Old Camp Verde | |
 Camp Verde | |
  Old Camp Verde  Old Camp Verde | |
| Nearest city | Camp Verde, Texas |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 29°53′25″N 99°7′13″W / 29.89028°N 99.12028°W |
| Area | 30 acres (12 ha) |
| Built | 1856 |
| Architect | Jules Poindsard |
| NRHP reference No. | 73001968[1] |
| Added to NRHP | May 25, 1973 |
Camp Verde was a United States Army facility established on July 8, 1856 in Kerr County, Texas. It was along the road from San Antonio to El Paso.
The camp was the headquarters for U.S. Camel Corps, which experimented with using dromedaries as pack animals in the southwestern United States. The Army imported camels in 1856 and 1857, using them with some success in extended surveys in the Southwest. The camels did not get along with the Army's horses and mules, which would bolt out of fear when they smelled a camel.[2]: 141 The soldiers found the camels difficult to handle and they detested the smell of the animals.[3]
During the Civil War, on 28 February 1861 Confederate troops captured more than 80 camels[2]: 155 and two foreign drivers at Camp Verde. A Texas Ranger company was assigned the camp in 1862 and J.W. Walker was in care of the camels, some of which were used to transport salt from San Antonio and Brownsville and San Elizario, while some transported cotton to Mexico.[2]: 155 Three were let loose and found their way to Arkansas, where Federal troops sent them to Iowa to be sold.[2]: 155
Some camels were kept in San Antonio, where Rip Ford considered using them in his recapture of Fort Brown due to the drought conditions between the Nueces and Rio Grande.[4]: 350 They were sent to Guadalupe, where two died, before being sent back to Camp Verde.[4]: 350
When Union troops reoccupied Camp Verde in 1865, they found about 66 camels remaining,[2]: 156 which they auctioned off to Bethel Coopwood. Bethel sold five to Ringling Brothers Circus and other circus owners in Mexico, but when he brought the remaining camels back into the US, the government took back their brand. They reconsidered and soon released them.[2]: 157 The camels were sent to Arizona, where they "gradually perished".[4]: 350
Camp Verde was abandoned on April 1, 1869. Ruins of the officers' quarters are located on what is now private land. A Texas state historic marker and the entrance gate stand by the road. The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 25, 1973.
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f Cite error: The named reference
Faulkwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Herbert M. Hart, Old Forts of the Southwest, Superior Publishing Company, Seattle, Washington, 1964, First Edition
- ^ a b c Ford, J.S., 1963, Rip Ford's Texas. Austin: University of Texas Press, ISBN 0292770340