Kings Ranch, Kingsville, TX. Since I'm still catching up on posting, these pictures were taken on June 6th. We went on a driving tour of the ranch and although it is a working ranch it is not at all like you see in the western movies. Other than our tour bus driver we saw no real Kininos working with the animals. Herds and/or individual animals are pastured according to their purpose. Mating, birthing, grazing, waiting to be shipped off for slaughtering. Each animal has a record of statistics from birth to death. It is all very technical. Instead of riding out and rounding the animals up when needed, although it is sometimes done, the ranch has a sweet treat that the animals know awaits them when called. Not much work involved. Each horse is assigned to a cowboy when it is born and no one else works with it. This is done to gain trust and makes breaking the horse easier. I wonder what happens when the horse is sold and knows only one human!

Workers are allowed to live off the ranch but residency is preferred. Homes are build on an as needed basis. There is even a school on the ranch which currently has 150 students.

Many ranch hands are decendants of the original Mexicans who came with King to start the ranch in the 1800's. He had gone to a small village to buy cattle and realized that with the cattle gone the villagers could not survive. He promised all who came back to TX with him a place to live, food, and wages.

The original house is now maintained as a hotel for King family members. There are maids and a chef in the building at all times. Actual ranch administrators live in homes on the ranch.

I threw in the picture of the tree because of it's unusual shape.