About This Site

This site goes with Desert Eccentric: True Stories of Outcasts, Visionaries & Madmen by C. V. Wooster. The book collects twenty-three true stories from the Mojave and Death Valley to the Salton Sea and the canyon country of Utah. Among them are Frank Critzer under Giant Rock, George Van Tassel and the Integratron, Burro Schmidt and his tunnel, Pancho Barnes, Leonard Knight, Bill Keys, Everett Ruess and more.

On this site you can read the prologue and look through the chapter index. The blog is about the places these people left behind and how to visit them now. Every post lists its sources at the end.

How the stories are told

Everyone in the book was a real person. The stories come from their own letters and memoirs, from old newspapers and from court records. When the record is solid, the book says so. When it fades into rumor, the book says that as well.

Who publishes it

Taciturn Studios LLC publishes the site and the book. The film at the top of the home page is AI-generated and is labeled as an artistic interpretation. The media credits page has the details.

If you have a question or a correction, please send it through the contact page.