b'o u rh i s t o r ypromote the vast business opportunities that were offered in Corpus Christi. Thousands of fliers were circulated everywhere in the country where Kinney could find potentially interested investors, and Richard King was intrigued.Kings lonely and perilous trek from Brownsville to Corpus Christi led him through what was then known as the Wild Horse Desert, including over grass-lands of the Nueces Strip, the territory between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande. On the four-day journey, King and his small entourage camped along Santa Gertrudis Creek, the first flowing body of water they encoun-tered on the trip. Although King did not invest in Corpus Christi then, he saw the potential to raise livestock on the vast tracts southwest of the new city, and quickly formed a partnership with Texas Rangers Captain Gideon Legs Lewis to establish and operate a cow camp on land surrounding the creek.Back in those days, cattle and other livestock were owned and driven across open land by pioneers, meeting the seasonal feeding needs of the herd, while camping along trade routes where the animals were bred, birthed, sold, and even slaughtered. The concept of cattle ranching, as we know it now, had not come to the United States yet, in 1852, but had thrived in Mexico under a regime of ranching practices passed through generations of Spaniards from Europe, and on to the vaqueros of Northern Mexico.The intelligence and ingenuity that led Captain Richard King to prosperity in the steamboat business, which included his design of a new riverboat that could better navigate the difficult and unpredictable Rio Grande, would serve him well in his new venture into cattle ranching.Of this area, nothing in known,was the official notation on the 1830s Republic of Texas maps of the Rincon de Santa Gertrudis, the Spanish land grant that encompassed 15,500 acres located 124 miles north of Brownsville and 45 Top: A steamboat at work on the Rio Grande in the 19th Century, similar to those piloted and de- miles southwest of Corpus Christi. While American and European settlers had signed by Captain King. Above: An early team of Los Kineos (Kings Men) who moved most of theirpurchased and otherwise overtaken thousands of square miles of Texas land village of Cruillas, Tamaulipas, Mexico, to the Santa Gertrudis Ranch to work the herd of cattle thatfor cotton farming, the Wild Horse Desert was considered a wasteland with Captain King had purchased from them. Below: A map of ranch origins as depicted by famed El Pasono commercial value. Captain King located the heirs of the recently deceased artist and writer, Tom Lea, who published a two-volume history of the King Ranch, in 1957. owner of the grant, one Juan Mendiola of Camargo, Mexico, and made the purchase for $300 on July 25, 1853170 years agomarking the founding of the Santa Gertrudis Ranch, most of which would later become the King Ranch.Captain King rejected the American Souths cattle-raising model of the day, which was the slave-labored cow farm, and instead sought the services of MexicanvaqueroswhosuccessfullyemployedSpanishranchingmethods brought to the New World by their European ancestors. King purchased the entire cattle stock of the village of Cruillas, 90 miles south of Reynosa, for $12,750 (about $400,000 today), amid a devastating drought that had dec-imated much of the villagers herd, and threatened to kill it off altogether. Over the weeks journey driving their first large herd to the Santa Gertrudis cow camp, King and Lewis discussed the predicament left for the villagers and ranchers of Cruillas. While the money they received from the sale of the herd would likely get them through the drought, they had sold off their source of income in order to survive.It was then that one of historys greatest win-wins was born. Kings concern for the fate of the villagers met the quite intimidating prospect of successfully ranching and breeding the herd he had purchased. Still early in 1854, Captain King and Legs Lewis returned to Cruillas to offer the vaqueros and their fam-ilies an opportunity that would positively alter their lineage forevermorewhile creating a new culture that has thrived for almost two centuries in South Texas. In exchange for shelter, food, income and security, the villagers would relocate their entire livesfrom kids and grandparents to chickens and goatsto the Santa Gertrudis, to work their own herd. In short order, the va-queros from Cruillas were known as Los Kineos, Kings Men, many of whose descendants, eight generations later, still live and work on the King Ranch. 76THE COASTAL BEND GUIDE TheCoastalBend.com'