Texas Monthly – February 2016
The King Ranch Main House is one of the most iconic homes in the state. For one hundred years, the private residence of the most powerful cattle family in history has been hidden from public view, but as these exclusive photographs reveal, its interior is every bit as grand and mythic as the land itself.
Every year more than 35,000 people make their way to a South Texas town about forty miles outside Corpus Christi called Kingsville. They pile into a van or a passenger bus to tour the King Ranch, the largest ranch in Texas. They are driven by pastures where they see cherry-red cows and, if they’re lucky, some cowboys on horseback. They are shown water wells, windmills, corrals, barns, plows, and barbed-wire fences. Then they are taken to the ranch’s headquarters, the centerpiece of which is a two-story, 37,000-square-foot mansion with white stucco walls, a red-tile roof, arched windows, and a courtyard tower that features three stained glass windows. “You are looking upon King Ranch’s Main House,” the tour guide proudly says. [READ FULL ARTICLE]