DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just the one passing it along. Now, you might think you know every strange chapter in the history of the American Southwest, but I'd wager good money you haven't heard this one — or at least not the way it deserves to be told. Picture this: sometime back in the 1830s, somebody had the audacity to look out at the baking, bone-dry expanse of the southwestern desert and say, you know what this place needs?
Camels. That idea floated around for years, the kind of notion that gets laughed out of rooms, until it landed on the desk of the right man. U.S.
Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, and he looked at that proposal and decided it was worth a shot. The first shipment of camels arrived on the Texas Gulf Coast in 1856 — actual, honest-to-goodness camels, stepping off a boat onto Texas soil — and they were taken to Camp Verde, about a hundred and fifty miles northeast of where this marker stands, for training. Training.
Like they were cavalry mounts, which, in a manner of speaking, is exactly what somebody hoped they'd be. From Camp Verde, several expeditions made their way west, right through Del Rio, and this very park was the site of one of their camps. The officers in charge, to their credit, wrote favorably of the whole enterprise.
These animals could handle the desert. The experiment, against the odds, seemed to be working. And then came the Civil War, and it brought the Camel Corps to a close.
Confederate troops stationed at nearby Fort Hudson found camels still in the area — apparently nobody had sent the camels the memo that the program was finished. But here is the part that'll stay with you long after you pull back onto the highway. Confirmed sightings of wild camels in this region continued into the mid-twentieth century.
The army moved on. The war came and went. The whole world changed around them.
And somewhere out in that desert, the camels just kept going.
What the marker says
U. S. Army Camel Corps The proposal to use camels for commerce and transportation in the arid southwest came about in the 1830s, but it was under U. S. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis that the idea became a reality. The first shipment of camels arrived on the Texas Gulf Coast in 1856, and they were taken to Camp Verde (150 mi. NE of here) for training. Several expeditions made their way west through Del Rio, and this park was the site of one of their camps. Although the officers in charge wrote favorably of the Camel Corps, the Civil War brought the experiment to a close. Confederate troops stationed at nearby Fort Hudson found camels still in the area, and confirmed sightings of wild camels continued into the mid-20th century. (2002)