Author's Notes: Camel Claim

As I noted in last week’s Author’s Notes, “Camel Claim” is my first attempt at a western. I got interested in westerns lately due to something J. Daniel Sawyer said. He argued the western is how Americans talk about themselves and what it means to be an American. I wrote the story without any contemporary issues in the forefront of my mind, but looking back, I see some of my thoughts on immigration and the border leaking through. The western novel I have in notes, tentatively titled The Confederate’s Wife, will wind up in similar territory.

The biggest inspiration for the story, and specifically the character of George Tedora, is a song I heard back in the 70s. The version I heard was recorded by The New Christy Minstrels on their album Ramblin’. The song is “Hi Jolly” and recounts legends about a camel driver brought over from the Middle East by the Army prior to The Civil War. The Army was experimenting with camels for use in the American Southwest. With the coming of the war, the project but at least one driver stayed in the US.

Hadji Ali was a real person, also called Hi Jolly, who ran a freight service in the southwest with some of the camels which he purchased from the army. He eventually released them into the desert. He became a US citizen in 1880, married and had two children, and spent his last few years in Quartzsite, Arizona, engaged in mining, among other professions. His grave has a monument from the state, a pyramid topped by a copper camel.

Next week’s story will be a new genre for the series, detective fiction. In it, we return to contemporary Atlanta and a favorite donut shop. Until the, I present the history lesson I got from a folk album.