2 weeks Ago
A caravan of camels rolled through Coronado Historic Site — and it wasn't even hump day. The Texas Camel Corps visited the Bernalillo historic site on Saturday to teach about the animals' history in the Southwest. Three camels, wearing saddles of canvas, wood and colorful tassels slowly swung their heads around to meet with adoring fans.
Monika Neuland said she could feel the collective blood pressure drop as visitors to the site interacted with the "serene" animals. Neuland, a special events coordinator for the state Department of Cultural Affairs, said although camels were never historically found at the site, they are at home in the desert biome and demonstrate the special relationship between humans and animals over thousands of years. "I think it's really interesting to see how 5,000 years of humans and [animals] having collaboration really becomes relevant right here, today," Neuland said, watching people fawn over the animals.
"It's really an ecological story more than anything else," she added. "It's amazing. It never surprises me just how much people value being close to and loving and having animals.
" Camels aren’t Kayleigh’s favorite animal — she prefers the anteater — but, hoisted onto her father’s shoulders, she wouldn’t say no to a camel petting session, or two, or three. Her father, El Drinville, said the Rio Rancho family spent the afternoon exploring the landscape and cultural features at the Coronado Historic Site, along with their repeat visits to the camels. All in all, Kayleigh, 7, said she had pet the camels “about 15 times.
” It wasn't the first time Santa Fe resident Scott Smith had come across the Texas Camel Corps. About 20 years ago, when he was teaching science at an elementary school in Texas, his wife called him with an opportunity to ride camels. And he did; Smith mounted camel Gobi and camped in Big Bend State Park with Texas Camel Corps founder Doug Baum.
Gobi had spunk. When Smith bumped his foreleg to get him to stand, he lowered menacingly. When he did it again, Gobi released the contents of his first stomach into Smith's face.
But Smith, who wore a Texas Camel Corps T-shirt to the Saturday event, doesn't seem to hold a grudge. He spoke animatedly about the adaptations camels had to survive in a harsh desert environment. If Pecos Baum wants you to know anything about camels, it's this: They don't spit, and they don't store water in their humps.
He would know; Baum grew up on a camel farm. His dad, Doug Baum, founded the Texas Camel Corps and the younger Baum spent his childhood strapped in a baby carrier to his dad's chest, working with the animals. Currently, there are eight camels on the Baum family ranch, with two more on the way: two of the camels are pregnant.
Three of those camels chewed cud and posed for selfies on Saturday. Between scooping camel poop, Pecos Baum answered visitor questions about Jadid, Sabr and Daleel. Baum peeled back 10-year-old Daleel's thick lips to show a tentacled, alien-looking mouth.
The anemone-like structure allows camels to process even the spiniest plants like prickly pear, cholla cactus and mesquite, Pecos Baum explained. It's one of the many adaptations camels have to survive in intense desert environments, including furry ears, long eyelashes, nostrils that can shut and a windshield-wiper second eyelid that all serve to keep sand and dust out of the camel's body. While goats have been used to chew up wildfire fuels and invasive species, Pecos Baum said he hasn't heard of camels being used for similar purposes.
Camels aren't prevalent in the United States, and only a few specialty businesses have popped up around the livestock, Baum said. There is a camel dairy in Colorado, he said, which sells the species' naturally lactose-free and vitamin-C rich milk, but the number of camel farmers in the states is few and far between. The reason for that can be attributed to an unlikely source: Confederate leader Jefferson Davis.
Davis, who before the Civil War was a senator representing Mississippi and Secretary of War during the Pierce administration, became enamored with the idea of bringing camels into the U.S. Army, explained Doug Baum.
He requested an appropriation of $30,000 to bring camels into the country. The idea wasn't popular at first, the camel farmer and history buff said. But eventually, in 1855, the appropriation was slipped into an infrastructure bill and the experimental camel corps was born.
Eventually, 75 camels were brought to the U.S., as humans and livestock alike were struggling to survive in the desert Southwest.
Doug Baum wants to dispel Indiana Jones-like visions of infantrymen riding on galloping camels. The animals were largely used to haul water, he said, sometimes lifting up to 1,000 pounds. Camels crossed through Albuquerque as part of a group of soldiers and horses trying to reach California, led by Lt.
Edward Fitzgerald Beale. The program seemed to be a success, Baum said. But after the start of the Civil War, the association with Davis left a bad taste in the mouth, and after the war, the camels were sold.
Donese Mayfield came for the camels, but she stayed for the stories. "The storytelling, that's just kind of icing on the cake," Mayfield said. "I got to pet the camels, and learn a lot about the animals in the process.
Interesting animals." Nancy Haseman, a member of the Jane Austen Society of North America New Mexico Region, was also pulled in by the history. Baum was a lively storyteller, she said, "and you can tell they love what they do.
" Indeed, self-professed "camel nerd" Kat Gullahorn might be ready for a career change after getting up close and personal with 13-year-old camel Jadid. Librarian Gullahorn dove into camel research after her daughter started demanding she sing "Hi Jolly," a song about real-life camel guide Philip Tedro, as a lullaby. That spurred more questions; Gullahorn read Uncle Sam's Camels , the journals of May Humphreys Stacey who accompanied Beale on his cross-state camel corps journey.
She sang a few bars: "They got pretty gals in Albuquerque, least that's what I've heard, prеtty gals in Tucumcari too." "I could teach a semester's class," Gullahorn said..
