The Great Camel Experiment of the Old West

By Sherry Alexander

In the mid-1800s, the United States needed a better way to protect the great flood of immigrants, pioneers, and settlers headed west along the southern route from Indian attacks, thieves, and murderers. Sending more cavalry wasn’t the answer. The land known as the great American Desert was inhospitable to horses and mules. Only one animal “stood the test” in the southwest, and it wasn’t a horse. The Great Camel Experiment of the Old West chronicles the journey of that noble beast from the Middle East to the deserts of the American Southwest.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sherry Alexander
• Release date: Dec 14, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311770080

Sherry Alexander

Sherry Alexander is admittedly obsessed with American and Native American history, and she is quick to point out that she comes by it honestly. Her ancestors were 1800 pioneers who traveled West in hopes of making a new life, and she was fascinated by the stories of their lives on the frontier. “As a kid, I wanted to be a pioneer, so reading books was the last thing on my mind. Instead, my siblings and I explored the forests of Scappoose, Oregon, and dreamed of foraging new trails to unknown lands.” A writer, author, blogger, and child advocate who writes both fiction and non-fiction, her books include The Great Camel Experiment of the Old West, Oliver's Hunger Dragon, and Search for the Red Ghost. When she’s not thinking or writing about historical adventures, she is homeschooling her 11 year-old granddaughter, listening to Hawaiian slack guitar, watching a John Wayne western, or exploring the forest behind her home with her husband of 47 years.

Book preview

THE GREAT CAMEL EXPERIMENT IN THE OLD WEST

BY

SHERRY ALEXANDER

Copyright © 2015 by Sherry Alexander

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. Please do not participate in or encourage the piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

Photographs provided by: Doug Baum, Magdy Adel, John Cobb, Randi Cooper

Dedication

To my husband, Ron, for his loving support; my friends, Vicki Baucom and Kim Hunt, for listening and critiquing without judging; and to, Doug Baum, friend and owner of Texas Camel Corps, for continuing the journey.

CONTENTS

Introduction

CHAPTER 1

Then it was the Far West . . .

CHAPTER 2

Why Camels?

CHAPTER 3

The Camel Men

CHAPTER 4

Camels for the Military

CHAPTER 5

Chasing Camels

CHAPTER 6

Shipping Camels

CHAPTER 7

Comb, Currie, and Scoop

CHAPTER 8

On Solid Earth

CHAPTER 9

Off to San Antonio

CHAPTER 10

The Camel or the Mule?

CHAPTER 11

Camels Done Coming

CHAPTER 12

A New Camel Man-A New Journey

CHAPTER 13

Used in every reconnaissance . . .

CHAPTER 14

Exploring the Great Comanche Trail

CHAPTER 15

The Last Reconnaissance

CHAPTER 16

The End of the Successful Experiment

CHAPTER 17

Camel Pack Trains for the Mines

CHAPTER 18

Dedicated to Continuing the Journey

Addendum 1

The Men of the Great Camel Experiment

Bibliography

Author’s Page

Introduction

The discovery of gold in 1849 combined with the opening of the Southwest after the Mexican American War sparked a desire in thousands of Americans to head west. Over 500,000 emigrants took on the arduous journey between 1843 and 1869. Since the northern routes held the possibility of snow in the mountains, many of these westbound Americans decided on the warm southern route to California. However, their journey was not an easy one.

The vast land from Texas to California was harsh and dangerous. It was hot and dry, and there was little food or water for horses, mules, or people along the various trails. To make matters worse, there were very few forts along the route to offer protection from bandit and Indian attacks. Travel and communication between the forts was either extremely difficult or non-existent, and supplying the forts was expensive. The government had to find a better way. Enter the camel.

The idea of using a camel is not as far-fetched as you might think. Domesticated before 2,000 BC, Persian Kings and Roman Emperors bought, sold, and traded them. Camels have crossed waterless deserts and mountainous terrains. They have moved people and supplies from one place to another and carried armies to both victory and defeat.

France, Britain, Italy, and Spain believed camels were just as important as horses when they expanded their Middle Eastern or Asian borders. In addition, both Cuba and Jamaica profited from the camel’s ability to travel fast, work hard, and carry heavy loads. The United States was no different.

