The Camel Corps
Laughlin Township, Clark County, Nevada
Marker Inscription
The Camel Corps. In 1855, Congress authorized $30,000.00 for camels as frontier military beasts of burden because of their adaptability to desert heat, drought, and food.Lt. Edward F. Beale surveyed the wagon route from Fort Defiance, New Mexico, to the Colorado River near the tip of present-day Nevada, testing the fitness of these camels. They crossed the Colorado River into what is today Nevada, north to Fort Mohave, October 18, 1857.The experiment was not practical, but several of Beale’s camels hauled commercial freight from Sacramento to the Nevada territory. Others carried salt, ore, and supplies through central Nevada.Careless treatment, domestic stock incompatibility and new transportation methods ended use of camels. Some were reportedly seen years later wandering in southwest deserts, making them a fixture of western folklore.
Erected by Nevada State Historic Preservation Office
The Story
In 1855 Congress put up thirty thousand dollars to buy camels, betting that animals bred for desert heat and drought might outperform mules on the arid frontier. Lieutenant Edward F. Beale put the experiment to the test, surveying a wagon road from Fort Defiance to the Colorado River and driving his camels across into the future Nevada in the fall of 1857. The animals proved capable but impractical—clashing with domestic stock and soon overtaken by railroads—and the survivors passed into legend as camels supposedly glimpsed for years wandering the southwestern deserts.
Why it matters
The Camel Corps is one of the American frontier's most memorable might-have-beens, a federal experiment in desert transportation that failed as policy but endures as a piece of Western folklore.
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- · Edward F. Beale
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