By Melissa Manning The door of the school bus opens, and the city kids spill out. Their excited chatter mixes with the sound of pounding feet as they begin to explore the strange sights, sounds and smells that quickly distinguish the country from the city. Few of these children have ever been outside of Houston, and even fewer have actually seen a real working ranch or farm animals up close. A shy, 8-year-old girl takes timid steps forward to pet a horse for the first time. She squeals with nervous delight as she carefully strokes the animal's nose and realizes it is enjoying the attention. Giving children a chance to experience the simple joy of this type of encounter was the intent of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in approving the educational grant proposal from the George Ranch Historical Park. Founded in 1824 by Henry and Nancy Jones, members of Stephen F. Austin's first group of Texas colonists, the George Ranch is located in Fort Bend County, just south of Richmond, Texas, on FM Road 762. The George Ranch has been a working ranch for more than 175 years. During 1998, the first year of the Show's involvement in this program, a grant enabled more than 1,100 Houston-area elementary schoolchildren to visit the George Ranch, where they learned firsthand about ranching and rural life in Texas. A second grant allowed more than 2,500 inner-city children from 26 schools to visit the ranch in 1999. "Funding an educational program to help inner-city children experience the realities of agriculture, ranching and rural life is very important to the Show," said Mike Nathanson, co-coordinator of the Show's educational program office. "The George Ranch is one of the jewels in our area, and their outreach program is a wonderful blending of the resources of the two organizations. The ranch helps us expand our educational outreach to teach Houston-area children and to be very true to our roots, which includes our Western heritage and an agricultural focus." The George Ranch Historical Park opened to the public in 1988 as a partnership between the George Foundation and the Fort Bend Museum Association. In 1945, the ranch's owners, Mamie and Albert George, created the George Foundation to run and manage the ranch. The historic site includes 500 acres, and the working ranch still occupies 23,000 acres. Living history at the George Ranch focuses on life from three eras of the ranch's history and includes ranch homes and complexes from the 1830s, the 1890s and the 1930s. "The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is a big-city legacy of a very rural existence for southeast Texas' past," said Michael Moore, executive director of the Fort Bend Museum Association, which operates the George Ranch Historical Park. "We are excited to partner with the Show to bring urban and suburban children out to the country and have them experience ranching life, which is at the heart of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo," he said. According to Moore, some of the funds from the Show grant also are used to educate local schoolteachers and to help them incorporate local living history into their classrooms. More than 36,000 schoolchildren, representing 37 school districts in 12 Houston-area counties, visit the ranch each year. The following excerpts are from letters written by three Houston-area schoolchildren who visited the George Ranch Historical Park: "I enjoyed coming to the George Ranch," wrote James, a third-grader. "I had fun. I like to grind corn, I got to feed the hogs, make dolls, and I got to make cornbread and pancakes and lots of stuff. We got to wash the pans and sweep the floor. I was the only one sweeping the floor. I had lots of fun." Another elementary-school student wrote, "Thank you for the best field trip in my whole life. I learned a lot from this field trip. One thing I learned is that I don't want to live in the 1800s. I learned that it was hard for the entire family." "When I got home, ... I told my parents about what I learned at the George Ranch and how much fun I had," wrote Allison, a fourth-grader. "I think I taught them a few things that they didn't know about the pioneer days. My four most favorite things we did were the plowing, shoveling horse droppings, petting a horse and watching y'all dip the cows. This school field trip was the most fun ever, and I learned more on this one than I ever learned on a field trip." According to Kenny Rogers, a historical interpreter of African-American history for the park, many children who visit the George Ranch are surprised to learn that a majority of the cowboys who worked the ranch were African-American. "Hollywood would have us believe differently, but the black cowboy played a significant and crucial role in Texas ranching," Rogers said. "And kids don't often hear about the realities of daily living as farmers and ranchers -- we want to show them how people really lived. We try to teach them about the work ethic of the people and how physically demanding ranch life was, and that much of the work was manual. We teach them how country people are different from city people." While this educational outreach program is relatively new, the association between the Show and the George Ranch is not. Albert George was a respected cattleman and businessman who was active in the early years of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo as an exhibitor and supporter. He frequently donated calves for the Show's calf scramble. Mamie George, the matriarch of the George Ranch, also was known for her charity work and kindness to others. When oil and gas reserves were first produced from the ranch in 1927, Mamie used some of the proceeds to add electricity to the ranch, including all the tenant houses. According to Gwen Lanning, lead interpreter at the George Ranch, "Miss Mamie loved children, she loved this ranch, and she was very committed to education. We think she would be extremely proud to see so many children visiting the ranch and learning about life on the land she loved."
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