Dawson Richard Murchison

The warden's death left a name on the King Ranch. Texas Parks and Wildlife places the killing near the Kleberg-Jim Wells county line on the ranch, where Murchison was patrolling for poachers, and the water nearby is still called Murchison Lake. The man who shot him fled into Mexico and was never brought to trial. A photographer's frame from that December shows the search party gathering. Murchison is one of nineteen Texas game wardens the department counts as killed in the line of duty, the first two drowned in Aransas Bay in the 1919 hurricane.

What the plaque says

Dawson Richard Murchison (Feb. 11, 1887-Dec. 20, 1938) Born in Bastrop County. A state game warden 1930-1938; stationed in Kingsville. He was killed on duty in Jim Wells County when he and other wardens caught men "spotlighting" deer. Married Mattie B. Wright, they had 5 children. Recorded - 1968

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• King Ranch Visitor Center — 1.5 mi
  The bus-tour gate to a working ranch of about 825,000 acres, founded on Santa Gertrudis Creek in 1853 and worked from the start by the Kineños, families from Cruillas in Tamaulipas.
• Kenedy Ranch Museum of South Texas — 20 mi
  A museum in the Kenedy Pasture Company's 1927 office in Sarita, telling how Mifflin Kenedy and three generations of his family shaped the Wild Horse Desert, with murals and an audio guide.
• Don Pedrito Jaramillo Shrine — 23 mi
  The grave and shrine of the folk healer of Los Olmos, a place of prayer where South Texans still leave candles and letters for the curandero who took no fee.
• Heritage Museum at Falfurrias — 25 mi
  A free town museum of ranch gear, a Texas Ranger room and 99,000 photo negatives, in the town Edward Lasater built around his railroad and his Jersey cows.

More markers nearby

• King Star Baptist Church — 0.5 mi
• First Baptist Church of Kingsville — 0.8 mi
• First Presbyterian Church of Kingsville — 0.9 mi
• First United Methodist Church of Kingsville — 0.9 mi