King Ranch is the largest ranch in the United States. At some 825,000 acres (3,340km2; 1,289sqmi)[3] it is larger than both the land area of Rhode Island and the area of the European country Luxembourg.[4] It is mainly a cattle ranch, but also produced the racehorse Assault, who won the Triple Crown in 1946.
The ranch consists of four divisions of land: Santa Gertrudis, Laureles, Encino, and Norias. The Santa Gertrudis and Laureles divisions share a short length of border, and the Encino and Norias divisions are both entirely separate.[6] The ranch was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961.[2][7] The Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame inducted the ranch in 2019.[8] King Ranch was one of the first ranches to be added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966, because of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 which was signed that same day.
Richard King (1824–1885) was a river pilot, born in New York City to Irish immigrants. He was indentured to a jeweler at age 11, but later ran to sea, eventually attaining a pilot's rating. In 1843, King first met his future business partner in the King Ranch, Mifflin Kenedy (1818–1895), captain of the steamboat Champion. Both served under General Zachary Taylor (later the 12th US president), operating steamboats from Brazos Santiago Harbor in Texas, USA, to Matamoros in Mexico, and on up river to Camargo, Tamaulipas, in support of the U.S. invasion of Monterrey and Saltillo. After the Mexican–American War, King made a good living hauling merchandise on the Rio Grande, as far up river as Camargo, and Rio Grande City. In the meantime, Kenedy was able to make money by carrying goods overland into Mexico. By March 1, 1850, King, Kenedy, Charles Stillman, founder of Brownsville, and James O'Donnell entered into a business partnership (M. Kenedy & Co.) to transport Stillman's goods from Brazos Santiago Harbor on the Gulf of Mexico and up the Rio Grande. The enterprise required two types of steamers — the Grampus and Comanche. During the American Civil War, the steamboat fleet was reflagged under the name of the Matamoros, Mexico citizen Francisco Iturria and the Mexican flag. As Mexico was a neutral country, the steamboats could not be stopped by Union blockaders, and engaged in a lively commerce of transporting Texas cotton to many deep-water ships anchored offshore Matamoros, on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. Stillman sold his share of the enterprise after the Civil War; the new firm operated as King, Kenedy & Co. until 1874.
King first saw the land that would become part of the King Ranch in April 1852 as he traveled north from Brownsville to attend the Lone Star Fair in Corpus Christi, a four-day trip by horseback. After a grueling ride, King caught sight of the Santa Gertrudis Creek, 124mi (200km) from the Rio Grande. It was the first stream he had seen on the Wild Horse Desert. The land, which was shaded by large mesquite trees, so impressed him, when he arrived at the fair, he and a friend, Texas Ranger Captain Gideon K. "Legs" Lewis, agreed then and there to make it into a ranch.
The King Ranch LK brand, still in use today,[when?] stands for partners Lewis and King.[citation needed]
King and Lewis established a cow camp on Santa Gertrudis Creek. During this time, Richard King purchased the Rincón de Santa Gertrudis grant, a 15,500 acres (63km2; 24.2sqmi) holding that encompassed present-day Kingsville, Texas. It was purchased from the heirs of Juan Mendiola of Camargo on July 25, 1853, for $300. King sold Lewis an undivided half-interest in the land for $2,000. At the same time, Lewis sold King undivided half-interest in the ranchos of Manuel Barrera and of Juan Villareal for the same sum, on November 14, 1853. In 1854, King and Lewis purchased the de la Garza Santa Gertrudis grant from Praxides Uribe of Matamoros for $1,800, on the condition of a perfected title (complete documentation of the land grant) on May 20, 1854, to 53,000 acres (210km2; 83sqmi). As the years passed, more land was added, growing to 1.2 million acres (1,875sqmi, 4,900km2) at its largest extent, until reaching its current total.
