print this story
Botanist Alan Romspert describes the beauty of the creosote bush Larrea tridentate to a student in the desert flowers class above. Below, resort buildings are lined by California fan palms Washingtonia californica.

A series of weekend classes available through the College of Extended Learning at CSU San Bernardino includes courses in sketching under the desert skies; astronomy; fundamentals of photography; bird life in the eastern Mojave; bats of the Southwest; natural history of the Mojave Preserve; desert insects; desert plants and flowers; lizards and snakes; and flint knapping, the art of chipping stones into arrowheads and spear heads.

Resort buildings

Classes are taught by experts in these fields, such as botanist and CSUF alumnus Alan Romspert, past center coordinator, who can tell visitors volumes of information about the survival strategies and origins of even the tiniest desert plants. The center can accommodate 75 students and visitors in dormitory-style rooms that hold two to 12 persons, plus a small number of private/faculty rooms, as well as a long-term "researcher residence." Over the years, the center has attracted scientists and students from around the world who come to study the desert.

Eric Lindermann, a chef, carpenter and bluegrass musician from Riverside, has been providing the food service at the center for the past seven years.

Unlike the food, which must be brought in, the center is self-sufficient in many ways, given that there are no power or telephone lines or water pipes coming from the outside.

The center's power is supplied by one of the world's largest photovoltaic substations, a 10-kilowatt substation installed by Southern California Edison in 1995. It is supplemented by wind generators and propane/diesel generators. Water is produced from a well. The natural salt and mineral content is fine for showering and dishwashing, but not for drinking. The center produces its own potable water on-site by reverse osmosis. Unlike the days of the '49ers or even the Zzyzx era, communications are provided by cell phones and the Internet via satellite.

In addition to earthly subjects, such as geology, the Desert Studies Center has served planetary scientists from JPL (the Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and the University of Washington, St. Louis for many years as a base of operations in connection with research on robotic vehicles destined for Mars and related projects. Several generations of Mars rover vehicles have been developed and then tested and operated on terrain near the center.

Two Mars rovers - "Spirit" and "Opportunity" - that were launched in June and July 2003 are on their way to the red planet. Spirit is scheduled to land on Mars Jan. 4, 2004, and Opportunity is scheduled to land Jan. 25, 2004. When the two rovers land and begin sending back important data, it may well be that the Desert Studies Center at Zzyzx will have had the last word in making the rover's mission possible. end



previous   1 | 2 | 3 | 4