Ships of the Desert

By

Gerry Niskern

Have you noticed the Saguaro getting fatter? No? Neither did I! But that’s what happens after a summer of heavy rains. They store the water. Kind of reminds me of stories of camels that once roamed the Arizona desert.

You see, camels can go for long periods of time without water. They drink up to twenty gallons at a time. (and no, they don’t store it in their hump.) Around l857 camels were brought to Arizona to serve a pack animals for the U. S. Army.

Thirty thousand dollars was appropriated to acquire a ship and purchase some camels. Two officers were given the job of traveling to the Middle East and buying some camels. They hired a man who later became known as Hi Jolly to scout for some of the “Ships of the Desert”. He went into the interior of Tunisia and purchased 30 camels. On the same thirty thousand he went back later and purchased 40 more.

Finally, in the spring of 1857, a caravan of camels loaded with supplies for the Army started out from Texas. The camels could carry around 1,200 pounds. They headed for the Zuni village on the Arizona border. The Indians came for miles around to see the strange beasts.

The trouble with the experiment was that the horses and mules they came into contact with thought they were strange too and usually bolted which caused untold havoc. The army eventually gave up on them and they were sold to mines or mostly  turned loose on the desert.

One funny story happened in downtown Phoenix around 1890. A local saloon keeper paid someone ten dollars to bring him one to tie up to his portico. The advertising scheme was a worked and business was good, but a man driving a freight wagon and a large team of horses came by and the horses saw the camel and snorted in fright and tore off. The frightened camel in turn pulled back with all his strength and yanked out the iron post. The roof came crashing down into the window of the saloon and the adjoining businesses destroying everything.

The camel was turned loose near Camelback mountain and finally disappeared.

At one time it was reported that around 500 were counted along the lower Gila River. It is extremely doubtful that any existed in the desert after about 1910. Although there is one important thing to remember:

IT IS ILLEGAL TO HUNT FOR CAMELS IN THE STATE OF ARIZONA