In 1855, Lewis was killed by the husband of a woman with whom he had been having an affair. On July 1, 1856, a court sale of Lewis' property (including the undivided half-interest in the land of the Ranch) was held. King had arranged for Major W. W. Chapman (died 1859) to bid on the Rincón property, which Chapman acquired for $1,575. Chapman had been the quartermaster of Fort Brown in Brownsville, and regulated the steamboat contracts to supply Fort Ringgold, up river in Rio Grande City.
King interested Captain James Walworth in acquiring the entire de la Garza grant, and Walworth completed the purchase on December 26, 1856, for $5,000 paid to Praxides Uribe. King thus retained operational control of the Ranch, with Walworth as a silent partner who held title to the land, and who paid taxes on it.
King and Walworth's livestock brand was registered June 27, 1859, along with his earlier brands. (see below)
When King and his partners began hiring people to staff the ranch, they hired a number of Mexican hands. In one notable case, King traveled to the village of Cruillas, Tamaulipas, Mexico in the early months of 1854 (the village having been decimated by a severe drought) and purchased the village's entire cattle population. But shortly after leaving the village, King realized that by solving the village's short-term problem, by providing needed income to survive the drought, he had created a longer-term one by removing its source of future income. King thus returned to Cruillas and offered the villagers the opportunity to work for him, in exchange for food, shelter, and income. Many of the villagers accepted King's offer and relocated to Texas.[9] As the ranch grew, these workers came to be called kineños, or "King's men". Over time, some original grantees returned to their land. King once said he "could not have kept on and held on if Andrés Canales had not been adjoining."
Records show a Mexican range cow cost $6 in 1854, a mustang horse cost $6, and a stud horse cost $200–300. In sum, in 1854, King paid $12,275.79. Lea estimated the 1855 expenses were smaller. The first brand was the ere flecha (an R with arrow through it).
In 1859, the ranch recorded its first official brands (HK and LK). In 1869, the ranch registered its "Running W" brand, which remains the King Ranch's official mark today.[10] At the time, the ranch grazed cattle, horses, sheep and goats. By the mid-1870s, though, the ranch's hallmark stock had become the hardy Texas Longhorn. The ranch also boasted several Brahman bulls, as well as Beef Shorthorns and Herefords.
The Brahmans, which were native to South Asia, were well adapted to thrive in South Texas' hot climate; they were crossed with the ranch's Beef Shorthorns to produce the ranch's own trademark stock — the Santa Gertrudis cattle, which were recognized as a breed in 1940.
Lea portrays King's purchase of the Ranch as motivated by his wooing of Henrietta Maria Morse Chamberlain (1832–1925), whom he married in the First Presbyterian Church, Brownsville, on Sunday, December 10, 1854. The King Ranch HK livestock brand stands for Henrietta King.
During the United States Civil War, the disruption of the flow of cattle to market initially caused a drop in beef prices. In 1861, the price of cattle dropped to $2 per head, but it rose again to $11 per head by August 1862.
The 1863-1864 winter pushed uncounted cattle south toward the Nueces River and Rio Grande. After the Civil War, the Texas Rangers were disbanded during the reconstruction of the United States. It became very tempting and low-risk to simply herd cattle across the Nueces or Rio Grande.
Even in this time of loss, by 1869, King was able to round up 48,664 of an estimated 84,000 head of cattle. Allowing for 10,000 remaining, King claimed a loss of 33,827 head from 1869 to 1872. To handle depredations (rustling), the ranchers formed the Stock Raisers Association of Western Texas in 1870; Mifflin Kenedy led the first meeting. By 1874, the Texas Rangers were re-established, and were a factor in controlling the depredations.
By 1870, 300,000 head of cattle made their way from the West to the railroads of Kansas, and thence to the stockyards of Chicago. On a Texas ranch, a steer worth $11 would bring $20 from a buyer in Abilene. The buyer in turn could ask $31.50 at the Union Stock Yards. King could drive his cattle for a hundred days to the railheads of Kansas.
By 1871, though, 700,000 head of cattle caused a market glut, which King avoided by personal negotiation in Abilene.
