Arizona has its fair share of weird and wacky laws, but most of them could be held up in a court of law today if we wanted them to.

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Luckily, no one really seems to care about missing teeth and witchcraft masked as fortune telling, but if the state were so inclined, they could begin to crack down on these things once again.

There's one Arizona law, however, that is physically impossible to break now.

Arizona Camels

First, we have to go way back, to 1855 specifically. What happened in 1855? Secretary of War Jefferson Davis sent $30,000 to the Middle East in exchange for Camels to be used for the U.S. Military. They had hoped that they would help the westward expansion of the U.S., especially as much of the southwest is desert, a climate Camels are very familiar with.

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They were brought to Camp Verde, TX, where they were used for a plethora of work, but mostly travel between the brutal desert heat. At the dawn of the Civil War, however, the Confederates seized Camp Verde and let the Camels roam free.

A herd of camels crosses the desert
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Because of that, for some time, Arizona became home to native Camels, who lived in small groups, not enough to keep a solid community together. Eventually, by the turn of the century, all the American Southwest's native Camels were gone.

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No Camel Hunting

As Arizona and Texas are so close to one another, the Arizona government stepped in, and put forth a law banning the hunting of Camels within the state of Arizona. While it's unclear if the law was ever put into practice, it's fundamentally useless nowadays.

A father and son look out at a field in hunting gear
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The last Camel sighting in Arizona was in 1891, and it's very very very likely there's no more left. We would have seen them at this point. So don't worry! If you're ever afraid you've broken every law in the book, there's still one you can leave unchecked.

[Smithsonian Magazine][Hastings & Hastings]

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