Riviera and Loyola Beach keep Kleberg County facing the bay

Riviera began with the railroad. In 1907 Theodore F. Koch bought about 20,000 acres from Henrietta King and established the town south of Kingsville. A few miles east, he organized Riviera Beach on Baffin Bay as a vacation resort.

Loyola Beach arrived in 1935 on Cayo del Grullo, three miles east of Vattman. It, too, was developed as a place for vacationers and fishermen. The railroad had pulled settlement south; these two beach communities turned the map toward the water.

That small timeline explains a side of Kleberg County that Kingsville and King Ranch can overshadow. Riviera has an inland town and a bay companion. Loyola Beach sits on a narrow arm of Baffin Bay. The county's story does not stop at the tracks or the ranch gate; it keeps going down the road to salt water.