DUANE
Duane's take
Here's the story as the official marker at Camp Verde tells it — and friend, this one is worth every mile of blacktop it took you to get here. Way out in Kerr County, on July 8, 1855, the United States Army planted a frontier post and called it Camp Verde. Now that alone would be enough for a decent roadside story.
But the marker's got more. It's always got more. Because in 1856, this dusty Texas post became the headquarters for forty camels.
Forty. Camels. In the Texas Hill Country.
You heard me right. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis — yes, that Jefferson Davis — sent them here as part of a system of overland communication with the west. Somebody in Washington had looked at a map, looked at Texas, figured the terrain might suit the same animals that crossed the Sahara, and signed the paperwork.
The camels arrived. They were real. They were here.
And then — well, the marker puts it plainly and without a shred of embarrassment — the whole scheme proved impracticable. That word is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Impracticable.
You can imagine the silence that followed that particular report landing on somebody's desk. Then history, as it tends to do in Texas, took a hard turn. In 1861, Camp Verde was surrendered to the Confederate government.
Four years later, in 1865, the United States Army came back and reoccupied it. And then, on April 1, 1869 — April Fool's Day, and I did not make that up, the marker didn't either, that is just the date — the Army walked away and abandoned the post for good. Forty camels, two flags, and one very dry punchline of a closing date.
Camp Verde had seen just about everything a frontier post could see.
What the marker says
Established as a frontier post by the United States Army, July 8, 1855; headquarters in 1856 for 40 camels, sent by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, to be used in a system of overland communication with the west, which proved impracticable. Surrendered to the Confederate government in 1861; reoccupied in 1865 by the United States Army; abandoned April 1, 1869.