A famous Karnes County icon and several of his siblings were awarded top honors at the South Texas Longhorn Association’s Winter Festival in Wharton Dec. 9.

The longhorn steer "Wow" was named champion of the senior division. Born in August 1993, Wow is 14 years old, but still captures eyes at the longhorn steer showing contests, owner Joyce Kimble said.

Kimble Cattle Co. oversees a herd of longhorn steers here in Karnes County that has seen attention and fame all over the state and nation.

Wow’s half-brother Ranger took reserve champion at the festival, as well. In third place was Wow’s other half-brother Luke, Wow’s cousin Mojo placed fourth, and the herd’s adopted brother Oreo took fifth place at the show.

Kimble’s granddaughter McKenna Kimble also showed at the festival. Her heifer Glitter took second place in the heifer division and her steer Cracker Bob placed fourth the open junior trophy steer division.

For Joyce, the opportunity to keep showing Wow is a reward in itself.

"Winning is not important to me. It’s the beauty [of the animal] shown to the crowd," she said.

The opportunity doesn’t come around as often as it used to with Wow. Longhorns have a typical life expectancy of around 20 years, which puts Wow at around granddaddy-age. As he ages, long trips to far-away shows have become too tiring on him.

"I don’t take him any further than (San Antonio and Austin). It’s too tiring on him," Kimble said.

Wow has a special-made trailer and is given extra pen space at the shows he does attend. Protecting the prize-winning celebrity steer has been a job Kimble takes very seriously. In fact, plans are in place to make sure Wow lives on even after he dies.

"Wow is the last of his line. His mother doesn’t make babies any more and his daddy is gone. There’s no way I can work a breeding any more and get a Wow," Kimble said. "He could be cloned, he could be a bull Wow, (and) I would use it for herd improvement. My goal is to have bulls with his total genetics that we can work back through chosen females in our herd."

The cost involved in cloning an animal is substantial — around $10,000 just to get the cell replication process started — but Kimble noted there could be a distinct possibility of showing an exact copy of Wow some day.

In the end, Wow may end up being a very big part of the Kimble herd’s legacy, which aims to preserve the look of Texas’ original longhorn steer.

"The longhorn is changing. There are very few that are holding on to the original look. I want to have the best traditional longhorns that can be bred. Wow really is it," Kimble said.