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Overview

Parker Ranch is a working cattle ranch on the Island of Hawaii in Hawaii, now run by a charitable trust.

History

The ranch was founded in 1847 and is one of the oldest ranches in the United States, pre-dating many mainland ranches in Texas and other southwestern states by more than 30 years. Spread across approximately 130,000 acres (53,000 ha) of the island, Parker Ranch is among the nation's largest cattle ranches.

A cowboy on the ranch is called a paniolo (Hawaiian language pronunciation of Spanish: Español), since the first cowboys were Spanish-speaking and came from California. The Hawaiian language does not have the "s" sound.

During World War II, part of the ranch was used as a United States Marine Corps training base called Camp Tarawa. The Second and Fifth Marine Divisions conducted training maneuvers there in preparation for the assault of Iwo Jima.

The founder of the ranch was John Palmer Parker who assisted Kamehameha I in ridding the island of feral bulls and was granted land on which he established the ranch. From 1899 to 1937 it was managed by Alfred Wellington Carter (1867–1949). The last owner of the ranch, the actor Richard Smart, died in 1992. Since then the Ranch has been governed by the Parker Ranch Foundation Trust.

Two of the ranch's historic homes, Puuopelu and Mana Hale, are open for free self guided tours at 66-1304 Mamalahoa Highway about one mile outside of Waimea town. This is also the location of the Corporate Headquarters.

The Parker Ranch Arena and a racetrack are located off the Hawaii Belt Road. The Ranch holds its annual July 4th Rodeo and Horses races at this Historic location.

The Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, was developed and constructed by Laurance S. Rockefeller, on land purchased from Parker Ranch.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Parker Ranch", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0