NANCY K. WILLIAMS T
HE OLD PROSPECTOR, long a denizen of the American Southwest, couldn’t believe his eyes.
Was he was seeing things? Was it just another one of those mirages that plagued desert wanderers? His eyes widened as the odd caravan of huge, smelly, gangly beasts approached. They crossed the sand with a swaying, rocking motion that made him feel a bit seasick just looking at them. His burro, loaded with his pick, shovel, and meager supplies, took one look at the strange creatures, gave a terrified bray, and took off in the opposite direction. The prospector tore off after him in hot pursuit.
As the caravan slowed at the spot where the old prospector had been, the large animals dropped to their knees, groaning as if their loads were too much to bear, while they folded their long legs and settled on the ground. Behind them came a group of mules and horses, which gave the odd animals a wide berth. The year was 1857, and this was the first expedition of the new US Camel Corps under the command of former US Navy Lieuten- ant Edward Fitzgerald Beale.
idea refused to die. In 1851, the notion gained traction when Jefferson Davis, then a senator from Mississippi and chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs (and eventually president of the Confederate States of America), became interested in the possibilities posed by camels as beasts of burden in the United States. When he suggested that they be used in the Southwest, however, his fellow congressmen greeted the idea with guffaws. Camels? They belonged on the burning sands of the Sahara Desert and the Arabian Peninsula— or in a traveling circus—not in the US Army.
Edward Fitzgerald Beale, shown here in 1848, was chosen to lead the US Camel Corps on some crucial overland surveying journeys starting in 1857. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
Background
The idea of using camels to bear army equipment and supplies in the American Southwest had first been proposed by Captain George Crosman of the US Army’s Quartermaster Corps in 1836. The army wasn’t im- pressed by the concept, but Crosman’s
For two years the idea was once again shelved until Franklin Pierce became president of the United States in 1853. As president, Pierce ap- pointed his friend, Jefferson Davis, secretary of war. By this time the War Department had sent thousands of soldiers to build forts to guard the trails leading to the American West. These military garrisons needed supplies, such as food and ammuni- tion, and Jefferson Davis was reso- lutely convinced that camels were a practical solution to the problem of
Beginning in June 1857, the fledgling US Camel Corps rode camels like these while its leader, Edward Beale, was determining the best route from Fort Defiance, New Mexico Territory, to the Colorado River.
That route, known as the Beale Road, became a major commercial route serving the American Southwest. PHOTO: ©FRANK KRAHMER/CORBIS
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