Hi Jolly Monument

Stone pyramid grave marker for Hadji Ali, the camel driver of the U.S. Army camel experiment.

Hi Jolly Monument is the one Quartzsite sight almost everyone should see. It stands in the pioneer section of the cemetery, marking the grave of Hadji Ali, better known in Arizona as Hi Jolly.

The monument is simple but wonderfully specific: a stone pyramid topped by a camel silhouette, surrounded by desert ground and pioneer graves. It turns an odd footnote of American military history into a physical stop you can understand in five minutes.

things to do sight memorial history
A story
Hadji Ali was recruited in the Ottoman Empire in 1856 to handle camels for the U.S. Army in the Southwest. The experiment failed, but he stayed, worked as a guide and prospector, and became local enough that Quartzsite later marked his grave with a pyramid and a metal camel.