Gene Autry 12 acres. A decade after he purchased Melody Ranch, a brushfire swept through in August 1962, destroying most of the original standing sets. However, the devastated landscape did prove useful for productions such as "Combat!." A complete adobe ranch survived at the northeast section of the ranch. In 1990, after his favorite horse Champion, which lived in retirement there, died, Autry put the remaining 12-acre ranch up for sale. It is now known as the Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio and Melody Ranch Studios on 22 acres. The ranch has Melody Ranch Museum open year-round; and one weekend a year,
Gene S. Walker Sr. office complex at the intersection of Interstate 35 and Mann Road is named for the Walker family. Gene Walker Lake, a reservoir near Mirando City in Webb County is named in Walker's honor. A luxury condominium complex in San Antonio, the Simeon of Olmos Park, is named for Walker through his middle name by its developer, his daughter May Kathleen Walker, a Laredo native. On February 4, 2015, State Senator Judith Zaffirini of Laredo introduced a resolution, SR99, in Walker's memory. Gene S. Walker Sr. Gene Simeon Walker Sr. (March 15, 1926 – January 19, 2015), was a rancher, landowner,