Who are the top land owner in Texas?
Dec 08, 2021 · For generations now, the Kleberg family—namesake of Kleberg County, Tex.—has owned King Ranch. Cattle rancher Richard King and wife Henrietta founded the ranch, according to a 1980 Texas Monthly…
Who is the largest land owner in Texas?
Apr 20, 2020 · Keeping this in view, who currently owns King Ranch? The King Ranch LK brand, still in use today, stands for partners Lewis and King. 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 (63 km 2; 24.2 sq mi) holding that encompassed present-day Kingsville, …
Who owns the public lands in Texas?
Jan 24, 2020 · Today only one of the estimated two hundred lineal descendants of Richard and Henrietta King works and lives full-time on the ranch: 31-year-old James Clement III, whose father, Dallas resident James H. Consequently, who owns the biggest ranch in Texas? The 10 Biggest Ranches in Texas. King Ranch – 911,215 acres. Briscoe Ranches – 560,000 acres. Waggoner …
How many acres is the King Ranch?
Jun 22, 2021 · King Ranch is a corporation that is privately owned by around 60 people who are the descendants of Richard King. These descendants come through the line of King’s daughter Alice and her husband Robert Kleberg and their five children. King Ranch claims not only a large piece of Texas history but the cattle history as well.
Who founded the King Ranch?
When Captain Richard King set his boots on the land that would become King Ranch in Corpus Christi, he probably didn’t expect to own a plot of land larger than Rhode Island one day. However, in 1853, he founded the King Ranch that has, ever since, been a staple in Texas history.
Who set his boots on the land that would become King Ranch in Corpus Christi?
When Captain Richard King set his boots on the land that would become King Ranch in Corpus Christi, he probably didn’t expect to own a plot of land larger than Rhode Island one day.
What is the King Ranch?
The King Ranch Main House is one of the most iconic homes in the state. For one hundred years, the private residence of the most powerful cattle family in history has been hidden from public view, but as these exclusive photographs reveal, its interior is every bit as grand and mythic as the land itself.
How many acres are there in the King Ranch?
Indeed, along with the Alamo and the Capitol, the 825,000-acre King Ranch, which a Rio Grande steamboat captain named Richard King started as a 15,500-acre cow camp in 1853, remains our state’s most storied landmark.
What is the largest ranch in Texas?
They pile into a van or a passenger bus to tour the King Ranch, the largest ranch in Texas. They are driven by pastures where they see cherry-red cows and, if they’re lucky, some cowboys on horseback. They are shown water wells, windmills, corrals, barns, plows, and barbed-wire fences.
When was the King’s house built?
And the Main House, which was built in 1915, is one of our state’s most famous residences: the ancestral home for seven generations of the King family. For decades, reporters and historians have begged to get a look inside the Main House. But they have almost always been turned down.
Who is Bob’s nephew?
The kids ran all around the house. “For us, it was like a huge fort,” says Tio Kleberg, Bob’s nephew, who was raised in Kingsville in the fifties and sixties and who spent his weekends and summers living at the Main House. “We’d play hide and seek. We’d climb up on the roof.
Who painted the Alamo?
The barrel-vaulted Grand Salon features a painting of the Alamo that was commissioned by Henrietta King. After her death, her body lay in state in this room. By then, Robert had suffered a stroke and the King Ranch was being run by his son, Robert Junior, who went by Bob.
Overview
King Ranch is the largest ranch in the United States. At some 825,000 acres (3,340 km ; 1,289 sq mi) it is larger than the state of Rhode Island or Luxembourg. It is mainly a cattle ranch, but also produced the Triple Crown winning racehorse Assault.
The ranch is located in South Texas between Corpus Christi and Brownsvilleadja…
History
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 12t…
In popular culture
Edna Ferber’s novel Giant of the ranches of Texas was turned into a film of the same name. Many of the events of the King Ranch, such as the discovery of oil on the property, are also in the film. Working-class millionaires can still be found in the oil towns of Texas, as well.
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.
See also
• Anna Creek Station
• List of ranches and stations
• List of the largest stations in Australia
Footnotes
• ^ 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.
Further reading
• John Cypher, Bob Kleberg and the King Ranch: A Worldwide Sea of Grass, ISBN 978-0-292-71187-7
• Don Graham, The Kings of Texas: The 150-Year Saga of an American Ranching Empire, ISBN 0-471-39451-3
• Groves, Helen Kleberg (April 2017), Bob and Helen Kleberg of King Ranch. San Antonio, Texas: Trinity University Press. ISBN 978-1-595-34817-3
External links
• Official website
• King Ranch from the Handbook of Texas Online
• Battle of Palimito Ranch from the Handbook of Texas Online
• Four generations of Kineños: 1854-1980