Houstonia Magazine
King Ranch Saddle Shop debuts its first permanent urban outpost next month.
It all started with Captain Richard King in 1853. The New York City runaway-turned-confederate, a prominent steamboat pilot for whom the town of Kingsville is named, purchased grassland along the Santa Gertrudis Creek in South Texas. The 68,500 acres of “creek-fed oasis in the Wild Horse Desert” would grow to more than 825,000 today as King Ranch, a 160-year-old agribusiness larger than the entire state of Rhode Island.
In the years following the Civil War, King failed to find lightweight, comfortable saddles to his liking, so he hired craftsmen to make them, marking the birth of King Ranch Saddle Shop in 1867. The custom saddlery drew cowboys and ranchers from all over, and King’s business eventually grew into more leather goods like luggage, wallets, and other outdoor gear. Goods are still sold today under King’s name through the shop’s flagship location in Kingsville and a seasonal pop-up-turned-year-round venture in College Station. [READ FULL ARTICLE]