King managed to avoid the September 19, 1873, 'Black Friday panic' by selling early. During the lean year that followed, King continued to fence his land, and manage his cattle, horses, and sheep.
One technique King used to manage costs was to make his trail bosses the owners of the herd. The bosses would sign a note for the cattle, which they would begin to drive to market in February of each year, for the 100-day drive. The bosses were also the employers of the outfit. Upon the sale of the herd to the northern buyers, the trail bosses could relieve their indebtedness, and earn a profit greater than their ordinary wages.
Richard King died in 1885. At the death of Henrietta King in 1925, the ranch totaled 1.2 million acres that were divided among her heirs.[11] Henrietta King's sole surviving child, Alice Gertrudis Kleberg, and her husband Robert J. Kleberg Jr. inherited over 800,000 acres that were incorporated as the King Ranch in 1934.[11] The appraiser's Statement of Gross Estate, Mrs. H. M. King listed a net total of $5.4 million, as the owner of 997,444.56 acres (4,036.5km2), which did not include the Santa Gertrudis headquarters, nor did it include the Kleberg's Stillman and Lasater tracts, which were not of the estate.[citation needed] Her son-in-law, Bob Kleberg, said "A valuation of four to five dollars an acre ($1236/km2) on a million acres (4000km2) of raw ranchland was about right, but it took a long time for the Government to admit it." By 1929, the taxes ($859,000) had been paid up, in installments, but the trustees had to borrow money, so by the market crash of 1929, Henrietta King's estate was in debt $3,000,000.[citation needed]
Robert Justus Kleberg Jr. and Alice Gertrudis King had five children, including a son named Robert J. Kleberg, III. In 1933, Robert J. Kleberg, III leased the exploration and drilling rights on the ranch to Humble Oil of Houston, Texas, for $127,824, in exchange for the usual royalty of 1/8th of the sale price for all oil and gas produced from the property.[12] Humble Oil loaned enough money to pay the debts of the H.M. King estate, secured by a first mortgage on the land. Humble struck oil and gas by 1939. During all of this, the Ranch was a going concern, with a net profit of $227,382, as early as 1926. Robert Kleberg III was married to Helen Campbell, and together they had a daughter they named Helen.[13]
Lauro Cavazos, who served as the first Hispanic United States Cabinet officer, was born on the King Ranch during his father's service as a ranch foreman in January, 1927.
Example of a King Ranch; a Ford F-250 (2005–2007)
On November 18, 1936, Luther Blanton and his son, John, trespassed on the ranch by crawling through the fence surrounding it. They had intended to hunt ducks and nearby residents reported hearing shots fired. Shortly thereafter, locals organized a group to force their way onto the ranch around the area where they were known to have gone hunting. However, neither Blanton nor his son were ever seen again. A subsequent police investigation resulted in no arrests. Although most residents suspected them being murdered by ranch guards for trespassing, it remains a long-standing unsolved mystery.[14]
During World War II, the Navy purchased lots of land to construct the Kingsville Naval Outlying Fields to support naval flight training. Many of these airfields have since been demolished and reverted to farmland.[15]
In February 1961, National Geographic reported that the ranch covered 980,000 acres.[16]:165
In 1999 (since the 2001 model year to present), Ford began using the King Ranch brand on its vehicles. Over the years there have been King Ranch versions of the F-150, Super Duty, Explorer, and Expedition. They include dark brown leather seats, and the badges show the King Ranch 'Running W' brand.[17]
Education
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Santa Gertrudis Independent School District's original elementary and middle school facility, built in 1917, was leased from the King Ranch and located on ranch property (the Santa Gertrudis portion). It was a 25,209-square-foot (2,342.0m2), 13 classroom complex with a classroom building, four annexes, two storage structures, and a gymnasium that had the possibility of being used for other reasons.[18] The district now has a new campus built by PBK Architects.[19]
Under Texas law, the Santa Gertrudis ISD area is in the boundary of Coastal Bend College (referred to in legislation under its former name, "Bee County College").[20]
In popular culture
Edna Ferber's novel Giant, which was turned into a film of the same name, takes place on King Ranch. The film and novel depict several events in the ranch's history, such as the discovery of oil on the property.
