Published February 28, 2023, for State 48 A2Z
If there’s one thing Arizona is not short on, it's legends and folklore. These legends and lore can be found in nearly every town in the state, at least the more colorful ones. For this week’s article, we head to Quartzite, Arizona, a town that most know as the last stop in Arizona along Interstate 10 on the way to the California coast, as we seek out the legend of the Red Ghost of Quartzite.
To understand the legend, we must go back to the mid-1800s in the Territory of New Mexico, which Arizona was a part of until 1863 when it became a separate territory. As part of an experiment in the newly gained desert territory, the United States Army created the United States Camel Corps, to utilize these desert-dwelling animals as pack animals throughout the southwest territories.
While the seed for the Camel Corps was sown back in 1836 when Army Major George Crossman, sought to convince the War Department that, based on his experiences in the Indian Wars in Florida that camels were the perfect beasts of burden to use as transportation. Twelve years later, Major Henry C. Wayne was charged with the task of conducting a detailed study as to whether camels would better serve the military than horses and mules. Despite Major Wayne’s recommendation for utilizing camels in the war effort, it was not until Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi became Secretary of War in 1853 that the idea was given any merit.
In Davis’s 1854 Annual report the Secretary wrote, "I again invite attention to the advantages to be anticipated from the use of camels and dromedaries for military and other purposes ..." Congress was finally onboard, and, on March 3, 1855, it approved a $30,000 budget for the program to commence.
In 1855, Major Wayne was assigned the task of procuring camels for this project and, in the summer of 1855, traveled aboard the USS Supply from New York City to Tunisia, Malta, Greece, Turkey, and Egypt where he managed to procure 33 animals that included two Bactrian Camels, 29 Dromedary, one Dromedary calf, and one Booghdee (a cross between a Bactrian and a female dromedary). They also procured saddles and covers that they were certain would not be available in the United States. Additionally, Wayne hired five camel drivers and in February 1856, the USS Supply made its way to Texas. During the crossing one camel died but two calves were born and survived the trip.
Following the shipment’s offloading in Indianola, Texas, the USS Supply, along with its commanding officer Lieutenant Davis Dixon Porter, was sent back to the middle east to procure additional animals. In February 1857 the USS Supply returned to Texas with an additional 41 camels along with nine men and a boy who Porter hired during his expedition. Among these nine men was Hadji Ali (aka Hi Jolly).
Ali had been born to Greek (mother) and Syrian (father) parents in Smyrna, Greece in 1828 and, was given the name Philip Tedro. As a young adult, Tedro would make a pilgrimage to Mecca where he converted to Islam, taking the name Hadji Ali. Ali would go on to become the lead camel driver for the US Camel Corps.
The Camel Corps was a short-lived experiment (roughly 10 years in existence). It is said that despite successfully traveling from Texas to California and back that the experiment failed because the Army’s horses, mules, and burros were afraid of the large desert beasts, to the point of panic. In addition, the tension that led up to the Civil War led Congress to pull funding for the experiment, and, by 1866, the program was dead. The camels were eventually auctioned off in Benicia, California, and Camp Verde, Texas. Ali was discharged from the Army’s Quartermaster Department in 1870.
Ali had managed to purchase a few camels that he would go on to use in his new freight service business in which he moved product between the Colorado River and mining operations further east. The business did not take off as Ali had expected and he released his camels into the desert near Gila Bend. Ali, who obtained citizenship in 1880 under his Christian name of Philip Tedro, eventually moved to Quartzite where he mined and occasionally scouted for the US Army until his passing in 1902. In 1932, Arizona Governor Benjamin Moeur dedicated a monument to Ali in the Quartzite cemetery where he was buried.
So, how does any of the above bring us to the legend of the Red Ghost of Quartzite?
Well, it was roughly around the early 1880s that stories began to spread across the territory of a giant red horse with a devil on his back. The first report of this legend was from a ranch near Eagle Creek, located near the Arizona/New Mexico border, where a woman was reported to have been stomped to death by a “strange-looking red-haired beast with a devilish looking creature strapped to its back.
A few days later a group of prospectors were awakened by the sound of thunderous hooves and terrifying screams ripping through their encampment. And, a few days after that another report surfaced of the Red Ghost attacking another camp, turning over two freight wagons. At each location of the attacks, signs of the “creature” were present, including giant hoof marks that were much larger than a normal horse, along with traces of red hair. From there the tales only got taller.
One person reported that they witnessed the “creature” kill and devour a grizzly bear, while another claimed to have followed the Red Ghost only for it to vanish before his eyes. The one thing that everyone agreed on was that the ghostly animal had a human skeleton on its back.
The stories would continue for nearly a decade until a farmer eventually found it… a red camel grazing in his pasture. The farmer drew his Winchester rifle and dropped the animal with one shot. It is believed that the Red Ghost was a straggler camel that was released following the dissolution of the Army’s Camel Corps. The camel’s back was well scarred from the rawhide used to fasten a man’s corpse to its back. To this date, no one knows why or who secure the dead man, or his skeleton, to the camel’s back, but the mystery of the Red Ghost was finally put to rest.
Quartzite has fully embraced the legend of the Red Ghost and the short-lived history of camels in the southwest desert. Today you can still visit the monument built in tribute to Ali at the town's Hi Jolly Cemetery (formerly Quartzite Cemetery), however, the town has adopted one more item in memory of the Red Ghost, a large red camel sculpture made of old wheels and scrap metal called Georgette who stands guard outside Gem World, a gem and mineral store, located on the town’s Main Street. The Hi Jolly monument was added to the Department of the Interior's National Register of Historic Places on February 28, 2011, with the official dedication ceremony occurring on December 17 of that same year with over 100 people in attendance.
So, the next time you are driving Interstate-10 past Quartzite, jump off the exit at South Quartzite Avenue and head a block north to Main Street and stop in to say high to Georgette. Then take Main Street about a quarter mile east to Hi Jolly Road, turn left, and visit the Hi Jolly (Hadji Ali) tomb and monument. This is an easy off-on for the freeway and will not delay your travels very much at all, but it is a cool piece of Arizona and United States history that should be remembered and honored.
That’ll wrap things up for this week. As always, thanks for reading, stay safe, and happy travels. Be sure to like and follow us on social media (links below), share our blog posts, and feel free to give us your feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Peace!
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