During the height of the Cariboo Gold Rush in British Columbia, gold-hungry prospectors flooded into the rugged interior of the province. Transporting heavy equipment and supplies over steep, treacherous trails was brutally expensive using standard pack animals like horses and mules. Enter entrepreneur Frank Laumeister, who concocted what seemed like a brilliant business venture in 1862: import twenty-three Bactrian camels from San Francisco to serve as high-capacity pack animals on the Old Cariboo Road.
On paper, camels were ideal. They could carry up to 1,000 pounds—nearly double the capacity of a mule—and survive on sparse vegetation. However, the plan unravelled immediately upon contact with the northern wilderness.
Camels evolved to walk on soft desert sands with fleshy, padded feet rather than hard keratin hooves. The razor-sharp shale, jagged granite, and constant mud of the Pacific Northwest mountains shredded the animals' soft footpads. Desperate handlers attempted to fashion custom leather boots to protect the bleeding feet, but the makeshift footwear wore through in hours.
Beyond their ruined hooves, the camels caused chaos wherever they trod. Their alien scent terrified traditional pack horses, leading to catastrophic stampedes and destroyed cargo along narrow cliff-side paths. The camels also developed a habit of consuming anything within reach, including miners' laundry, canvas tents, and soap.
By 1863, the disastrous experiment was abandoned. Some camels were sold to farm estates, while others were turned loose into the wild, where sightings of mysterious northern camels persisted into the 1900s.