Ghostly camels wandering the SoCal desert? For the real-life backstory to this spooky legend, we’ll have to visit a curious pyramid in Arizona.
In the 1850s, the U.S. Army decided camels could transport soldiers and supplies across the growing nation's deserts, and hired Hadji Ali, a Syrian-Greek camel driver, to make it happen. Needless to say, the outlandish idea failed. Ali remained in Arizona and now rests in a quiet Quartzsite cemetery—alongside a noble companion with an LA Zoo connection.
Transcript
0:10 If I told you that camels once roamed the SoCal Deserts, you'd probably laugh. But we're on our way to a strange link with our past in Quartzsite, Arizona, of all places.
0:21 [Music]
0:30 And here we are at a small cemetery in Quartzsite, at the tomb of Hi Jolly, the camel driver who helped tame the Old West. It's a wild story with a haunting twist.
0:44 In the 1850s, before railroads and roadways, the U.S. Army needed a way to cross the brutal western deserts. Their solution? Camels. And to handle them, they hired a Syrian-Greek expert, Hadji Ali, or as the soldiers called him, Hi Jolly.
1:02 These camels were tough, able to go days without water and carry twice what the mules could. But the soldiers hated them. They spat, they kicked, they terrified the horses. By the time the Civil War came, poof! The camels were gone. But not before they had helped to survey a route that would later become part of a famous American highway. (When you get your kicks, thank a camel.)
1:26 [Music]
1:27 Now, the twist. When the Camel Corps disbanded, some were set free. Ever since, people have reported phantom camels wandering the desert. In fact, 1880s settlers told of a red camel with a human skeleton strapped to its back. Was it a lost soldier? An unlucky traveler?
1:46 Either way, the legend of the Red Ghost was born.
1:50 Hi Jolly stayed in Arizona long after the camels vanished. He became a prospector and a living legend. After he died at age 74 in 1902, they built this pyramid of quartz and petrified wood over his grave.
2:06 In 1934, the last surviving army camel, Topsy, died at the LA Zoo. Her ashes were entombed with Hi Jolly, in theory bringing this whole saga to a close.
2:17 Still, if you're ever in the desert at night and hear something odd, maybe, just maybe, it's a ghostly camel in search of a rider.
2:29 I'm Michael Imlay, and thanks for joining me on this Backstory field trip!