Caller-Times file SADDLE SALES: The King Ranch, founded in 1853, has made the shift from cattle to catalogs, selling merchandise to high-end tourists in the store and online.

King Ranch cashes in on Old West

At saddle shop, tourists can purchase furniture, cowboy apparel

From staff reports

Local Shopping Corpus Christi highlights Corpus Christi Trade Center 2833 S. Padre Island Drive 854-4943 Padre Staples Mall 5488 S. Padre Island Drive 991-5718 Sunrise Mall 5858 S. Padre Island Drive 993-2900 Sister Sue’s (including The Veranda) 517 Everhart Road 992-5300 Crossroads Shopping Village Pollyanna Designated Dressing Benjamin’s Lamar Park Center Julian Gold Chico’s Leslie Talbots Pilar The Village Shopping Center William’s Fashion Shoes Jene Marie Gift Shop Taylor Center Elizabeth Ann Wildflowers Jack English Town and Country Shopping Center Shannon’s Goosefeathers

It used to be a simple building where working cowboys bought saddles.
   Now, at the King Ranch Saddle Shop, high-end tourists can debate whether to buy a King Ranch Cookbook that includes recipes for wild game and salsa or dessert and breads ($12); a pair of polished ironwood longhorn bookends ($135); and an end-table lamp decorated with horseshoes that stands on a base of two spurs finished with an iron and nickel silver overlay ($173).
   And the King Ranch cashes in on the romance of the Old West with items like a true cowboy's leather braided horsehair belt ($60) and mahogany wood and leather rocking chairs (starting at $265).
   The King Ranch was once the world's largest ranch, famed for developing its own breed of cattle, the Santa Gertrudis. King Ranch thoroughbreds have won the Kentucky Derby and the Triple Crown.
   The ranch's founder, Capt. Richard King, and his descendants have been larger-than-life figures, swaggering Texas-style across the ranch's 825,000 acres. The ranch is larger than the state of Rhode Island, covering almost 1,300 square miles.
   Ranch shifts focus
   But the King Ranch, founded in 1853, has made the shift from cattle to catalogs. History's greatest cattle barons have briefcases and luggage named after them, sold mail-order by the saddle shop. And on the Web site (www.krsaddleshop.com/), shoppers can find a multitude of home decor items, as well as sought-after leather accessories and high-quality clothing.
   Tourism and hunting are bringing more money to the King Ranch than cattle, said Stephen ''Tio" Kleberg, King's great-great-grandson.
   Ranching always has been a chancy business, dependent on weather and unpredictable prices. Now, ranchers are taking some of the gamble out of the business by moving into less risky areas - guiding hunters on their land, leading birding tours, raising exotic animals and merchandising their own rich history.
   Goal to make money
   Kleberg pointed out that the rancher's goal, in good and bad years, is to make money. Despite the glamour outsiders associate with cowboys and ranching, the rancher himself aims at making a living from rough, uncompromising country. And when ranchers diversify their operations, greater profits follow.
   Kleberg said the ranch's retail and tourism operations have helped the ranch and the community.
   ''As long as what we sell is quality, I don't see a problem with it," Kleberg said. ''It is just a thing to do in addition to cattle so we don't have everything in one area of business."
   He said having more than one area of business lowers the risk of economic losses.
   "You diversify the economic risks by having (areas of) retail, agricultural commodities and the wildlife," he said. "If one is down, then the others might not feel the economic loss. The chances are that not all three of those enterprises will be down at the same time. It's less risky."
   Although agricultural and wildlife areas still bring in more money, Kleberg says, retail and tourism is a big boost.
   "Retail has increased about 30 percent in the last two years, he said.