The Camel Experiment

Oxford American Magazine sent me, along with a good friend (Sound Engineer Christian Brown), on the road to interview and photograph subjects for a podcast about the U.S. Army's Camel Corps Experiment. In the late 1850s, under the direction of Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, the U.S. government imported 32 camels from Syria along with a handler, HI Jolly. The aim was to use these camels for patrolling the West Texas border and to train a cavalry unit adept at handling this unique livestock. Today, these camel trails have been replaced by many of the highways we use to traverse America's Southwest. In our research, we discovered there were few to no historic images captured of this fascinating story. So, what I couldn’t capture with my camera, I generated using artificial intelligence. To learn more about this project or to hear the podcast, check out Oxford American.