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Among the earliest references to camels in American newspapers is an 1836 advertisement for a zoological exhibition in Burlington, Vt. The traveling exhibit included a menagerie of more than 20 animals and birds, including a "two humped" camel. The advertised ticket charge was 25 cents. A year later, the New York Herald contained an ad offering the "juvenile class" an opportunity to see ponies, monkeys, an elephant and a camel fed at the Zoological Institute in the Bowery. Watching the animals chow down carried a ticket price of 50 cents. But a more practical use awaited the "exotic" camel, whose ancestors were thought to have been brought here by the Spanish via the Canary Islands.
In September and October 1842, several American newspapers published an article about a Russian citizen who had lived in the vicinity of the Ural and Volga rivers. He urged the people of the Western United States "to raise camels to travel our extensive prairies." The Russian, identified only as H. Bolin, asserted camels would be valuable "for traversing the country in the far west, where water is sometimes not found for days." He noted that camels could travel 120 miles in one day, and could carry more baggage than a horse or mule. Bolin went on to say camels could live on the "commonest herbage, even weeds and twigs ... while enduring the severest labors."
According to Army historian Vince Hawkins in his 2014 article "The U.S. Army's 'Camel Corps' Experiment," in 1836 an Army lieutenant issued a report to the War Department suggesting the military should explore the use of camels. The report was ignored.
Congress Contemplates Camels
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