Last weekend as I was biking down the Rio Grande bosque trail, I encountered a herd of camels. I initially wrote them off as oversized horses with tumors on their backs. But as I watched them lope around, I was forced to face the reality that these were not sickly livestock, but rather, a herd of four dromedary camels - taking the meaning of desert to a level I was not entirely comfortable with.

Although camels are not the first animal to come to mind when pondering the local livestock, New Mexico has a surprisingly lengthy history with camels. Before the Civil War broke out, the United States Army experimented with camels as a viable means of transportation in the Southwest. Led by General Edward Beale, the "Camel Corps" undertook its first mission in the summer of 1857 when Secretary of War Jefferson Davis dispatched them to survey a route for a wagon road extending across Arizona to the Colorado River. Eventually, the Santa Fe railroad and Highway 66 would model itself after the wagon route Beale charted.

The "Camel Caravan," as it came to be known by native New Mexicans, consisted of 25 camels, four soldiers, two camel-drivers and a few horses. The camels proved to be hardy animals, if not a little strange, with the ability to carry 600 pounds and go days without water... Read Full Article.

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