The Camels are coming, the camels are coming. That might have been the gossip in 1856 at Indianola. One of the many unique aspects of Calhoun County is that among the shipments that came here were camels. They were not for a zoo. The Camels arrived at Decrows Point, by ship, on April 29, 1859, however, because of weather and swells they couldn’t actually come ashore until May 13th at Indianola.

That date was several months after Jefferson Davis, who was the Secretary of War in President Franklin Pierce’s administration, had convinced congress to appropriate $30,000 dollars for “a great Camel experiment”. That $30,000 would equate to $5.5 million dollars now. The idea was to use their ability to carry great loads, as much as 3/4 of a ton per camel, to transport supplies to the Army’s western forts. Many of those supplies were coming through Pass Cavallo and docking at the thriving port of Indianola.

At that time we didn’t have railroads. Indianola was the “gateway to the west”. There were many army forts to the west that needed the supplies hauled west from that gateway. Had the experiment been an unqualified success the railroads would probably still have been the eventual winner for the hauling contract. The Camels only traveled about eleven miles per day. That is almost as slow as rush hour in Houston.

Be all that as it may, we still know about “the great camel experiment” It is one of those things that many think and talk about as they reminisce about Indianola. This year the Calhoun County Historical Commission is starting an Event to Remember Indianola.

We need to celebrate and preserve that exciting period on a regular basis.

It just so happens that this year is 125 years since that Queen City of the West was dethroned by a second Hurricane. That Hurricane marked the end of the battle of ports between Galveston and Indianola. That doesn’t mean we should forget our historical precedent.

So once again we here in the County can chant, “the camels are coming, the camels are coming.” As a part of that August 20th 2011 (125th anniversary) we have invited the camels to share in the fun. Doug Baum, Texas Camel Corps owner, will be at the celebration. He has preserved the tradition of Camels in Texas and will help us celebrate that unique and historical era when Indianola thrived. I don’t know that any of these camels are direct descendants of those first ones. I do know the area has many folks who are descendants of either the camel herders or whose family stories contain some camel content.

So you should mark August 20, it is a Saturday, on your Calendar and come help us celebrate. There will be ceremonies at Magnolia Beach in the morning. Then there will be opportunity to tour the Indianola Cemeteries and we will have many festivities at the Bauer community center including an opportunity to purchase German food and other items of interest in the air conditioned comfort.

Photo from Doug Baum’s Texas Camel Corps website