CAMELS IN BRITISH
COLUMBIA

“CAMELS JIS all right if you keep ’em
where they belong, but why bring the
blankety-blank critters here, scarin’ our
mules half out of their wits?”

“You said it, pard; the dang things uv
got no business being here!”

So fumed two hardy miners on the Cari-
boo trail in the early °60’s. And they were
not in the class of “Pink Elephant Sight-
seers’ either.

It was no illusion. Their scattered pack
train and ruined packs testified to the ac-
curacy of their vision.

In the mad rush to reach the gold fields
of the Cariboo camels had been introduced
as pack animals. Mr. Frank Laumeister
was convinced, and reasonably too, that
an animal capable of doing the work of
four mules, of travelling forty miles a day,
of being able to live on sage brush, and not
needing water for seven days would be a
valuable asset to any pack train.

The novel transportation system was not
without precedent. As early as 1857, in
the administration of Franklin Pierce, the
United States army had made use of the
quadrupeds to replace the “Pony Express”
in Texas and Southern California.

The “Dromedary Express” on the Cari-
boo Trail in 1862 was a going concern for
a year or so. Nor was it the severe climate
that caused the bankruptcy of ‘the firm,
as would first be supposed. It was the havoc
wrought among the mule pack trains that
caused disruption of business. These latter
animals developed the strongest possible
aversion to the camels. Nor was it the sight
of these ungainly beasts that unnerved the
otherwise stolid mule.

The faintest suggestion of camel in the
air was sufficient to start a stampede. This
often resulted in the loss of both mules and
packs, especially if the meeting took place
in some of the narrow defiles on the Cariboo
Road. Finally, an appeal to Governor
Douglas made, by the less romantic of the
packers and merchantmen, to prohibit the
use of these Arabian importations on the
trails. Failing this, several lawsuits were
threatened against the enterprising Foreign
Legion, and the owners saw fit to disband
forces.

But the camels had their worries too.
An animal with feet built to travel on sand
had his own difficulties when asked to find
its way over steep, rocky trails, over muddy
and wet roads, and even through swamps.

LEE BROTHERS
SAWDUST BURNERS
Chimney Sweeping
Second-hand Furniture
Phone 1013
PORT ALBERNI, BC.

SUMMER EDITION

The winters in the Cariboo were far too
severe for the camels to be kept there the
year round.

They were wintered lower down on the
Douglas Trail. Even then they adapted
themselves marvellously to the climate,
growing a thick coat of fur to protect them-
selves. The fodder for winter was supplied
by the owners. The rest of the year the
animals could and did forage for them-
selves, living much as the deer do.

The Cariboo venture did not at all dis-
courage would-be camel owners. Some of
the original 21 were taken back to the coast
and shipped to the United States. Others
were turned out on the North Thompson
River and allowed to wander free and un-
molested. Of these, the last one ceased to
terrorize mules and horses, to say nothing
of unsuspecting hunters, about 1905.

Wild Horse Creek was on everyone’s
lips in 1884. The long and difficult packing
in to the little town of Fisherville at the
mouth of the creek again led men to specu-
late on improved methods of transportation.
The solution was camels. Again the double
humped pack animals were seen swinging
up and down the trails of British Columbia.
They were used chiefly on the Hope to
Kootenay Road. Again they were ostracized
because of the terror they inspired in the
other animals.

For years one remained tied up at the
top of the hill at Fort Steele, B.C., near
Wild Horse Creek. The oldest resident
of the district has in her possession a tuft
of hair plucked from the side of the last
camel of the Kootenays. A story is told
of how this camel was eaten by the starving
inhabitants of the town in a winter of
scarcity. They pronounced it “delicious,
when fried!”

REDMAN MOTORS LTD.

Dealers in
Chevrolet and Oldsmobile Cars
and Chevrolet Trucks ~
P. O. Box 383
PORT ALBERNI, B. C.

George C. Shead, Ltd.

Established 1912
Third Avenue, Port Alberni
Transportation and Fuel
Office Phone, 232 Res. Phone, 699
Ambulance

Vickman’s Boarding House

Good, Comfortable Rooms and Board
By the Day, Week or Month

.)
PORT ALBERNI, B.C.

PORT MOTORS LTD.
Dodge - De Soto Dealers

General Garage

)
Ath and Angus Port Alberni, B. C.

Alberni Hardware
Company Limited
“Everything in Hardware”

Phone 146 Port Alberni, B.C.

Atlin, 1899.

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