Camels in the Big Bend
Camel ancestors first appeared in North America approximately 40 million years ago. Modern camels migrated to Asia over a land bridge that submerged when sea level rose at the end of the last Ice Age. Camels became extinct in North America about 9,000 years ago, due perhaps in part to stress from human predators.
In 1848, the United States wrested Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California from Mexico with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. That same year, gold was discovered in California, and the U.S. Army was tasked to map the newly won territory. Early survey expeditions into the southwest traveled by horse and mule, until 1886 when Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce, advocated the import of more than 70 camels from North Africa and the Middle East. After their arrival at the Gulf Port of Indianola, Texas, they traveled overland to Camp Verde, northwest of San Antonio, headquarters for the U.S. Army Camel Experiment. From there several expeditions were conducted to determine their suitability for navigating western desert regions.
Initial tests were largely positive and the camels proved to be exceedingly strong and able to move efficiently across some terrain which horses found difficult, though they fared less well on rocky ground and sometimes needed leather foot covers to avoid injury. Horses and mules could pack between 150 and 300 pounds. Camels could comfortably carry 600 to 800 pounds and survive without water for more than a week.
The U.S. Camel experiments were interrupted during the Civil War, and some camels changed hands between Union and Confederate troops as control of headquarters shifted from North to South and back again. After the Civil War camels fell into disfavor, due partly to the negative attitudes of soldiers and mule skinners who worked with them. The remaining U.S. Army camels in California and Texas were sold at public auction in 1864 and 1868, to individuals, zoos, circuses, mining and freighting companies. The last captive offspring of the government camels died in 1934 at Griffith Park Zoo in Los Angeles, California.
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1st Expedition - 1857
Edward F. Beale conducted the first long range camel experiment with mules and horses, in 1857 under government contract to find a route from Fort Defiance in what is now Arizona, to the Colorado River and then into California, along the 35th Parallel. The caravan departed from Camp Verde and stopped at many Texas Forts including Ft. Stockton and Ft. Davis on the way west that would become the southern route to the gold fields.
2nd Expedition - 1859
In
the summer of 1859, U.S. Army Lt. Edward L. Hartz and Lt. William B. Echols, departed from Camp Verde on a military survey to map the lower Trans-Pecos and southeastern Big Bend region from Camp Hudson to Ft. Stockton and then on to the Rio Grande at Presidio de San Vicente.
Teams of camels, pack mules and horses were used in comparative trials, in an effort to locale critical water sources in the rugged mountainous areas along the eastern Comanche, Kiowa and Apache raiding routes leading into Mexico.
3rd Expedition - 1860
Again in the summer of 1860, under the command of Lt. Echols, a military survey team from Camp Verde mapped the territory between the San Antonio to El Paso Road, the Rio Pecos and the Rio Grande, and much of the southwestern Big Bend area from Ft. Davis to Presidio del Norte, and Lajitas Crossing on the western Comanche Trail. Camels carried much of the food and gear and all the water, including enough for the horses and mules. The camels, however, only drank from water holes and springs, and managed to survive by eating desert plants unpalatable to horses and mules.
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