OT--The KING RANCH

getitdone1 · Post by **getitdone1** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 11:49 pm

Been at the Wikipedia encyclopedia site reading about the great, historic King Ranch.

Great read and recommend it highly. I must find more books about this ranch and sure that will be easy. Have a brother living in Dallas and I just might pay the King Ranch and museum a visit next time I'm down that way. Surely a major movie was derived from that outstanding ranch. Does anyone know? From what I gather from this Wikipedia article this ranch seems to capture the essence of all that's great about so many of the old western ranches. (Certaintly no intent to slight modern day ranchers.)

What got me to doing a little research about this ranch was reading about the immense amount of ranch land now owned by Ted Turner. As of 2007 Turner is thought to be the largest landowner in the country with 2 million acres. Raising quite a few buffalo on some of the acreage.

Don McCullough

JReed · Post by **JReed** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 11:55 pm

You mean its not just a pickup truck

.

If you go please take lots of pics and share it always sounded like it would be cool to visit.

crs · Post by **crs** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 12:17 am

I killed my first buck about 10 yards off the King ranch, while hunting on a friends ranch. There is some excellent deer hunting on the King, but it is not cheap.

Charles · Post by **Charles** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 7:36 am

The standard reference on the history of the King Ranch is the two volumn set by Tom Lea. Highly recommended!

The vast majority of Ted Turner's land is BLM or State lease lands. A small minority is deeded acres. A couple of hundred deeded acres can control 50,000 acres of public land.

The King is something around 600,000 deeded acres. There is very, very little public land in Texas. I am pulling that out of some old memory, so if anybody comes up with aother figure I will yield to better knowledge.

I grew up and currently live in South Texas and the King Ranch is very much a prescence down here. Many, many stories to be told about that place. A few of them are actualy true.

There are several mega large ranches (100,000 to 200,000 acres) in Texas, like the 6666, the Pitchfork, Swenson and Wagoner. None however as large as the King.

k8bor · Post by **k8bor** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 7:43 am

My son was stationed in Corpus Christi for almost four years and did quite a bit of hunting on the Navy Dept. ranch down there. He's been to the King ranch because he was friends with a couple of the hands there and says there are a lot of $ 7,500.00 bucks on that ranch.

getitdone1 · Post by **getitdone1** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 10:02 am

Charles,

Your a very knowledgeable fellow. Along with your being in the King Ranch area you are pretty close to my favorite boot maker--Lucchese. President's and movie stars would often wear'em. Think the other boot-makers have pretty much caught-up with their quality.

They have had a little more refined look about them--hard to explain. I'd rather look at cowboy boots than wear them.

Thanks for the tip about the best author of King Ranch history. Seen that author and several others at Amazon.com

Seen one book titled: "The Queen who was a King." Of course about Henreitta King wife of one of the founders. Sounds like a very remarkable woman.

I was suprised to find that Robert E. Lee and the Kings were good acquaintances. Yes, I mean the famous Confederate general.

I will be doing considerably more reading about the King Ranch.

Don McCullough

Jeeps · Post by **Jeeps** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 11:14 am

Charles wrote:
The King is something around 600,000 deeded acres.

ROFL, I grew up on a 300 acre dairy farm, around 50 milkers at any given
time.

I can't even THINK in those kind of numbers

Gun Smith · Post by **Gun Smith** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 11:28 am

My dad, born and raised in Texas, always said the King ranch comprised over a million acres. Any truth in that? Also , was part of it one of the Mexican land grants given to early Texas settlers as an incentive to settle? Steven Austin was given over 250,000 acres by the Mexican government over the years for bringing American settlers to Texas in the 1820/30's.

DennisD · Post by **DennisD** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 11:51 am

I live a little way SW of Houston (near Steven F. Austin state park) in the area where the 300 first started to settle Texas. Lots of history here. I don't think Austin's land went that far south to where King ranch is.

I only own 7.5 acres in the woods and I'm trying to buy 30 more. I just can't imagine having so much land that it takes days to cross it. Every time I drive down in south Texas by King ranch I'm just in awe.

