DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker at this site has to say, and friend, this one is worth pulling over for. Settle in. Somewhere in Kleberg County, there sits a vat.
Just a vat. Doesn't look like much. But in 1894, that vat — believed to be the first of its kind in the entire world — was built to stop something that was chewing through the American beef industry like a fire through dry grass.
Tick fever. You might know it by its other names — Texas fever, Splenetic fever — and none of those names are flattering. By the 1880s, this disease had spread so wide that a quarantine line ran all the way from the Rio Grande to the Atlantic Ocean.
That is not a short fence. Official quarantines held one side, and what the marker calls 'shotgun' quarantines held the other — which tells you everything you need to know about how serious ranchers were taking this matter. Cattle could not move.
The industry was locked up tight. Now here is the cruel twist. Longhorns and other native southwestern cattle?
Immune. Tick fever didn't touch them. But they carried the insect — Margaropus annulatus, to give it its full and unpleasant name — and that tick could jump to other animals and do its worst.
Mortality rates sometimes reached ninety percent. Ninety. That number deserves a moment of quiet.
So officials from Texas A&M College and the U.S. Bureau of Animal Industry came together and centered their eradication efforts right here, on the King Ranch. And the man who made it possible was R.
J. Kleberg, manager of the King Ranch, who gave the go-ahead to build the vat on his land. Twenty-five thousand tick-infested cattle from the ranch were dipped.
Twenty-five thousand head, run through a formula that researchers worked out right here on the spot — an effective mix of oil and sulphur. It worked. In October of 1898, the United States quarantine was lifted for cattle that had been treated in the dip.
That line from the Rio Grande to the Atlantic — the one backed by official decrees and loaded firearms — began to come down. The marker puts it plainly, and plainly is exactly right: this eradication program introduced a new weapon for controlling cattle diseases, and it freed the industry from the restrictive quarantines that had been strangling it, increasing the value of cattle throughout the United States. A vat.
Oil and sulphur. Twenty-five thousand cattle. And one decision by a ranch manager to let it happen.
Sometimes the whole shape of an industry turns on a moment like that — and this is where it turned.
What the marker says
In 1894 this vat-- believed to be the first in the world-- was built to stop the spread of tick fever, which was destroying thousands of U.S. beef cattle. By the 1880s, the disease had become widespread, and official and "shotgun" quarantines prevented cattle from moving across the affected area, bounded by a line from the Rio Grande to the Atlantic. Although the mortality rate from tick fever (also called "Texas" and "Splenetic" fever) sometimes reached 90 percent, longhorns and other native southwestern cattle were immune. They did, however, carry the insect, which could infect other animals. Efforts to eradicate the tick (Margaropus annulatus) centered here, headed by officials from Texas A & M College and the U.S. Bureau of Animal Industry. Manager of the King Ranch, R. J. Kleberg, allowed the vat to be built, and 25,000 tick-infested cattle from the ranch were dipped. An effective formula of oil and sulphur was found here. In October, 1898, the U.S. quarantine was lifted for cattle treated in the dip. This eradication program not only introduced a new weapon for controlling cattle diseases, but also freed the industry from restrictive quarantines, thus increasing the value of cattle throughout the U.S. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1967.