ALDO LEOPOLD 1947 Trip to King Ranch
Photo courtesy of the Aldo Leopold Foundation and University of Wisconsin-Madison Archives)
Article by STEVE NELLE Photos courtesy of KING RANCH ARCHIVES, King Ranch, Inc., Kingsville, Texas
Aldo Leopold made his only professional trip to Texas in February of 1947 to visit the King Ranch. He later wrote Bob Kleberg Jr. that “it was the highlight of my year”. Leopold died in 1948. No photos exist of the trip.
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n February, 1947 Aldo Leopold made his one and only professional visit to Texas, spending two days on King Ranch. The invitation to visit the ranch was delivered in a letter from Howard Dodgen, Executive Director of Texas Game, Fish and Oyster Commission at the request of Robert J. Kleberg, President of King Ranch. The visit's stated purpose was to provide for a mutual exchange of information relative to wildlife conservation. No doubt, King Ranch Wildlife Biologist Val Lehmann played an important role in setting up the trip. Lehmann was very well regarded nationally and was already acquainted with Leopold. Leopold, his son Starker and about 10 other nationally prominent wildlife professionals accepted Kleberg’s invitation. In his usual fashion, Leopold kept a written account of the trip, and it is from these notes and subsequent correspondence that
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King Ranch is renowned for its white-tail management and the production of trophy class bucks. Leopold was impressed by both the number and size of the bucks he observed on the ranch in 1947.
we learn about this historic trip. Leopold had already established himself as the country's preeminent wildlife ecologist and was serving as Professor of Wildlife Management at the University of Wisconsin. Likewise, King Ranch had established itself as one of the first large private ranches where wildlife management was being actively carried out. Leopold and his group arrived at the Norias Ranch on the afternoon of Feb. 6 where they met Robert Kleberg. They began their tour traveling southeast across the “seacoast prairie” and then making a large loop of 25 miles. On this loop, Leopold reported that they saw “426 deer, three coyotes, a dozen blackbuck, four javelinas, 25 Long-billed Curlews, about 450 turkeys, one pigeon hawk (now called Merlin), a dozen Harris’s Hawks, one Horned Owl and several Caracaras.” DEER Leopold noted on this part of the ranch the woody cover consisted of live oak on the ridges and mesquite in the flats. He said that although the live oak was heavily browsed, the deer were in good shape. He mentioned seeing “many mature 8-to10-point bucks but no spikes or fork horn bucks,” although some bucks had already shed their antlers. Elsewhere on the ranch, Leopold expressed surprise to find deer living in the open prairie miles from any substantial woody cover. Kleberg and Lehmann informed him that deer “stay in