Forever Texas, the 2022 historical western novel by bestselling authors William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone, is based on the true story of the founding of King Ranch.[21]
The historical fiction novel Lords of the Land by Matt Braun is based on the King Ranch and its founder, although names and some circumstance have been altered.[citation needed]
A cowboy's perspective on the King Ranch subsidiary in Australia, the cattle station Brunette Downs, is captured in the 2012 autobiography by Nick Campbell-Jones Don't Die Wondering. Campbell-Jones was a jackaroo (Australian cowboy) who started at Brunette Downs in 1963 and worked his way up to overseer and assistant manager before leaving in 1975.[22]
^Lea, p.2: For King's biographical details, Lea cites Richard King's sworn deposition before F.J. Parker, U.S. Commissioner, Eastern District of Texas, April 11, 1870, filed with the U.S. and Mexican Claims Commission, Washington, D.C., August 30, 1870.—Records of Boundary and Claims Commission and Arbitrations, Claims vs. Mexico - 1868, Claim No. 579, RG 76 GSA, National Archives and Records Services, Washington, D.C.
^Lea, pp128–9. Notes from the King Ranch vault in Henrietta King's handwriting.
^,^: Reminiscences by Henrietta King to members of her family.
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Richard King was a riverboat captain, Confederate, entrepreneur, and most notably, the founder of the King Ranch in South Texas, which at the time of his death in 1885 encompassed over 825,000 acres (3,340 km2).
Juan Nepomuceno Cortina Goseacochea, also known by his nicknames Cheno Cortina, the Red Robber of the Rio Grande and the Rio Grande Robin Hood, was a Mexican rancher, politician, military leader, outlaw and folk hero. He was an important caudillo, military general and regional leader, who effectively controlled the Mexican state of Tamaulipas as governor. In borderlands history he is known for leading a paramilitary mounted Mexican Militia in the failed Cortina Wars. The "Wars" were raids targeting Anglo-American civilians whose settlement Cortina opposed near the several leagues of land granted to his wealthy family on both sides of the Rio Grande. Anglo families began immigrating to the Lower Rio Grande Valley after the Mexican Army was defeated by the Anglo-Mexican rebels of the Mexican State of Tejas, in the Texas Revolution.
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Edward Burleson "E. B." Raymond was a lawyer, rancher, politician, banker, and founder of Raymondville, Texas.
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The Laguna Madre is a long, shallow, hypersaline lagoon along the western coast of the Gulf of Mexico in Nueces, Kenedy, Kleberg, Willacy and Cameron Counties in Texas, United States. It is one of seven major estuaries along the Gulf Coast of Texas. The roughly 20-mile (32 km) long Saltillo Flats land bridge divides it into Upper and Lower lagoons joined by the Intracoastal Waterway, which has been dredged through the lagoon. Cumulatively, Laguna Madre is approximately 130 miles (210 km) long, the length of Padre Island in the US. The main extensions include Baffin Bay in Upper Laguna Madre, Red Fish Bay just below the Saltillo Flats, and South Bay near the Mexican border. As a natural ecological unit, the Laguna Madre of the United States is the northern half of the ecosystem as a whole, which extends into Tamaulipas, Mexico approximately 144 miles (232 km) south of the US border, to the vicinity of the Rio Soto La Marina and the town of La Pesca, extending approximately 275 miles (443 km) through USA and Mexico in total.
The Raid on the Norias Division of the King Ranch was an attack August 8, 1915 by a large band of disaffected Mexicans and Tejanos in southern Texas. It was one of the many small battles of the Mexican Revolution that spilled over into United States soil and resulted in an increased effort by the United States Army to defend the international border. Five to fifteen attackers were killed in the raid and more among the wounded may have died shortly afterwards.
