The U.S. Army once tested camels in the Arizona desert, and somehow that’s not even the strangest part of the story. In 1855, Congress approved $30,000 to test camels as military pack animals in the Southwest. Over the next two years, the U.S. imported 75 camels from the Mediterranean and Middle East. Among the camel handlers brought to America was Hadji Ali, whose name was eventually Americanized by soldiers and locals into “Hi Jolly.” In 1857, explorer Edward Beale took 25 camels west while surveying a wagon road along the 35th parallel through what is now northern Arizona. The experiment worked. The camels carried heavy loads, handled the desert well and eventually outperformed the horses and mules traveling with them. Then the Civil War changed everything. The Army’s camel experiment was effectively abandoned. Some of the animals were later sold to private owners, zoos and circuses, while others escaped into the Southwest. That’s where the story gets weird. During the 1880s,...