Hi Jolly and the U. S. Camel Corps

Using camels to transport cargo across the dry, south western desert of the United States seemed like a good idea at the time.

That time was during the 1850's and the idea was put into action by the United States Army which hired a group of mostly Greek men to handle the camels and get the project underway. The lead camel driver was a Muslim named Hadji Ali, often called Hi Jolly, a nickname resulting from people having difficulty in pronouncing his name.

Unfortunately, although the highly hailed Camel Corps made a successful from Texas to California and back again, the experiment was deemed a failure, and, by 1864, Congress refused to continue funding the project. Reasons given for the failure were that the army's horses, mules, and burros, were panicked by the larger camels, and also that the Civil War was causing tension around the country at the time. The camels were auctioned off.

Ali, (Hi Jolly), had been allowed to keep a few of the camels for himself and used them to start a small freight business, but it also failed, and he released the remaining camels to run free in the desert. For many years, camels sightings were reported by citizens and tourists passing through the area.

Ali eventually became an American citizen and was rehired for a time by the U.S. Army, before moving to Quartzite where he went into mining for himself, and did occasional scouting work for the U. S. Government. He was buried in Quartzite after his death in 1902 and his grave has become a favorite tourist destination for those visiting the town.

*If you are interested in learning more about America's Camel Corps experiment, check out the movie called, Southwest Passage.