Place-based learning: projects and implementation

¶ … Education: The King Ranch

Of the many locations in Texas that provide a wonderful opportunity for place-based education, the most educationally diverse may be the King Ranch in Kingsville, Texas. A visit to the King Ranch gives a student a unique opportunity to study several different topics. Those topics include history, sociology, business, wildlife, ranching, equines, bovines, leather working, and brush management. Furthermore, the ranch is largely designed as a teaching environment. Although it is a working ranch, it has areas dedicated to education, including a museum dedicated to both the history of the ranch and modern takes on the ranching environment. In addition, visitors can also observe the working parts of the ranch.

The first stop for students visiting the King Ranch should be the King Ranch Museum. The museum provides the opportunity for students to learn about ranching and about Texas. For example, museum visitors can see all types of saddles and guns, necessary tools on any ranch. In addition, students can view historic Texas flags, carriages, and cars. In addition, the museum has several videos and exhibits that help explain the history of the ranch and the people who were influential in helping establish the ranch. Having students tour the museum and observe the videos provides a good basis for the other lessons that students will absorb from the ranch.

One of the first things to strike visitors to the King Ranch is the emphasis on legacy. Therefore, one of the first lessons that a visitor to the King Ranch can learn is the history of the Ranch, which can not be separated from the history of its founder, Richard King. Learning about Richard King's history actually introduces the student to an ugly part of American history and child labor issues. While almost all Americans are aware of the racially-based system of slavery that was pervasive in the American South, far fewer people are aware of the slave-like conditions experienced by many non-African-American children in the 1800s. Investigating King's history introduces students to the idea of indentured servitude, because, as an 11-year-old boy King was indentured to a jeweler. This fact can help students understand social lessons about poverty, children's rights, and labor laws. It can also provide a jumping-off point for investigation about indentured servants; and have students write a paper regarding those issues.

However, King's history reveals additional information about America in the 1800s. After stowing away on a steamboat, King worked his way up to the position of captain. King eventually moved to South Texas, where he established a steam boat line, which transported goods and people along the lower Rio Grande. This aspect of King's history provides the opportunity for students to study what types of good and people sought transport in South Texas during the 1800s, and students should be required to research and report such information. Such an investigation provides substantial information, not only about early Texans, but also about the early relationship between Mexico and Texas. In addition, King's history as a Union blockade runner introduces students to an aspect of the Civil War and war profiteering that is not frequently discussed in the classroom. An overview of war profiteering, in the Civil War and subsequent wars could be introduced in the classroom following that discussion.

As any visitor to the King Ranch becomes aware, Richard King was only partially responsible for the Ranch's legacy. One learns a tremendous amount about the role of women in the 1800s, when one examines the impact that Henrietta King, Richard's wife, had on the ranch. Henrietta King was a woman of refinement, and she insisted that even her hard-working rancher husband dress for dinner. This aspect has not been lost, as family members and guests are still required to dress for dinner. In addition, studying Henrietta King, one may find one's views of the role of women in the 1800s being challenged; not only did she run the household, but she also took an active role in running the ranching business. Students should be challenged to find other women like Henrietta King, who challenged sex stereotypes and succeeded in business during the 1800s, and give an oral report on two of those women.

King's next business venture provides substantial information regarding geography and climate. While traveling up the Rio Grande, King happened upon the parcel of land that formed the initial part of the King Ranch. Visitors to the Ranch have the same opportunity to observe the unique geography and climate, which prompted King to establish a cattle ranch on the property. For example, visitors can observe the Santa Getrudis Creek, which continues to provide substantial water resources for the animals currently on the ranch, and that prompted King to believe that the Ranch could sustain domestic stock. Students can be challenged to draw the Creek and the animals it sustains.

Looking at the history of the ranch, one gets a lesson in ranching, history, and business. King did not run his ranch in the manner of a traditional Southern landed gentleman. Nor did King run his ranch like a traditional Mexican hacienda. Instead, he brought the two systems together and established his own form of ranching. Instead of simply profiting from a drought that made the people of Cruillas, Mexico, sell their cattle to him, King decided to aid those people. King offered them a home on his ranch if they would come with him and provide the labor that he needed. This lesson is not merely historical; the descendants of those cowboys continue to live and work on the Ranch. Referred to as Los Kinenos, these cowboys helped tame the American West and helped establish the mythology of the cowboy. One of the important historical lessons that can be learned by studying Los Kinenos is that Mexican culture has long-formed a substantial part of the history of the American West. Students should be encouraged to study more about the American West, and the role that Mexicans played in its development.

The story of the King Ranch would be incomplete if one did not learn about the role played by Robert J. Kleberg. Initially a family friend, and then eventually the Kings' son-in-law, Kleberg played a tremendous role in making the King Ranch a substantial success. He helped demonstrate that the South Texas climate was not inhospitable for domestic stock, in part by finding an underground source of water to sustain the animals on the ranch during a time of drought. He also helped overcome a tremendous challenge to ranching in South Texas, the Texas Fever Tick, by establishing cattle dipping vats. Studying Kleberg, students can also learn about the history of the American West. He helped build the St. Louis, Brownsville, & Mexico Railway. Even more significantly, he helped change the face of the map of South Texas, by helping establish towns along this railway. Students should be involved in a class project, drawing the railway and mapping the towns developed alongside it.

Of course, people are only part of the story of the King Ranch. One of the most important lessons that a student can take away from the King Ranch is a science lesson. A ranch may seem like an unusual place to learn about genetics, but the domestic animals of the King Ranch provide the opportunity for one to really understand some of the implications of genetic selection and upbreeding. The original animals on the ranch were longhorn cattle and wild mustang horses. Through upbreeding, the King Ranch developed the Santa Getrudis breed of cattle, which was the first new breed of beef cattle in America. The superiority of Santa Getrudis beef continues to be largely recognized, and the King Ranch has contracts with several prominent restaurants and meat suppliers, to supply high-quality beef. Today, the King Ranch continues to sell bulls and seed stock to other ranches, because of the perceived superiority of this stock. This study of genetics can be intertwined with an average genetics lesson.

In addition, King's aggressive upbreeding led to tremendous improvements in equine stock. The King Ranch had upbreeding programs for both thoroughbreds and quarter horses. For example, Assault, the 1946 winner of the Triple Crown, was the result of the King Ranch's breeding programs. More widely known and recognized are the quarter horses on the King Ranch. Visitors to the Ranch can observe some of the best examples of quarter horses that exist today, and they can also learn about Wimpy and Mr. San Peppy, two of the early quarter horses that helped establish the superiority of King Ranch equines. Even more importantly, visitors to the ranch can watch modern cowboys work these quarter horses in the same way as their ancestors, and learn, first-hand, what makes a quarter horse a champion. Students should be asked to observe and report on five characteristics of quarter horses that make them ideally suited for ranch work.