King Ranch

Today our travels took us to Kingsville, Texas--the home of home of King Ranch. This ranch (the size of Rhode Island) is a National Historic Landmark and is thought to be the birthplace of the American ranching industry. It addition, the first American Quarter Horses werer produced here.

We took a guided tour of a small portion of the ranch. They a showed us a few of the 60,00+ cattle and 300+ Quarter Horses as well as some of the historic buildings around the ranch. The main house has over 15 bedrooms. We only got to see the outside. It was interesting to learn some of the history as well as how the ranch works. It is it's own city complete with colonies of resident employees and 3 schools for all the kids.

We took a trip to the historic part of downtown Kingsville where the saddle shop is located. They make individually crafted saddles by special order. It was interesting to see how much work goes into a saddle.