History

A brief history of fences in the American West

The history of fences in the west dates back to the mid nineteenth century. People were moving west from the ever growing eastern states on the promise of cheap land. Farmers and ranchers in the western regions of the United States began to fence off substantial portions of land as their own to deter would be settlers from staking a claim to the land. Settlers were shocked to find out that they could not buy the land if it had a fence around it.

During this time period people believed that if you built a fence around a piece of land, the land was owned by the person who fenced it. This vast fencing of the western frontier interfered greatly with Indians following buffalo, Texas cattle drives, and settlers looking for land. This interference led to the range wars which began in the early 1870's across eleven western states. The range wars are believed to be directly tied to the invention of barbed wire. The range wars were also called the “fence cutters war” because barbed wire could be easily cut and moved out of the way.

Barbed wire greatly changed the American west. It allowed anyone to fence in a piece of land for a very cheap price. And because a fence meant ownership, people could own land for merely the cost of a barbed wire fence.

Across the country side of the American west barbed wire can still be seen today, but the fence has evolved in type greatly since the late nineteenth century. While barbed wire is still present, there are many different types of fences seen all across the land from pipe fences to privacy fences.

Today we have become accustomed to seeing fences around all private property, but this was not always the case. The range wars and the invention of barbed wire greatly influenced not only the formation of the eleven states involved, but also the fence as a means of privacy and ownership in the American west.