Did you know the U.S. government once experimented with using camels in the old west? It's a case where truth is stranger than fiction--and provides fertile soil for historical fiction. Today I invited writer, author, blogger, and child advocate Sherry Alexander to tell us about her research, books, and articles about camels in the old west.
When Camels Roamed the Old West
Three years ago while doing research on the California
Gold Rush of 1849, I came across a newspaper article from 1857 that announced
the arrival of camels in Texas. I’ve always loved American history, but until
that moment I had no idea that camels were part of the Old West. That article
was only six sentences long, but it started me on a journey that led to the
writing of two books for middle grade and up—one non-fiction and one fiction.
In 1836, the Seminole War was under way in Florida.
U.S. Army Captain George Grossman asked Congress to import camels to use as
transportation over the rough Florida terrain. Congress denied that request. However,
the idea did not die. Twelve years later, the request made its way to Congress
once again. This time it was to use camels in the newly acquired southwest
which included Texas, Nevada, and Utah, most of Arizona and New Mexico, and
parts of both Colorado and Wyoming. Once Mexican territory, this 525,000 square
miles became part of the United States with the signing of the Treaty of
Guadalupe at the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848. Congress said no to the request, but, then Senator, Jefferson Davis was listening. When he became U.S. Secretary of
War in 1853, he asked for the camels again. Congress was reluctant, but they
finally agreed to a test. In 1856, thirty-two camels from the Middle East
arrived in Indianola, Texas, and another forty-one landed nine months later.
The experiment lasted until the Civil War, and while
the camels proved their worth time and time again, they lost favor. After the
war, the Army auctioned some to circuses and entrepreneurs and turned loose
others to fend for themselves in the deserts. My non-fiction book, The Great
Camel Experiment of the Old West, chronicles their journey, but the incident
that drove me to write my first middle grade novel occurred long after the
Civil War.
For more than forty years, stories about wild camels,
or ghost camels, were the stuff of legends throughout the southwest. The
animals harassed miners, cowboys, and ranchers, and spooked horses and mules. Apaches
even corralled them to sell to local butchers who passed the meat off as beef
to the silver miners in Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. However, one particular
camel sparked my imagination and its very own legend.
It was a large, male Bactrian, or two-hump, camel. Those
who actually saw it described it to local newspapers as reddish in color,
shaggy, and mean. One of the last sightings of this red ghost before its death
in 1886 was on a creek in southeastern Arizona three years earlier. It was a
time when bands of Apache who left the reservation with Geronimo were attacking
small Arizona ranches. A ranch woman encountered the camel at the creek near
her home, and was killed. The witnesses said it stomped her to death.
I couldn’t get that incident out of my mind. I kept wondering, “What if?”Search for the Red Ghost is a middle-grade action/adventure and coming of age story that pits thirteen-year-old Jake Thrasher against the inherent dangers of the desert in 1883 Arizona. His Army Scout father refuses to hunt the animal responsible, so Jake takes matters into his own hands. He leaves the safety of his small ranch and follows a sparse trail through an inhospitable desert filled with snakes, wolves, grizzlies, renegade Apache, and the ever-present threat of death. Will he find his red ghost? You'll have to read the book to find out.
What if she had a son who didn’t see the animal that killed his mother, but found unusual tracks and long red hair? What if that son wanted revenge for his mother? What if the boy’s father was an army scout ordered back to the fort to hunt down the renegade Apache? There were so many what ifs that I couldn’t stop thinking about the story, so I wrote it.
Sherry Alexander's stories and articles have appeared in Red Squirrel Magazine and Guardian Angel Kids. She lives in Southwest Washington with her husband of 47 years, two dogs, two horses, a gaggle of grand kids, and the occasional pack of coyotes. Search for the Red Ghost is her first MG novel, and is available both as an ebook and in print from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, MuseitUp Publishing, and all ebook retailers.
Her blog for kids http://rightsherry.blogspot.com/
Her web site http://www.sherryalexanderwrites.com
Her author's page on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Sherry-Alexander/e/B001KMESIC/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1461546929&sr=8-1
Her Goodreads page https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5679922.Sherry_Alexander
Here is a link to an online non-fiction article "Camels in the Old West" in the February 2015 issue of Guardian Angel.
Thank you, Michele, for allowing me to share the camel's journey into the old west.
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure, Sherry!
DeleteThanks, Sherry and Michele! Jake's story sounds adventurous! People who came across the wild camels--and weren't familiar with them--must have thought they were seeing things.
ReplyDeleteDeb Watley