King Ranch

 We made a short hour and a half drive early in the morning to an RV park in Kingsville. The purpose was twofold. I needed to have WiFi access to do some work and we wanted to visit the King Ranch. 

At 825,000 acres, the ranch is larger than the state of Rhode Island and is the largest working ranch in the US.  Richard King was orphaned at the age of eight and had not attended school. He had many adventures before ending up under the care of a steam boat captain. He eventually became a captain and bought many steam ships that were surplus from the Spanish American War. He knew the railroad was going to take over from the steam boats and he knew he had to do something different. 

Land in Texas had been deeded to Mexicans by the Spanish but had never been claimed. He was able to buy his first parcel of land, 15000 acres for $300. His son and son-in-law established the Santa Gertrudis brand of cattle, 3/8 Brahma and 5/8 Shorthorn. Although the KingRanch owned the rights on a number of brands, the running W became Richard’s favourite brand. Today you will see it on Ford F150 King Ranch trucks and on everything they sell in their saddle shop which includes clothing and tableware in addition to saddles.

Today, there are only around 20 cowboys that work the ranch. There are 350 to 400 employees in all of the divisions which include a John Deere dealership and a tractor tire dealership. There are 4 locations of the ranch and each one has a colony where the employees receive free housing in single family dwellings. The colony at the main ranch had its own church and school before the town of Kingsville grew. 

As much as we enjoyed learning about Richard and the workings of the ranch, we also enjoyed seeing the wildlife that was abundant on the ranch. We saw roadrunners (not being chased by Wile E Coyote), wild hogs, javelinas, deer,  and birds including caracara, wild turkeys, hawks, kestrels and roseate spoonbills.