Petra Vela de Vidal Kenedy was a Mexican rancher, philanthropist, and matriarch of one of the most influential families in South Texas during the nineteenth century. She was one of the few 19th-century upper-class women of Mexican origin in Texas.
The Cavalry of Christ were Oblate fathers who traveled long distances on horseback to minister to Catholics living on isolated ranches in the Rio Grande region from 1849 to 1904.
Adrián J. Vidal was a Mexican soldier who fought in both the American Civil War and the Mexican War against France in the 1860s. He served the Confederate States of America Army from October 1862 to 1863, when he and his troops defected. He was branded a traitor, having killed one Confederate soldier, wounded another, and killed as many as ten or more individuals. He was said to have planned an attack on Brownsville after defecting from the Confederate Army. In the end, General Hamilton P. Bee ordered that Fort Brown and Brownsville be set on fire, destroying large quantities of cotton and military goods under the watchful eyes of 400 Union troops as well as Juan Cortina and his soldiers on the opposite bank of the Rio Grande. The next month, he enlisted in the Union Army, serving just six months. During that time he captured an Army tugboat and its crew. He then fought under General Juan Cortina during the Second French intervention in Mexico. Vidal was captured by the French who executed him by a firing squad in June 1865.
Helen Kleberg Groves was a horsewoman and cattle rancher dubbed the "First Lady of Cutting" by the San Antonio Express-News and inducted in 1988 into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame. She was born in San Antonio, Texas, and raised in Kingsville, Texas, on the King Ranch, founded by her great-grandfather, Richard King. In 1946, she led the King Ranch's Thoroughbred racehorse, Assault, into the winner's circle after his Triple Crown victory in the Preakness. Groves attended all three of his Triple Crown races. Assault was, and still is, the only Texas-bred winner of the Triple Crown.
Mifflin Kenedy (1818–1895) was a rancher, steamboat operator, and investor who settled in Texas. He began his steamboating career on the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri Rivers. He then went to Texas and northern Mexico, where he helped get many steamboats to the Rio Grande area during the First Cortina War (1859–1860). Using the Corvette, he transported General Zachary Taylor and his soldiers on the Rio Grande and then overland to Camargo, Mexico. He became successful during the Civil War when he transported goods along the Rio Grande. Kenedy operated ranches and invested in railroads in Texas, some of them in partnership with Richard King. He was among the first ranchers to fence in his ranches, starting with the 36-miles of fencing around Laureles Ranch. Kenedy was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners.
Kenedy Ranch, also called La Parra Ranch, is located in Kenedy County, Texas. It was established in 1882 by Mifflin Kenedy, a steamboat operator and rancher. His friend and business partner, Richard King, established the adjoining King Ranch. It began as a cattle ranch, but it has found other sources of revenue, including guided hunting and wind farms, due to the changing economy. The town of Sarita was founded in 1904 on land that had been owned by the Kenedy Farm.
1 2 "King Ranch". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on November 13, 2009. Retrieved July 27, 2016.
↑ Note: A National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination document should be available upon request from the National Park Service for this site, but it appears not to be available on-line from the NPS Focus search siteArchived August 3, 2012, at the Wayback Machine .
↑ "King Ranch". www.tchof.com. Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame | Fort Worth Texas. November 20, 2018. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
John Cypher, Bob Kleberg and the King Ranch: A Worldwide Sea of Grass, ISBN978-0-292-71187-7
Don Graham, The Kings of Texas: The 150-Year Saga of an American Ranching Empire, ISBN0-471-39451-3
Groves, Helen Kleberg (April 2017), Bob and Helen Kleberg of King Ranch. San Antonio, Texas: Trinity University Press. ISBN978-1-595-34817-3
Tom Lea (1957), The King Ranch. Two volumes. 838 pages. Index. Maps and drawings by the author. Boston: Little, Brown. Library of Congress catalog card:57-7839
External links
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