King Ranch Story

The King Ranch has been the subject of international fascination for over a century. Author Mona Sizer brings the great ranch's history to life in this warm-hearted story of love, passion, and power never before seen on this continent. Added to the story are terrifying tales of ancient ghosts that still imbue many of the secret places on the ranch with a sense of mystery and fear.

"Centennial series of the Association of Former Students, Texas A & M University ; no. 49." The story about America's largest and most progressive cattle ranch.

King Ranch. The name is embroidered in the tapestry of Texas, rising from the sunbaked coastal plains in the infancy of the state itself. King Ranch is the inspiration of legends and speculation, tradition and history. Rawhide-tough through drought, Indian attacks, Civil War, and the Great Depression, among other trials, King Ranch is the star of Texas. Now the memoirs of Helen King Kleberg Alexander-Groves, the only child of Bob and Helen Kleberg, give a personal glimpse of life on the storied ranch of the Kings and the Klebergs. This intimate and compelling book chronicles not only the history of the ranch but also the life of Bob and Helen Kleberg, the first family of cattle ranching. From the Santa Gertrudis, the first cattle breed developed in America and the first breed recognized worldwide in over a century, to the Triple Crown–winning Thoroughbred Assault, Bob and Helen Kleberg changed the ranching industry. The memoirs of “Helenita” open the door to the romance of Southwest cattle ranching, as well as the grit, glory, and inner workings of King Ranch in Texas and its ranches around the world. With over 200 photographs, some by Toni Frissell and many by her close friend and fellow photographer Helen Kleberg herself, this lavishly illustrated portrait includes accounts of the Klebergs’ famous hospitality, extended not only to the celebrities who were entertained regularly but also to the Kineños, the loyal ranch hands first brought to King Ranch by Captain King. Hemingwayesque photos depict hunting adventures in the Texas brush country—for which the ranch is still famous. Bob and Helen Kleberg of King Ranch is a view from the center of the King Ranch legacy, perpetuated now for some 150 years. Bob and Helen Kleberg of King Ranch is a requisite addition to the library of any ranching, history, or Texana aficionado.

This absorbing biography, written by Kleberg's top assistant of many years, captures both the life of the man and the spirit of the kingdom he ruled, offering a rare, insider's view of life on a fabled Texas ranch.

The golondrina is a small and undistinguished swallow. But in Spanish, the word has evoked a thousand poems and songs dedicated to the migrant's departure and hoped-for return. As such, the migrant becomes like the swallow, a dream-seeker whose real home is nowhere, everywhere, and especially in the heart of the person left behind. The swallow in this story is Amada García, a young Mexican woman in a brutal marriage, who makes a heart-wrenching decision—to leave her young daughter behind in Mexico as she escapes to el Norte searching for love, which she believes must reside in the country of freedom. However, she falls in love with the man who brings her to the Texas border, and the memories of those three passionate days forever sustain and define her journey in Texas. She meets and marries Lázaro Mistral, who is on his own journey—to reclaim the land his family lost after the U.S.-Mexican War. Their opposing narratives about love and war become the legacy of their first-born daughter, Lucero, who must reconcile their stories into her struggle to find "home," as her mother, Amada, finally discovers the country where love beats its infinite wings. Bárbara Renaud González, a native-born Tejana and acclaimed journalist, has written a lyrical story of land, love, and loss, bringing us the first novel of a working-class Tejano family set in the cruelest beauty of the Texas panhandle. Her story exposes the brutality, tragedy, and hope of her homeland and helps to fill a dearth of scholarly and literary works on Mexican and Mexican American women in post–World War II Texas.

In this tribute to a pioneer conservationist, Duane M. Leach celebrates the life of an exceptional ranch manager on a legendary Texas ranch, a visionary for wildlife and modern ranch management, and an extraordinarily dedicated and generous man. Caesar Kleberg went to work on the King Ranch in 1900. For almost thirty years he oversaw the operations of the sprawling Norias division, a vast acreage in South Texas where he came to appreciate the importance of rangeland not only for cattle but also for wildlife. Creating a wildlife management and conservation initiative far ahead of its time, Kleberg established strict hunting rules and a program of enlightened habitat restoration. Because of his efforts and foresight, by his death in 1946 there were more white-tailed deer, wild turkey, bobwhite quail, javelinas, and mourning dove on the King Ranch than in the rest of the state. Kleberg’s legacy lives on at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute in Kingsville, where a research program he helped found has gained recognition far beyond the pastures of Norias.

The King Ranch has been the subject of international fascination for over a century. Author Mona Sizer brings the great ranch's history to life in this warm-hearted story of love, passion, and power never before seen on this continent. Added to the story are terrifying tales of ancient ghosts that still imbue many of the secret places on the ranch with a sense of mystery and fear.

The Caller-Times publishe this edition and it was widely distributed. The demand for more copies after publication was more than the newspaper could meet. This book is an attempt to supply that demand. In it are selected stories and pictures from the King Ranch Centennial Edition.

"Centennial series of the Association of Former Students, Texas A & M University ; no. 49." The story about America's largest and most progressive cattle ranch.

Winner, San Antonio Conservation Society Citation, 2011 Texas's King Ranch has become legendary for a long list of innovations, the most enduring of which is the development of the first official cattle breed in the Americas, the Santa Gertrudis. Among those who played a crucial role in the breed's success were Librado and Alberto "Beto" Maldonado, master showmen of the King Ranch. A true "bull whisperer," Librado Maldonado developed a method for gentling and training cattle that allowed him and his son Beto to show the Santa Gertrudis to their best advantage at venues ranging from the famous King Ranch auctions to a Chicago television studio to the Dallas–Fort Worth airport. They even boarded a plane with the cattle en route to the International Fair in Casablanca, Morocco, where they introduced the Santa Gertrudis to the African continent. In The Master Showmen of King Ranch, Beto Maldonado recalls an eventful life of training and showing King Ranch Santa Gertrudis. He engagingly describes the process of teaching two-thousand-pound bulls to behave "like gentlemen" in the show ring, as well as the significant logistical challenges of transporting them to various high-profile venues around the world. His reminiscences, which span more than seventy years of King Ranch history, combine with quotes from other Maldonado family members, co-workers, and ranch owners to shed light on many aspects of ranch life, including day-to-day work routines, family relations, women's roles, annual celebrations, and the enduring ties between King Ranch owners and the vaquero families who worked on the ranch through several generations.