Quartzite Arizona

The Red Ghost Sculpture, Quartzite, AZ

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The Red Ghost sculpture commemorates a sad and bizarre story of a red-haired camel roaming the Quartzite region many years ago, who was found with the skeletal remains of a human tied to the camel’s back. No one knows who the human was, or what happened to them. I imagine this was quite traumatic for the camel. The sculpture is made of old wheels and scrap metal and lives outside Gem World, gem and mineral store on Main Street in Quartzite.

The Last Camp of Hi Jolly (Hadji Ali), Quartzite, AZ

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We visited the Hi Jolly monument in Quartzite. Arizona. The photos tell the story of Hadji Ali (note the whitewashing of his given name), a Syrian Muslim camel expert who helped the US Army with a short-lived attempt to use camels in this part of the country as beasts of burden military purposes. Hadji became a bit of a legend around Quartzite, and when he died, they built the monument to honor him, and the town’s cemetery is named after him.