Kingsville, Texas: Gem City of the Southwest

The next stop on our trek down the Texas coast was Kingsville. While not technically on the coast, it was worthy of a stop for a tour of the King Ranch.

Kingsville is the county seat of Kelberg County and was named for Richard King. It was founded to provide infrastructure for the King Ranch and to serve as the headquarters for the newly founded St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway.
 
Richard King was a river boat captain. During the Mexican American War he was enlisted as a ship master running supplies to the US Army along the Rio Grande. After the war, he and his partner, Mifflin Kenedy, created a steamboat firm. They basically had a monopoly on the river traffic along the Rio Grande.

During the Civil War, King sold cattle to the Confederacy while also helping ship cotton along the “Cotton Road” that went through Mexico. The Union soldiers invaded his ranch, but King had fled to Mexico. This bridge was part of the Cotton Road.
 
As early as 1853, Richard King began buying land for his ranch. It consists of 825,000 acres and is the largest ranch in Texas. According to our guide, when King bought a herd of cattle in Mexico, he offered jobs, education, lodging and a “full belly” to any of the Mexican ranch hands that wanted to come with him. And they did.

The tour of King’s Ranch was a little disappointing as we were 12 people crammed into a bus. If you didn’t have a window seat, you weren’t seeing much of anything. We only got down once to check out a weaver’s cabin and to get a little history of the ranch.

Our guide was a lovely man, a retired cowboy who actually worked the ranch, but he wasn’t the best tour guide. Inside the cabin, he described the need for blankets to keep the horses from getting saddle sores. The guy they hired made these cool blanket on the loom and then taught others how to do the same.

The main house of the ranch, from what we could see, is quite beautiful. It’s 37,000 square feet and has 25 rooms. It was built in 1915 and replaced the original house that had burned in 1912. I would have loved to get off the bus and walk around and get good pics of the house but it was not allowed. Not sure why. I pulled this photo from the internet. The cannon was given to Captain King to help protect the ranch. Nobody lives in the house now. There are 200 descendants that come here annually for a shareholders meeting. They can stay here but not live here permanently. I would have LOVED a tour of the house! 

The building next to the house is built like a fortress and it was. Whenever there was trouble, everyone would come to this building and from here they would defend the ranch. Other times, it was a company store. The store closed, according to our guide, because it couldn’t compete with Walmart and Amazon.

There are still people that work for the ranch that live on site in home built for that purpose. Once you retire or quit, you have to give up your house for your replacement. Our guide lived on site but had to leave once he retired. In addition to cattle, they raise quarter horses here. They had one horse, Assault, that won the triple crown. This guy is a breeder. We saw lots of animals on our tour: horses, cattle, turkeys, javelinas and peacocks. King Ranch was the inspiration of the book Giant by Edna Ferber.

As I mentioned, Kingsville is the county seat of Kleberg County named for Robert Kleberg, a veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto. His son, also named Robert, was the manager of the King Ranch.

The Kleberg County Courthouse was built in 1914. In 2016, an emergency grant was awarded to address severe structural issues. At least they fixed the problems and didn’t just tear it down. 

There is a branch of Texas A&M University here. Who knew? Their mascot is the javelina. We drove around a bit. It's a small campus but big enough to give that college vibe. The buildings are all labeled with what they are and when they were built, which I thought was pretty cool.

This is the 1904 Train Depot Museum, which I think is only open on a blue moon. The depot was built in 1904 for the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railroad. It became part of the Missouri Pacific Railroad in 1926. Passenger service was phased out in 1966.

This cool looking building is the Henrietta King High School. It was built in 1909 and named for Richard King's wife, Henrietta, who was an influential figure in her own right. When Richard King escaped to Mexico during the Civil War, she stayed behind. It was her land that was donated for the railroad. After King died, she managed the ranch with Robert Kleberg. Girl power!

This was the local Dr Pepper bottling company. It opened in 1928 and bottled Dr Pepper, 7-up and Delaware Punch. It closed when the company restructured and consolidated their operations. 

There are about 28K people that live in Kingsville. It was an interesting town. There's a Naval Air Station there and it's one of the biggest employers for the town. The second biggest employer is Texas A&M University. Main Street has lots of old buildings that I would love to get the history on. 

They have an H-E-B that was super busy as we drove by. They also have Walmart and your assorted fast food chains. The only national restaurant chain I saw was Chili's. There was a lot of interesting history here. It just seemed to be lacking a little something that I can't put my finger on.

Still, don't take my word for it. If you're in the area, check it out!