Lifelong cattlemen Chuck and Bill King are the Honored Vaqueros who will be recognized this year during the Vaquero Show and Sale weekend from Friday through Sunday, Nov. 11-13, at the Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum. The Kings were born to be ranchers. Family roots link the brothers to Santa Barbara’s early Spanish settlers who owned and operated many large ranchos in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties as well as the original de la Guerra and Orena homes in Santa Barbara. Their great-grandmother, Maria Antonia, was the youngest of 13 children born to Jose Antonio de la Guerra, the last commandant of the Presidio of Santa Barbara. One of their earliest memories was being introduced by their grandmother, Acacia, to Edward Borein, a well-known artist of the Vaquero lifestyle, at his studio outside of El Paseo in Santa Barbara. The artist drew a personalized picture for each of the boys on the back of his business card. In the 1830s the Mexican government granted Jose de la Guerra the San Julian and Los Alamos land grants in Santa Barbara County totaling almost 100,000 acres. In the 1840s his daughter Maria Antonia acquired additional land grants that added more than 70,000 acres in the Cuyama Valley to the family holdings. Locally, Maria Antonia acquired the Corral de Quati and La Zaca land grants, approximately 18,000 acres that ran from Los Olivos towards Zaca Lake and half way to Los Alamos...
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Chuck King!! In 1997 Met West Agribusiness was sold to the Barckett family of Stockton, Cal. Immediately we embarked on an effort to expand holdings into the central coast at Los Alomos for a vineyard development. the Fiorini Ranch was sought and put into escrow. Chuck was the agent/broker on the deal.Chuck became a trusted friend. He's the real deal. I think his mother's place was west and north from Los Alamos proper . . just beautiful coastal hill country. Chuck was with us one day with Glen Ellen's Glenn Proctor planning the vineyard. We were going up a canyon and I saw a bobcat going up the road in front of us. Glenn, sitting next to me, said, "Look at that!" Thinking I was seeing what he was talking about I looked over at him an he was looking at yet another cat in the wash under us. In less than 10 minutes we were in another place and saw yet another bobcat. When we turned around we went out of the property yet another way and coming over a rise there was yet another animal. Glenn's reaction was look at that dog. No, dog . . it was a mountain lion going straight away from us. I turned to Chuck and mentioned something about the Glenn Ellen boys had no idea what they had just witnessed. Chuck grimaced and said something about California environmental game managers.
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