Terry Murbach · Post by **Terry Murbach** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 12:12 pm

WELL SHUCKS, I THOUGHT THE XIT WAS THE BIGGEST RANCH IN TEXAS SINCE IT COVERED TEN COUNTIES.

Gun Smith · Post by **Gun Smith** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 12:13 pm

Hi Dennis, I just finished a book about the Mexican/American War. The story about Austin came from there. I didn't know where his land was in relation to the King.

Charles · Post by **Charles** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 12:29 pm

Don... Lee was a Lt. Col. of Dragoons/Cavalry down here in South Texas when the War of Northern Agression started. He was indeed friends and he and his men often spent the night at King's home when on patrol for bad guys.

All of the land down here was at one time part of the Spanish Crown land grant system. Most of it was the "Espiritu Santo (Holy Spirit) grand. Descendents of the original grant holders still live in the area.

Richard King came to Brownsville as a Riverboat Captain and from there set up his cattle and land empire. There are so many stories about how he want about doing that, it is hard to tell the truth from the fiction.

For many years I had my boots made by Rios, because that is who made Roy Roger's boots. The last pair I had made was made by them. I think I will have Leddy make my next pair.

I have hunted on the King several times back in the 60s. At that time there was no commercial hunting there, it was by invitation only. Having grown up down here, I knew folks who had invitations, although I myself was to far down the food chain to be noticed by the Kleberg family.

I did attend one double throwdown wedding reception the the King Ranch headquarters when the sion of the Yturria family (big ranch family adjoining the King to the South) and the daugter of Shelby Longoria. Shelby and his family own the Bank of Mexico.

The Klebergs flew in a plane load of flowers and covered the swimming pool with floating flowers. They filled the kiddie wading pool with ice and hundreds of bottles of champaign. The food was "to die for".

There have truly been some high times down among the brush, cactus and rattlesnakes, and the King ranch has been in the middle of most of them.

Charles · Post by **Charles** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 12:32 pm

Terry... In the past there have been several ranches in Texas as large or larger than the King. The XIT and the Matador are the ones I can remember, but they are long done and have been broken up generatons ago.

Charles · Post by **Charles** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 12:36 pm

The Mexican Goverment have several grants of land for American developers to form colonies. The Peter's Colony and the Austin Colony were the first two. Both of these are at least 300 to 400 miles North and East of the King ranch.

Terry Murbach · Post by **Terry Murbach** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 1:24 pm

Charles wrote:Terry... In the past there have been several ranches in Texas as large or larger than the King. The XIT and the Matador are the ones I can remember, but they are long done and have been broken up generatons ago.

HOLY SMOKES, THERE IS NO XIT RANCH ANYMORE !!?? HOW THE DEVIL CAN THAT BE ??!! WHO ALLOWED THAT TO HAPPEN ??!! THIS JUST SCREWED UP MY WHOLE VIEW OF TEXAS. WHEN I WAS A KID THE XIT WAS WHERE I WAS GONNA RUN AWAY TO, TO WRANGLE HORSES, SHOOT INJUNS, AND DRINK LONE STAR BEER UNTIL THE BREWERY RAN DRY. CHARLES, YOU DID NOT HAVE TO TELL ME THIS....YOU COULD HAVE LET ME GROW OLD AND CROAK WITH ALL MY DELUSIONS INTACT.
WE WERE GONNA VACATION IN THE PANHANDLE THE END OF MAY AND NOW I SUPPOSE YOU'RE GONNA TELL ME THE PALO DURO CANYON WAS JUST A darned DITCH THEY'VE ALREADY FILLED IN...AND THERE AIN'T NO CANADIAN RIVER...AND DUMAS IS KAPUT...HEREFORD DRIED UP AND BLEW AWAY...THE TIERRA BLANCO IS JUST DUST....shiq...

cowboykell · Post by **cowboykell** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 1:53 pm

A Texan told me his ranch was so large he could drive all day in any direction and still be on his land. I told him I had a truck like that one time.

Charles · Post by **Charles** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 2:50 pm

Terry.... You need to keep your fantasies in line with current realities. I was going to run away and work for the 6666 (four sixes) ranch. It is still there.

