Largest Cattle Ranch: America's Heartland Series

hello and welcome to America's heartland I'm Paul Ryan as a nation we're often fascinated and impressed by the exceptional the unique the best the biggest and that's why I think you'll get a kick out of this edition of America's heartland because we have some of Agriculture's biggest stories let's begin with the nation's biggest cattle ranch it's also one of the most historic located in South Texas it's where generations of two very different cultures have grown together into one very big family I've actually been on the Faro for 65 years spend today with Beto Maldonado and you'll feel like you're back in the Old West to the days when Texas cattle Baron's owned the land as far as the eye could see when dusty Cowboys led huge cattle drives across dry desert and endless plain Beto tells the tale of the King Ranch 825 thousand acres in the heart of South Texas the largest working cattle ranch in the US bigger than the state of Rhode Island and a place where employees tend to stick around his people are good people to work for I mean you're born and raised here and you don't want to go anywhere else Beto started working here 65 years ago milking cows when he was 10 years old later he worked in the veterinary division and now spends his golden years as a tour guide on the ranch in this era of consolidation and corporate acquisition Beto says the King Ranch is a throwback to the old days it remains largely in the hands of the same family that started it 150 years ago my predictions to King Ranch is that the they've done 150 years of ranching and I think they're going to try another hundreds it was Richard King who started it all in 1853 the Missouri native took his profits from a thriving Steamboat Company to buy 15,000 acres of untamed land along South Texas Santa Gertrudis Creek be married and started a family and crossed the Mexican border to buy cattle from a small impoverished village he bought the cattle then invited the entire village to come work for him the hundred or so villagers who accepted the offer came to be known as king he knows Spanish for King's Men it was a working relationship based on mutual friendship and respect that's continued for seven generations we always had worked like a family owners and also employees alberto lolo Trevino is a Vaquero a Mexican cowboy and a fifth-generation King ya know he started training horses in 1940 at age 10 a life of a cowboy is being happy all the time if you have worries leave him at home soon there were several hundred Caminos looking after close to 100 thousand head of cattle in the 1860s and 70s they drove 30,000 Texas Longhorns a thousand miles to northern markets later the ranch would develop its own breed called the Santa Gertrudis the first truly American breed of beef cattle the Richard King started and expanded the ranch it was his descendants who helped it thrive his widow henrietta king and son-in-law robert Clayburgh tapped the first artesian wells to bring irrigation to the parched land the pair helped build the first railroad in South Texas mrs. King donated 45,000 a KERS to start the town of Kingsville they expanded their land holdings to 1.2 million acres and planted thousands of acres of cotton and feed grain called Milo today two thousand miles of fencing enclose its pastures the King family's third generation sons Robert J and Richard Clayburgh developed new cattle breeds and started raising thoroughbred horses successes included a Triple Crown winner assault who won it all in 1946 King Ranch is both a National Historic Landmark and a popular tourist attraction it has its own Museum in Kingsville showing off everything from an old chuck wagon and saddles to the 1948 custom Buick convertible once used for hunting wildlife bus tours of the ranch leave city slickers pretty impressed I was a sauce truck but it was just so big it just blew us away the size of it maybe you'll get to meet a cowboy like Rick Falcone a fourth-generation King ya know he and his partners still manage close to sixty thousand cattle and cherish the life they have chosen I don't think I can sit in an office my office is my truck and I love it out here so this is where I like to be some of those people that are buried there are people that I knew and I loved a lot the way I look at it it's a it has been a big family members of the Kim family in the Canadians we all work together and and get it done that way I think it's going to be an ongoing deal because my boys 12 years old ready he's working out here and he loves it there's always room for more cowboys

Channel: America's Heartland

Views: 311,373

Rating: 4.7504106 out of 5

Keywords: agriculture, PBS, KVIE, farming, food, ranching, organic, conservation, environment, stewardship, food safety, livestock, animal welfare, free range PETA, meat, Texas, cattle, Beto Maldonado, Old West, Wild West, 1800s, cattle barons, land ownership, Paul Ryan, South Texas, Kingsville, Texas history, history, King Ranch, largest cattle ranch, United States, family farm, ancestral farm, Richard King, Lolo Trevino, dairy, beef, King's men, horses, Kineno

Id: ks7-O469KPU

Length: 5min 22sec (322 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 08 2008