Ragsdale frequently retreated to his writing shack near the north tip of the rock formation called The Alligator (across I-10 from Desert Center) where he composed bad poetry—the stanzas are referred to as Spasm #1, etc.—to be distributed in booklet form to travelers. Ragsdale was a close friend of many classic desert people such as Randall Henderson, founder of Desert Magazine; Marshall South, the hermit of Ghost Mountain; desert painter John Hilton; noted biologist Edmund C. Jaeger; and Harry Oliver, with whom Steve co-founded the annual Pegleg Smith Liar's Contest in Anza-Borrego. Oliver often printed items about Desert Steve in his 'newspaper,' the Desert Rat Scrap Book.