In a previous post, I was talking about my stay in Kuwait and I mentioned I might include camels, sandstorms and deserts in a western in the future. It was a bit of tongue-in-cheek BUT then I was reading an excellent book called 'The Writers Guide To Everyday Life In The Wild West' by Candy Moulton (a highly recommended resource for historical writers) and I discovered this:
"American Camel Company: The first use of camels as draft animals occurred in 1855 by the military at Camp Verde, Texas. The American Camel Company used Asian camels to transport cargo in the area around Virginia City, Nevada, after 1860. The camels ate sagebrush, thistles and creosote bushes. They swam rivers and ignored rattlesnake bites. They sneezed, vomited and spit, caused dogs to bark and mules and oxen to stampede."
Yup - that sounds like some of the camels I know! I feel a plot coming on....
I've seen the odd camel in a western movie - can't recall which movies though. Ahh well I'll Google it.
ReplyDelete'The Writers Guide To Everyday Life In The Wild West' by Candy Moulton - this is an excellent resource, you're absolutely right.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting Black Horse Western with camels in it is 'Mojave Wipeout' by Tex Larrigan. The camels in this book are ridden by Cavalrymen.
ReplyDeleteYeah, my memory is telling me it was the Peckinpah / Randolph Scott one Ride the High Country.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting article on camels in Arizona is at the Santa Clarita Valley history website. Some camels of that Texas unit were used to build a road from Arizona to California being under the control of Hi Jolly who is buried at Quartzite AZ. He died there in 1902 and has a tomb provided by the Az Highway Dept. Camels are still suspected of roaming the desert, but nobody has sighted one yet.
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