As the story goes, a military commander lashed a camel-shy soldier to the back of a camel and sent him off to learn how to ride. Depending on who is telling the story, the soldier either died from starvation, or embarrassment, and the camel rode around Arizona for the next thirty years with a skeleton on his back. Since the camel was rust colored, the legend of Red Ghost began. Supposedly, Red Ghost was shot dead in the 1890s while poaching from an Arizona backyard garden and he still had the rope burns on his hide. Frankly, I’m getting heart burn just telling the story.
True West November/December 2024