You will be happy to know the Palo Duro Canyon is still there. The bottom of that canyon was where Charlie Goodknight has his ranch.

The Canadian River is still there as is Hereford. My son-in-law is from Hereford. You might want to hold you nose as it is full of cattle feed lots. It still is the County Seat of Deaf Smith County.

As for Tierra Blanco creek, you are on you own there. When I was a kid we hunted and camped on the Arroyo Colorado.

getitdone1 · Post by **getitdone1** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 8:39 pm

cowboykell wrote:A Texan told me his ranch was so large he could drive all day in any direction and still be on his land. I told him I had a truck like that one time.

cowboykell,

That's one of the best clean jokes I've heard in a long time !

Don McCullough

getitdone1 · Post by **getitdone1** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 8:56 pm

Charles,

How would the list of favored--and historically famous--guns run over the ranch years when Mr. King was living? I know Mrs. King lived several years longer.

1853? year ranch began--probable gun?
1860?
1870?
1880? 1873 Winchester, I assume

As I recall Mr. King died in 1885. What a life!

Expect the museum down there would show'em all.

Don McCullough

RSY · Post by **RSY** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 10:29 pm

When I was about 10 years old, I had a big crush on one of the Kleberg girls at summer camp one year. Too bad that didn't pan out.

I wouldn't mind being a "kept" man down there on the ranch.

rsy

Charles · Post by **Charles** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 10:54 pm

Don... Your guess would be as good as mine about the rifles used on the King Ranch. I would suspect most of them would be Winchester leverguns as in Texas which I was a kid and before, Winchester and rifle were synonyms.

I must confess I didn't know they had a museum, I guess I will have to check it out. I get out to the headquarters once a year for their big charity breakfast.

RSY · Post by **RSY** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 11:25 pm

For bite-size stuff on Texas history, the State's Handbook of Texas Online is darned exhaustive and hard to beat:

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/onli ... /apk1.html

I wonder if they'll get their Cuban holdings back if they ever de-communize down there???

ornery · Post by **ornery** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 12:20 am

Managed a place for a Kleberg. Just a small place fer some cows and horses. Too much money, too much bullcrap, too many SPOILED rich kids. Knew Tio fer' a while. Have trained cutters for quite a few years. Good people in general, but waaaaayy too much dinero.

XIT IS still there but ain't what she was. Commercial cows, feed lot, Ag...you know, modern ranching.

blackhawk44 · Post by **blackhawk44** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 11:55 am

Charles, its been many years since I've checked but I always wonder how many of their non-Kleberg County holdings that they still control? Had always heard that the West Texas and Australian divisions were much larger than the home ranch.

From their own website--"Acquisitions came through the purchase of property in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, and West Texas, and through joint ventures and partnerships in Florida. Management developed ranching operations overseas with land purchases in Argentina, Cuba, Brazil, Australia, Venezuela, Spain, and Morocco."

Charles · Post by **Charles** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 11:04 pm

I don't know what their non-South Texas lands holdings are, but I do know that the income from ranching is trivial compared to the oil and gas revenue on the original property.

There are also lots of legal squabbles between the various family member that have a piece of the pie. Where there is that much money involved, such is to be expected due to the reality of human nature.

brucew44guns · Post by **brucew44guns** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 11:28 pm

Gun Smith wrote:My dad, born and raised in Texas, always said the King ranch comprised over a million acres. Any truth in that? Also , was part of it one of the Mexican land grants given to early Texas settlers as an incentive to settle? Steven Austin was given over 250,000 acres by the Mexican government over the years for bringing American settlers to Texas in the 1820/30's.

I'm pretty sure the King Ranch did consist---at one time---of over 1 million acres, but they sold some of it. But they do own thousands of acres of citrus orchards in Florida as well. They are very successful business folks, the cows arn't all they do, by a long shot. Excellent managers they are.

Post by **Chuck 100 yd** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 12:13 am

I read once that on the XIT that a GOOD rider on a GOOD horse could ride all the fencelines in a summer!!