We Had A Quiet Day Today,

whilst spending some time rearranging my stamps I was listening to an old favorite or two, one was a recording of Route 66 by The Rolling Stones, or as some unkind wags would say today, the Strolling Bones, but back to the road, a couple of early travellers on it pictured above, which brings me on to camels and the founding father of Route 66 ,

LT. Ned Beale was in 1857 commissioned by congress to survey and identify a wagon road from Fort Defiance in New Mexico to the Colorado River, his route would become known as the Beale Wagon Road across Arizona, perhaps what makes Beale’s expedition so noteworthy in western annals is that he used camels instead of horses! Lieutenant "Ned" Beale was in charge of a most unusual experiment, camels were well suited to the arid southwest and the camel experiment was a resounding success, camels very possibly could have become a fixture in the old west, and may have replaced the horse in importance, but two reasons are given as to why not, first, the Civil War broke out and the camel experiment was dropped, or they scared horses and mules, so the Army declined to continue the experiment, you and historians can decided which the true reason was!

the Beale Survey trail would become the Beale Wagon Road, a route that would be followed almost 70 years later by Route 66, the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad (now Santa Fe RR) laid its tracks along Beale's Camel Road in the 1880's, these are the same tracks that ran parallel to Route 66 throughout the Southwest, and still run parallel to Interstate 40 today, even crossing Canyon Diablo, so named because it was a major obstacle to the early travelers,

Canyon Diablo is at Two Guns, though today you would hardly notice it, just think there could have been a Lawrence of Arizona!