King Ranch

The King Ranch is the largest ranch in the United States, comprising some 825,000 acres (3,340 km2; 1,289 sq mi). It is mainly a cattle ranch, but has also produced racehorses. The headquarters of the King Ranch are in an office building in Houston, Texas. The ranch itself is located in South Texas between Corpus Christi and Brownsville, adjacent to Kingsville. It was founded in 1853 by Captain Richard King and Gideon K. Lewis. It includes parts of six Texas counties: most of Kleberg, much of Kenedy, and parts of Brooks, Jim Wells, Nueces, and Willacy counties. The ranch consists of four divisions of land: Santa Gertrudis, Laureles, Encino, and Norias. The Santa Gertrudis and Laureles divisions share a short length of border, and the Encino and Norias divisions are both entirely separate. The ranch was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961. The Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame inducted the ranch in 2019. The King Ranch was one of the first ranches to be added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966, because of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 which was signed that same day.