In 1856, the camel took center stage when a few powerful men suggested an outlandish enterprise for the Southwest: substitute the camel for the horse. Their idea began an extraordinary journey that would determine if the Great Camel Experiment of the Old West would solve the transportation and communication problems and win the hearts of a nation.

CHAPTER 1

THEN IT WAS THE FAR WEST

Skeptics thought using camels for transportation in the United States was strange. So why did Congress approve their importation? The reasons were simple—the country was growing and much of it was inhospitable and even impassable for horses or mules.

In the 1800s, most Americans believed it was their manifest destiny, or God-given right, to expand the country as far as they could. Territories were quickly becoming states. By 1853, the Union stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.

Frontiersmen, adventurers, and hunters were the first to scout out the new lands. Their stories of large grassy prairies and buffalo herds that stretched miles inspired others to follow. In 1848, Gold was the cry in California, and the dream of riches became too hard to resist. Loading their families into wagons, prospectors, pioneers, and pilgrims headed west. They thought they were prepared for what was ahead, but there was a problem.

Author and historian, George Grinnell wrote, Then it was the Far West beyond the frontier the Indian country—the unknown. A journey into it was believed to be full of peril. The men, like Kit Carson, who explored the region before them cut paths for their horses through valleys and deserts, mountains and canyons, or traveled along animal paths and Indian trails. Wagons loaded with people and supplies could not follow paths and trails. They needed roads.

The task fell to Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis. He believed the railroad was the answer. He dispatched surveyors from the U.S. Corps of Topographical Engineers to find a practical and economical route from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. The surveyors found several possibilities through the both the northern and southern territories. Davis chose the southern route along the thirty-second parallel.

This area was vast and uncharted. Known as the Great American Desert, it stretched from Texas to California, and prior to 1853, it was part of Mexico. The region did not become a territory of the United States until Mexico signed two agreements. These agreements were the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Gadsden Purchase.

***

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Gadsden Purchase

At the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848, Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The United States paid fifteen million dollars to Mexico and settled 3.5 million dollars in claims from U.S. citizens against Mexico. In return, Mexico did three things:

• Ended the war

• Made the Rio Grande River the border between the two countries

• Added 525,000 sq. miles to the U.S. which created a reason for the importation of camels

In 1853, President Franklin Pierce wanted to extend the railroad through the southwest to the Gulf of California, but border disputes with Mexico were on the rise. On April 25, 1854, James Gadsden, the U.S. Minister to Mexico, struck a deal with Mexico’s President, Antonio Lopez Santa Anna. The price was ten million dollars for what is now southern Arizona and most of New Mexico.

***

A Land of Contrast

Surveyors sent into the desert in the 1850’s found both an arid, desolate country and one of great beauty with sections of bunch grass and cool streams.

The chosen southern route, however, was hot and dry. Daytime temperatures reached over 96 degrees in the shade. At night, the temperatures fell into the sixties. Desert plants like mesquite, greasewood, sagebrush, and prickly pear were the only vegetation. Artist and explorer, S.N. Carvalho who traveled with Colonel J.C. Fremont’s last expedition in 1848 described a land of severe contrasts. He found high plains covered in red clover, and streams with acres of a feathery type of grass that grew in large clumps. However, he also found deep ravines and steep mesas. Cottonwoods and willows hugged both the Rio Grande and the Colorado River, but less than a mile from their banks, huge areas of white sand and springs of water too salty for the animals to drink stretched as far as the eyes could see.

Travel during the expedition was hard on both people and animals. Exhausted, the horses gave out. Cavalho grew concerned about the welfare of his mule, so he dismounted and walked. For miles, he described a ground strewn with dead animals and deserted wagons. He called it a howling, barren wilderness.

No Water

One thing became a constant in this land of contrast. There was a lack of water. Once away from the banks of the rivers—the Rio Grande on the southern border and the Colorado on the far western border—water was either hard to find or non-existent. A sprinkling of forts throughout the southwest had wells, but water was scarce for the tidal wave of emigrants determined to seek their fortune in California. Jefferson Davis encouraged Congress to fund the drilling of a series of artesian