U. S. Army Camel Corps

Historical marker location:

Moore Park, east side of San Felipe Creek between US 90 and Union Pacific Railroad tracks, Del Rio, Texas

( Moore Park, east side of San Felipe Creek between US 90 and Union Pacific Railroad tracks)

Marker installed: 2002

The proposal to use camels for commerce and transportation in the arid southwest came about in the 1830s, but it was under U. S. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis that the idea became a reality. The first shipment of camels arrived on the Texas Gulf Coast in 1856, and they were taken to

Camp Verde (150 mi. NE of here) for training. Several expeditions made their way west through Del Rio, and this park was the site of one of their camps. Although the officers in charge wrote favorably of the Camel Corps, the Civil War brought the experiment to a close. Confederate troops stationed at nearby Fort Hudson found camels still in the area, and confirmed sightings of wild camels continued into the mid-20th century.

(2002).

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