b'o u rh i s t o r yGertrudis King Kleberg), which proved to be the most capable and durable horse on the ranch. In his quest to produce the very best Quarter Horses in the world, Old Sorrel was bred with Thorough-bred mares that the Klebergs began buying in 1910. When the American Quarter Horse Association was founded in 1940, it was agreed that the winner of the 1941 Fort Worth Stock Show competition would be named the countrys number one studan honor that went to Wimpy, a grandson of Old Sorrel.During the same period, the Klebergs entered the Thoroughbred racing world, with the purchase of numerous mares and the 1936 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner, Bold Venture, the only horse to sire two Derby winners. First, in 1946, King Ranch born and trained, Assault, shocked the horse racing world by winning the Triple Crownstill the only horse from Texas to do so. Then, in 1950, Middleground won the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes.When Mrs. Henrietta Chamberlain King died in 1925, aged 92,the Santa Gertrudis Ranch to-taled more than 1.2 million acres located between Corpus Christi and the Rio Grande Valley. Her net worth was $5.4 million (about $93 million today), for which almost $900,000 in taxes were paid to Above: An original map of the four divisions of the Kingthefederalgovernmentmoneyherheirsmost-Ranch, following its incorporation in 1934, almost aly borrowed, which left the estate $3 million in decade after the death of Henrietta King. Left: Marsaladebt, upon the stock market crash of 1929. Some Red, a champion Quarter Horse known as a Sorrel800,000 acres were left to Alice and Robert, Sr., Stallion, a direct descendant of Old Sorrel, grandfatherthat included the Santa Gertrudis and Laureles Di-to the first AQHA stud, owned by Bob Kleberg. Below:visions to the north, along with the recently-pur-Alberto Lolo Trevino, a fourth-generation Kineo. chased Encino Division, located south of Falfurrias. The heirs of the Norias division agreed to adjoin. The Klebergs combined property was officially in-corporated as the King Ranch in 1934.Robert J. Bob Kleberg, III (Jr.), returned from his second year in college to run the Santa Gertrudis Ranch after his father suffered a stroke, in 1918. Then age 22, of he and his older brother, Rich-ard Dick Kleberg, Bob was the most-interested in learning ranching skills and developing the in-stincts of the vaquerosas a kid, living, at times, in a cottage next to the main house with the ranch foreman and his cousin, Caesar Kleberg. Dick Kleberg served in World War I, and then went to work on the business side of the ranch, saving it financially more than once, during the Depression. He went on to serve seven terms in the U.S. Con-gress, even giving LBJ his first job in politics.Starting in the early 1920s, the Humble Oil & Refin-ing Co., founded in 1917, unsuccessfully drilled mul-tiple wells on the ranch, before letting their lease expire in 1926. Years later, a geologist at Humble namedWallacePrattconvincedmanagementto give it another try, and on September 27, 1933, a 92THE COASTAL BEND GUIDE TheCoastalBend.com'