the man who brought camels to the US:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi_Jolly
overall, everything I've read always mentions that the camels freaked out the horses,mules, and donkeys, and thus complicated the problems with establishing the project.
I've been all over the american southwest, and very little of it counts as desert to the extent that camels offer a distinct advantage over standard equine. It's desert, but there's enough water to support conventional (US) modes of animal transportation. transportation did not hold up mining, ranching, or other advancement of civilization, so camels simply don't represent any sort of difference maker. with enough effort, the project could have been successful, but I'd have to hear some reasoning why the effort would have been worth it.