When barbed wire arrived in the late 1800s, it fundamentally changed the Texas landscape. The famous rancher Charles Goodnight once recounted a run-in with the Pueblo chief Standing Deer, who, returning to Taos, New Mexico, from a trading trip with the Kiowa, became lost and ended up on Goodnight’s land. When Goodnight asked Standing Deer how he got lost, considering Standing Deer had “lived in this country all [his life],” Standing Deer replied, “Si, señor! Pero alambre! alambre! alambre! todas partes!” (“But wire! wire! wire! everywhere!”)

Native Americans called barbed wire the “devil’s rope.” Poor farmers and cowboys called it the “devil’s hatband.” They all recognized it as a tool of dispossession.

The wire was meant to protect the grazing land of wealthy ranchers. As their cattle herds flourished, others collapsed. In the cattle industry, a two-tiered system was developing: landed cattle barons enjoyed protected access to the best water sources and grazing land, while poor farmers and often-landless cowboys struggled to navigate the newly partitioned terrain. Herds cut off from water by the new fencing died of dehydration. The earliest forms of barbed wire had brutally sharp barbs, and in bad conditions cattle could get snagged on wire and die by the thousands.

Poor farmers and cowboys had long relied on the “open range,” the idea that the land belonged to all. When barbed wire closed that open range, they fought back.

Enclosure and the End of the Open Range

After the American Civil War, European and Northern capital flooded into Texas, causing rampant speculation on land and railroads. Outside capitalists and corporations, along with a handful of local planters and big ranch families, accumulated large tracts across the state. While economic conditions were dire for freed African Americans, poor whites, and many Tejanos (Mexican-descended Texans), a powerful new class was rising in Texas.

Between 1880 and 1883 alone, the price of cattle per head soared from $7 to $25. As the price of land skyrocketed too, the wealthy landed classes sought to protect their lucrative investments. To keep poor farmers and unlanded cowboys from tapping into their resources, they turned to a new technology: barbed wire.

Cattle barons put up barbed wire in a frenzy. They cordoned off the best water sources and did not hesitate to fence over public land and roads. Adding to the outrage of poor farmers and cowboys, the cattle barons often continued to use public grazing land until the grasses were depleted, after which they would retreat to their enclosures.