The LBJ Ranch remained a working ranch rather than a relic of the past, and it was thrust onto the world stage when Lyndon Johnson assumed the presidency after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Little known nationally before November 1963, the Johnson family’s Hill Country retreat became second in significance only to the White House. President Lyndon Johnson introduced the world to Texas there through cabinet meetings, conferences, and diplomatic functions, and visitors left with a new understanding of the president. The ranch, like Johnson, became larger than life, a place of myth and legend. In December 1972, the Johnsons deeded their home to the National Park Service, and the former president encouraged the agency to use it as a classroom for teaching U.S. history and agriculture. Visitors still come from around the world for their own experience of the LBJ Ranch.