U. S. Army Camel Corps

Maj. H. C. Wayne bought the first herd himself. With the naval storeship Supply under Lt. D. D. Porter at his disposal, he spent $12,000 along the North African coast and came back with thirty-three camels, three Arabs and two Turks; one calf was born at sea. The camels reached Indianola on April 29, 1856, but bad weather and shallow water kept them aboard until May 13. Near Victoria they were clipped, and Mary A. Shirkey spun and knitted camel-hair socks for the president. During the Civil War eighty camels passed to the Confederacy, some packing cotton to Brownsville.

What the plaque says

U. S. Army Camel Corps 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)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• San Felipe Creek — 0.6 mi
  The spring-fed creek that made Del Rio, rising from the third largest springs in Texas and running past swimming holes and a hike-and-bike trail through town.
• Whitehead Memorial Museum — 1.5 mi
  A village of old Del Rio buildings set along a working irrigation canal, from an 1870 store to a 1925 doctor's office, with Judge Roy Bean buried on the grounds.
• Val Verde Winery — 1.8 mi
  The family winery an Italian immigrant founded on Del Rio's irrigated land in 1883, which outlasted Prohibition by selling table grapes and kept Texas wine alive into the 1970s.
• Amistad National Recreation Area — 9.2 mi
  The American side of the reservoir the United States and Mexico finished in 1969 where three rivers meet, with painted shelters still reachable by boat when the water allows.

More markers nearby

• Val Verde County — steps away
• Camp Michie — steps away
• San Felipe Springs — 0.2 mi
• Cal Rodgers and the Vin Fiz — 0.3 mi