It's Illegal to Ride a Camel on a Nevada Highway

This one is real history, fake law. In the 1850s, the U.S. Army ran a genuine experiment importing camels as pack animals for the desert Southwest — the famous Camel Corps. When the Army lost interest, surplus camels ended up in Nevada hauling salt across the desert to the Comstock silver mills. There was just one problem: horses and mule teams were terrified of them, and a spooked freight team on a mountain road was a serious hazard.

So on February 9, 1875, the Nevada Legislature passed 'An Act to prohibit camels and dromedaries from running at large on or about the public highways of the State of Nevada.' Violators faced a fine of $25 to $100, up to thirty days in jail, or both. For the record, most listicles say February 17 — the session laws say February 9. They copy each other, not the source.

By the 1890s the working camels were gone, and in 1899 the Legislature swept the camel act away in a housecleaning bill repealing obsolete statutes — listing it by name. That means it has been perfectly legal to take a camel down a Nevada highway for well over a century. Virginia City leans into the joke to this day with its International Camel Races, running since 1959.