Barbed wire helped to fence off the west

Anyone that grew up on a farm or ranch has had some experience with “Barbed Wire.” And you know that the official Texas pronunciation is “Bob War” (that is wire with an “are” in it) It will tear your shirt when you try to crawl between the wires and it will tear, scratch, and cut you every chance it gets. 

Nearly everyone that has been in close contact with it has their own story to tell. My own story ended well but could have been a bit tough. Winding a fence through the trees on the edge of a rocky drop-off. We had chiseled the post holes as best we could, and it was a sure hard task. Then we developed a method to stretch that fence using a pair of two-by-fours bolted together to hold that infernal wire with a double wrap and a tie twist. That was so we could put a log chain around it and then tie that chain to the raggedy old ranch truck that carried our materials. 

Well, Willy would crank that ol’ truck and ease forward ever so slow. I stationed myself at a strategic spot and would sing out when I could feel that it was pig tight. Part of our problem was, that wire was snaking around the edge of that drop-off in a big ol’ curve that posed a bit of a problem. So, to see both directions I stationed myself at the bend on the outside. Well sir, the tension on that wire was pert near there when there was a loud “Pop!” 

That wire had broke apart and was headed my way at about the speed of sound. When it got there, which was danged quick, it snatched hold of my skintight tee-shirt and ripped the front clean off and left me with a jagged scratch across my chest and me trying to talk my feet into moving! 

Thankfully, the Good Lord had guided that wire. Reminded me what the plains Indians called that wire. The Native American called it “devils’ rope,” because wild buffalo, horse, and cattle often failed to see the thin wire lines before they ran through it, sometimes becoming trapped, causing them to die of hunger or thirst, or eventual infection from wounds caused by barbed wire cuts. 

This man-made invention that was designed to designate boundaries, as well as, keeping cattle herds from destroying farmers crops was hailed as dangerous, inhumane, and the work of demons. It signaled the end of the open range era that allowed large ranchers to graze public lands as well as their neighbors land. It promoted serious skirmishes between the farming community and the big ranch entities. It superseded old methods, such as rock fences, wood enclosures, and thorny hedges that were claimed to be “pig tight, horse high, and bull strong. Efforts to use smooth wire proved to be ineffective. 

In 1874, Joseph F. Glidden of DeKalb, Ill., was granted a patent for wire fencing that was built using barbs wrapped around a single strand of wire and held in place by twisting that strand around another. This product went by the name “Winner,” and of hundreds of barbed wire designs, this was the most commercially successful. One salesman touted the product as “light as air, stronger than whiskey, and cheap as dirt.” With that, the open range era was finished. Sales grew quickly, and barbed wire permanently changed land uses and land values in Texas.

Charles Goodnight, a pioneer rancher on the Texas plains, used the wire to fence his ranch near the Palo Duro Canyon realizing the need to establish boundaries and protect water rights. 

Fencing off the open range where the early cattle industry had flourished, resulted in the fence-cutting conflicts of the early 1880s between landless cattlemen, who wanted to continue the open range era and those farmer and ranchers who chose to use the barbed wire fencing to establish themselves on permanent ranches. This resulted in a Texas law prohibiting carrying wire cutters in your saddlebag. A law that stayed on the statutes until it was repealed in 1973. The fence war was made worse by the drought of 1883, which all but prevented the cowman without land of his own to find the grass and water necessary for his herds.

The Devil’s Rope

He’d fought and bleed and sweated to claim this land

Of rolling hills and prairie grass 

Come hell or high water he would make his stand,

And it would soon come to pass

 Now the red man was gone and as time slowly rolls

One by one the people came,

These pilgrims squatted beside the waterholes,

And blatantly staked their claim.

Then they broke the sod to plant the fields with grain,

And the Long Horn sought that graze,

The squatter griped but the rancher claimed his domain,

And trouble came in the summer haze.

The squatter had heard about fencing called “Barb Wire,”

That would keep the Long Horn out,

It had wicked barbs that would scratch like fire,

When it encountered Long Horn snout.

This stubborn squatter sought, as a last respite

A way to bring this to an end,

He’d fence this place as he stood to make his fight,

A strong message he would send.

He’d heard of barbed wire, some called it the devil’s rope,

It was new and sorta strange,

He saw it as an answer, his only hope,

Finally bring peace to this range.

The squatter saw that Posts were set and wire was strung,

To keep the Long Horn at bay,

Harsh words were said, and challenges were flung,

Change came upon the land that day.

Though many battles were yet to be fought,

Toe to toe and fire with fire,

Yet peace was a solution rancher and squatter sought,

Their boundaries held with barb wire!

©  Ol’ Jim Cathey

God Bless American innovators, and God Bless America