Celebrating 40 Years of Preservation of the King Ranch
In Southern Chester County, along Route 82, there is an agrarian oasis. The landscape undulates, with hay growing on rolling hillsides and copses of woods dotting the viewshed. Small streams meander through the lowlands, carrying some of the highest quality water in the region to the Brandywine Creek. Looking closely, you’ll notice farmhouses here and there; some old, and most nearly hidden from view. While it may feel like the aesthetics and character of this landscape are happenstance, the story of this idyllic place, like most stories about land, started with a vision. It's with this vision that an iconic landscape came to be and sparked a conservation movement throughout our region 40 years ago.
History of the Land
In the early 1900s, Mr. Lammot du Pont began buying land in the area with aspirations of creating a reservoir to capture six million gallons of water a day from the Buck and Doe Runs, the two main streams that flow through the valley into the west branch of the Brandywine. The reservoir would guarantee a stable source of drinking water for the city of Wilmington and would have dramatically changed the valley forever. The plan didn’t come to fruition, and by the 1940s the dam project was no longer practical.
The next vision for the land came from Texas. In 1946, Mr. Robert Kleberg, a King Ranch cattleman, purchased 8,000 acres from Mr. Lammot du Pont’s estate with a plan to ship his cattle up from Texas and rest them on this land before selling them to mid-Atlantic consumers. For over 30 years he successfully raised cattle in the Unionville, PA area for the urban markets.
Nearby in Chadds Ford, in the mid-1960s, a group of conservation-minded community members, concerned with the progression of rapid development in the surrounding area, began purchasing at-risk lands and using conservation easements to protect their valuable resources. This group, initially named the Tri-County Conservancy of the Brandywine, is today’s Brandywine Conservancy. As the Conservancy grew as an organization, so did its geographic reach. One of the founding members, George A. "Frolic" Weymouth," kept in frequent contact over the years with Mr. Kleberg as he began to consider the future of his satellite operation in Unionville. Mr. Kleberg was supportive of preserving the scenic countryside, but he ultimately passed away before the land could be conserved.
In the following years, the Conservancy concluded that in order to preserve the land, they would need to begin by purchasing it outright. In the early 1980s, Frolic and the Conservancy brought together a devoted group of community investors to achieve this daunting dream: buy the 5,367-acre Buck and Doe Valley Farm and forever protect the farmland, forests, and meadows, along with their valuable water resources, from development. The former King Ranch lands would soon become one of the largest private conservation achievements in Pennsylvania.
Looking Back at the King Ranch Conservation Project
The King Ranch deal did not happen overnight. This vision, to guarantee the health of the large landscape by voluntarily restricting development, came to fruition through a huge undertaking that required community involvement on a large scale. Brought together by the Conservancy, these community investors formed the Buck and Doe Associates Limited Partnership, and were crucial to the King Ranch project’s success, which finally came to fruition with its closing in 1984.
Many individuals who became members of the Buck and Doe Associates L.P. invested with the intent to live or farm on some of the ranch’s parcels. As part of the easement’s conditions, acceptable locations for residential development were meticulously chosen, endeavoring to minimize impacts to the environment and the public view sheds. Farm sizes averaged one farm per 33 acres—an unheard-of restriction in those times. Of the 5,367 acres placed under the easement, the center 771 acres, where the Buck and Doe Runs join, was donated to the Conservancy and became the Laurels Preserve—now open to Brandywine members and protected under its own conservation easement held by Natural Lands.
Forty Years Later
The King Ranch project was not only a permanent vision for the area but set the scene for a continuous preservation effort that has held strong for 40 years. This effort created a contiguous mass of over 26,000 acres of preserved land to the original King Ranch lands and has ushered in the conservation of over 158,000 acres of land throughout Chester County. The close-knit community of current King Ranch land residents exemplify this effort, and through the community-led Buck and Doe Trust, they communicate the importance of protecting the landscape through the limitation of their development rights.
This initial effort by the Brandywine Conservancy and the surrounding community created the foundation for the organization's mission: to protect and conserve the land, water, natural, and cultural resources of the Brandywine-Christina watershed—and further honed its focus on working with and providing benefit to community members throughout the region.
In 2024, on the 40th Anniversary of the King Ranch easement, the property has greatly evolved from when it was first protected. Much of the pastureland of the previous King Ranch is now established forest and meadow ecosystems containing some of the healthiest waterways in the area. Agriculture still flourishes on the property through equestrian use, smaller cattle operations, and haying. The Laurels Preserve, now recognized by the National Audubon Society as an Important Bird Area, provides a place for Brandywine Members to wander through the woods and fields and admire the landscape that has inspired so many. As we reflect on these 40 years, we remain thankful to the original community investors who trusted the Conservancy’s vision and committed such significant resources to this large-scale project, ensuring it would be protected forever.
Introducing the Forever Lands Fund
The Conservancy recently established the Forever Lands Fund as an important land protection funding pool to strategically acquire conservation easements and fee lands. Building upon its proven track record of conservation successes, the Conservancy is planning into the future to ensure dollars are always available for important land protection projects. A significant founding gift to the fund was made by Lida A. Wright, an ardent conservationist, Conservancy easement landowner, and carriage driver in the Willistown area who was deeply committed to the Conservancy’s mission of land protection.
There are still many key parcels of land that need to be conserved, and the opportunity to protect them may only come once in a generation. The Forever Lands Fund, designed as a revolving fund, ensures that when those key parcels are at a transition point or at risk for development, the Conservancy possesses the funds needed to act rapidly to protect these properties in perpetuity. If interested in helping us protect our landscapes forever through a contribution to the Fund, please contact Jane Allsopp, Chief Development Officer, at [email protected].