The Camel Corps

[104]       

The Camel Corps

Clark County
  35.17152, -114.7108

"I wake up to a new day at the very southern edge of Nevada, having camped in a ravine a few miles to the south. It's compelling to think that I'm a whopping four hundred miles from home. I also find it interesting, and a bit ironic, that another marker about camels resides in my neck of the woods. I certainly haven't traveled this far to read another marker about camels. No. All of this for another round of historical markers. Yet although I tend to think the opposite, not one person I've met has titled me looney for embarking on this statwide marker campaign. I guess I'm doing something right." -- Journal Entry, March 2009

Along SR 163, 8.5 miles east of US 95

Original Date Visited: 3/16/09

Signed: Both lanes of SR 163. This is one of the few Clark County markers that is signed.

Notes: The only way to access [104] is from the eastbound lanes of 163. I like to think NDOT was thinking ahead for this marker when officials paved a turn lane through the median either to make a quick U-turn or in fact jump into westbound lanes from the turnout! Either way, the approach to this marker comes very fast and traffic tends to fly up and down this steep and very busy grade.

  • Marker 104 on the far southern end of the state
  • Marker 104 wakes up to a southern Nevada sunrise!
  • Remembering the short-lived camel era in Nevada

Exact Description:
In 1855 Congress authorized $30,000 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 Nevada, testing the fitness of these camels. They crossed the Colorado River into Nevada north to Fort Mohave, October 18, 1857.

The experiment was not practical, but ten of Beale's camels hauled commercial freight from Sacramento to Nevada Territory. Others purchased in 1860 carried salt, ore and supplies through Central Nevada.

Careless treatment, domestic stock incompatibility and new transportation methods ended use of camels. Some were seen years later wandering in southwest deserts.

[104]

Marker 104 at the beginning of a new day in southern Nevada.

Next Marker:

GOLCONDA

Related Links & Markers:

 [199] -- Camels In Dayton   Camels (Online Nevada Encyclopedia)   Camel Corps Experiment (U.S. Army History) 

Have you been to this marker? Tell us all about it here!