Site of Camp Verde
Kerrville, Kerr County, Texas
Marker Inscription
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.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The U.S. Army opened Camp Verde in 1855 to guard the Texas frontier, and the next year it became headquarters for one of the country's strangest military experiments: some forty camels imported at Secretary of War Jefferson Davis's urging, tested as pack animals for crossing the arid Southwest before the idea was judged impractical. Confederate forces took the post in 1861; the U.S. Army returned in 1865 and abandoned it in 1869. The camel corps remains one of the most memorable curiosities of the antebellum army.
Why it matters
Camp Verde is the home of the U.S. Camel Corps, a vivid emblem of how far the pre-Civil War army would go to solve the problem of moving men and supplies across the newly won Southwest.
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Related people
- · Jefferson Davis
Related events
- · U.S. Camel Corps experiment
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
One Mile to Ruins of Camp Verde
Camp Verde, TX
Established by the U.S. Army in 1855, this frontier post became the headquarters of one of the nineteenth century's most unusual experiments: a herd of camels imported at the urging of Secretary of War Jefferson Davis to test overland transport across the arid Southwest. The scheme proved impractical, and the post changed hands with the times — surrendered to the Confederacy in 1861, reoccupied by the U.S. Army in 1865, and abandoned in 1869.
Camp Verde Barracks
Camp Verde, TX
Camp Verde grew up around a U.S. Army post established in the 1850s in the Texas Hill Country, best remembered as headquarters of the War Department's remarkable experiment in using camels for desert transport. The barracks here housed soldiers stationed on this frontier outpost in the years around the Civil War. Though the inscription bears only a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark medallion, the site anchors one of the more unusual chapters of the antebellum army.
Penateka Comanches
Center Point, TX
The Penateka, or "honey eaters," were the southernmost band of the Comanche, ranging across the Edwards Plateau and following the buffalo on which they depended for food, clothing, and shelter. Renowned horsemen, they made settlement west of this area perilous for decades. Pressure from Texas Rangers and the U.S. Army's Second Cavalry, reservation removals, and the Red River War of 1874–75 forced the Comanche onto reservation lands, where the breakup of holdings in 1901 scattered the people — who have since worked to rebuild their shared culture.
Camp Verde General Store and Post Office
Camp Verde, TX
This mercantile business opened in 1857 as the Williams Community Store, serving trade around the Camp Verde Army Post—headquarters of the War Department's famous 1857–69 experiment in using camels for military transport across the Southwest. A post office followed in 1887. The store links everyday frontier commerce to one of the most curious ventures in U.S. Army history.