King Ranch, located in South Texas between Corpus Christi and Brownsville, is one of the largest ranches in the world. (The world’s largest is the 6,000,000 acre Anna Creek station in Australia, and the largest contiguous U.S. ranch is the Waggoner Ranch near Vernon, Texas.) The King Ranch comprises 825,000 acres (3,340 km2; 1,289 sq mi) and was founded in 1853 by Captain Richard King and Gideon K. Lewis, includes portions of six Texas counties, including most of Kleberg County and much of Kenedy County, with portions extending into Brooks, Jim Wells, Nueces, and Willacy Counties. The ranch does not consist of one single contiguous plot of land, but rather four large sections called divisions. The divisions are the Santa Gertrudis, the Laureles, the Encino and the Norias. Only two of the four divisions border each other, and that border is relatively short. The ranch was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961.
In addition to cattle, King Ranch raises quarter horses, cutting horses and thoroughbreds, and produced the 1946 US Triple Crown winner Assault and 1950 Kentucky Derby winnerMiddleground. They also owned a share of La Troienne, the greatest broodmare of the 20th century. The King Ranch had the honor of raising the first quarter horse registered with theAmerican Quarter Horse Association. The stallion’s name was Wimpy P-1 and he was given registration number one. In addition, the King Ranch company operates a local museum, maintains other property concerns and works with Texas A&M University to perform agricultural research and development.
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