Arizona Red Ghost

Introduction

One of the explorers of the West, Major George H. Crosman, formally recommended in 1836 that since the chief desert problem was lack of water, and camels could go longer without it than horses or mules, the Army should experiment with the use of camels. He believed further that the camel could be of great use in taming the southwestern desert regions, for it could not only stand the harsh conditions far better than mules and horses, but it also could carry 400 to 600 pounds 80 miles a day through desert or mountain, over rock, sand, and mud. To break down the statistics as to whether camels or mules were better, it was established through experiments that three camels could carry on their backs as much as six mules could pull in a wagon and cover the ground nearly twice as fast. Camels could also swim through swollen rivers that would sweep away a mule.

It took the suggestion 19 years to work its way up through channels. In March 1855 the US Army began an experiment under the direction of President Franklin Pierce's Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis, who persuaded Congress to appropriate $30,000 for the purchase of camels to be used by the Army for exploring the Southwest. The government imported 77 dromedary camels from the Levant to start, along with a few Arab and Turk handlers to train the troopers. Later, more dromedaries were imported, as well as Bactrian camels from the Mongolian deserts of the Far East. In December 1858 John B. Floyd, who succeeded Jefferson Davis as Secretary of War, formally declared the experiment a success and recommended to Congress the importation of 1,000 more camels. By then, however, Congress was too busy with the threat of secession by the southern states to give the matter any consideration.

The Civil War brought an end to the camel program. With no more use for the camels, the beasts were sold off to circuses and freight runners or cruelly turned loose in the desert to fend for themselves, a terrible fate for an animal which had been domesticated for 4,000 years. They were often a source of fear to stock and men not familiar with them.

One became the source of legend—the Arizona red ghost.

Chapter 1

Joe Crane, a raw-boned man quickly closing in on his 45th spring, rode his white dromedary camel, Star, in the heat of the Arizona Territory desert headed for home. Trailing behind him were three pack camels with heavy loads. Each animal's halter rope was tied to the pack rig of the one it followed. The camel right behind him was a big chestnut-colored male called Red, and his halter rope was looped over the front of Star's saddle post. They were all strung out single file, plodding along easy as you please.

As often happened in the desert silence on his freight trips, his mind drifted to thoughts of the past. Joe was constantly told that he was either crazy or a genius using camels to run freight through the Arizona Territory desert. An even-tempered, patient man, he grew to usually ignore the comments, some of which could be downright ugly. It had been his business since 1859 with first his adventurous wife, Ann. Then Moses Finn, a runaway slave, and his wife, Sadie, joined them just before the beginning of the war which would end slavery.

Running freight was not a business for the timid. The desert was an unforgiving force of nature between the heat, flash floods of the monsoon season, thorny plants, rattlers and other varmints and various hostile native tribes, but his small company had survived while others had gone bust.

He had the camels to thank for that. They were easy keepers, could carry more than mules or horses, and the tribes were scared to death of them. Their war ponies panicked at the mere smell of the camels. Of course, horses and mules owned by the settlers and townsfolk reacted the same way, so that was a drawback, but to him it was minor. He only took a caravan into a town to deliver mail and goods at the freight depot. When it came to his own private business in town, like a need for supplies, he used a horse or wagon with a team. He hit upon the idea of using camels from his stint in the U.S. Army just before the war. He joined the cavalry in 1857 and volunteered for the experimental Camel Corps, mostly because it was different and he was an adventurer at heart.

He trained with a cheerful Arab named Hadji Ali, who everyone called Hi Jolly, at Camp Verde 60 miles northwest of San Antonio and found he was a natural with the often-cantankerous beasts. The other troopers, especially the grizzled muleskinners, hated the camels. He found the muleskinners were well-named. They used multi-tailed whips weighted with lead shot that could literally take the hide off any stubborn mule they decided to punish. Joe quickly observed that attitude and cruel method did not work with camels. The beasts gave as good as they got by spitting their cud with unerring accuracy right in their tormentor's face or biting them with their tusk-like incisors, doing considerable damage. Most of the other troopers who worked with the camels based their hatred on other reasons—the camels' haughty look and demeanor, their growling complaints while being packed or saddled, lack of the proper docility of a horse or mule under harsh treatment, and the fact they were foreign.

Along with the foreign aspect came a resentment of having to learn to ride them. Everything was different from the horses they were used to riding. Some of the troopers used Army issue saddles fitted to their particular mount. Others used the Arabian Markloofa saddle that Hi Jolly said originated from the overland incense trade, not that the troopers cared one bit. Designed to flatten out the camel's hump, it was formed by two inverted Y-shaped saddlebows with an end like that of the stem of a wishbone called a saddle post. Attached by leather thongs between the saddlebows was a padded wooden seat. The saddlebows rested on a single padded blanket front and back of the camel's hump. It allowed the weight of the rider or pack to be over the camel's rib cage rather than on its hump. One size saddle did not fit all, which was something else the men complained about.

For the troopers, riding was a major challenge, and Hi Jolly took great effort to teach every nuance. First, there was no bridle. A nose ring or thong of leather was attached to a single rein on the left side. This ran through the ring of a standard halter. To go left, the rider pulled left; to go right, the rider pulled right. Mounting the camel was done with the animal kneeling. To get it into position, the rein was tugged downward, and the command was Hoosh! Hoosh! To get it up on its feet, the command was Y'alla! When it stood, the back end went up first, followed by the front end. Thus, the camels dumped a lot of troopers on their first try. To get a camel moving, the command was Hut, hut, hut or Y'alla again, and a crop or camel stick, which was a switch about four feet long with a wrist strap, was applied to its side or rump.

The troopers who insisted on using saddles with stirrups had a hard ride. Those with the traditional Markloofa had to switch from straddling to the more comfortable crossing one or both legs around the front saddle post. Hi Jolly was constantly on them to let themselves sway with their camel's odd side-to-side, irregular, and herky-jerky motion at a walk. They quickly learned camels moved at four gaits: walk, jog, fast run, and canter. The canter was faster than a horse but lasted only a short distance before the camel tired. By the end of the day working with the camels, besides frayed patience, most of the troopers had sore legs and butts worse than any saddle soreness from horses if they did not position themselves as Hi Jolly instructed.

Crane learned quickly from Hi Jolly that camels were among the most thoroughly domesticated animals, but they took knowing. To their North African and Asiatic owners, they were of such value that they were treated with care and respect. Only if you respected the camel and treated it well would it work for you with few complaints. It would even wait if you fell off, unlike a horse which would usually run away. The other troopers grew quite jealous of his skill and never understood his