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When I was about thirteen years old, I went to Death Valley, California. While there we visited the Death Valley Museum. I read in one of the exhibits that a man named Ives brought Camels in to Death Valley as an experiment to see if they could withstand the desert heat of California. In this letter below is a connection between Jefferson Davis, and those camels. We already know the connection of Joseph Christmas Ives to Jefferson Davis. Since This area of the country was indeed well traveled by Lt. Ives, I am very inclined to believe that he was involved with the importation of those camels into Death Valley. If anyone could provide any assistance here, I would greatly appreciate it.
Date sent: Tue, 28 Oct 1997 07:05:18 -0500
To: mives@fishnet.net
From: Ed Scott
Subject: Response to your posting: Subject: Lieutenant Joseph Christmas Ives
Ed Scott (dotted.dog@worldnet.att.net) responded to a message you left
in the Death Valley bboard:
Subject: Subject: Lieutenant Joseph Christmas Ives
Monty,
Thanks for being the first to use this forum. According to Richard Lingenfelter writing in _Death Valley and the Amargosa_(ISBN 0-520-05663-9), Lt. Ives was responsible for the southeastern portion of boundary location for the California border in 1860. Camels were used by the northern team that surveyed the same border in the Death Valley area. The camel story starts in 1856 when Jefferson Davis was Secretary of War and had 3 dozen camels imported to see if they might be more economical than mules. After a few unsuccessful attempts, most of the camels ended up in the charge of Edward Beale in Fort Tejon California. Beale was able to persuade the party to take along 4 camels. In nearly all respects, the expedition was a failure. This was the last use of camels by the military but by this time Jefferson Davis had larger
preoccupations.
Lt. Ives did a better job of surveying the southern portions of the California border. If you ever explore the Mojave Road you can see the boundary marker associated with his efforts. It misses the current border by a little distance but he did complete the task and the accuracy of the his version was good enough for those earlier times. Do you suppose he was a relative? I suspect that Dennis Casebier and the East Mojave Herritage folks would have good information on Lt. Ives.
Ed
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