Why is there a statue of a camel in Quartzsite, Arizona?

Ah, Quartzsite—an Arizona desert town best known for its quirky roadside attractions and flea markets. But if you find yourself there, you might stumble upon a peculiar statue: a bronze camel named Hi Jolly. Why a camel? Well, that takes us back to the mid-1800s, when the U.S. Army had a wild idea to use camels as pack animals in the arid Southwest. They hired a Syrian-Greek camel handler named Hadji Ali (Americanized to "Hi Jolly") to oversee the experiment. Turns out, camels were great for desert travel but not so great at making friends with spooked horses or stubborn mules. The project was scrapped, and the camels were left to roam the desert. Hi Jolly stuck around, becoming a local legend as a prospector and pioneer. The statue, complete with a pyramid-shaped tomb, honors his memory and the camels that once roamed the region. It’s a delightful oddity in a town that thrives on them—a reminder of a time when the United States dared to think outside the (saddlebag) box.