Many historians believe one of the defining moments in the history of the West came when a small bunch of wild longhorn steers stopped and backed away from eight slender strands of twisted wire equipped with sharp barbs. This event happened in 1876 when John W. (Bet-a-Million) Gateserected an enclosure on the Plaza in San Antonio, Texas to demonstrate to gathered ranchers, that newly-invented barbed wire could securely contain wild livestock. From that moment on, the West would never be the same again.
This defining event ended the era of open range and the use of free graze which had reigned supreme since the earliest settlers began to populate mid-America. At that same time, new technological inventions and modern manufacturing equipment and processes grew by leaps and bounds providing the start of the Industrial Revolution across America.
Post-war demands for beef here and abroad, new railroads available for livestock transportation and the invention of refrigeration spawned the greatest cattle boom in the history of the new nation. The cattleman was king and his domain seemingly unending.
However, the moment those longhorns stopped at the wire in San Antonio, the age of the pioneer, free-range cattleman was doomed. No one foresaw how drastically barbed wire fencing would eventually transform western life at that time and on into the future.
Surely, the changes required a few hectic and sometimes bloody years in transformation, but as inevitable as sunrise the vast ranges from Mexico to Canada were slowly claimed and their boundaries fenced with wire. The greater the adversity met in claiming and fencing the land the greater the pride-of-ownership in the land by the owner.
An interesting side note about the early-day livestock business is, before the Civil War, stealing cattle and horses was virtually unknown. Both wild cattle, mustangs and free land was nearly everywhere free for the taking so why risk the chance of theft and punishment if caught.
Some believe that being in the Civil War invading armies which virtually lived off the land by plundering and taking what they needed to continue, created a new class of renegade and raider without conscience who was cruel, cunning and arrogant.
The Republic of Texas became the refuge of the renegades as they deserted military service before and immediately after the war ended. The absence of law, millions of square miles of wild terrain for hiding and the easy prey of scattered pioneer homesteads made outlaw living easy. For a time, these renegades threatened the very existence of settlers in some areas and became more dreaded than the wild Indians roaming the land.
Eventually, their atrocities brought vigilante groups and the Texas Rangers whose actions pushed the renegades into Kansas and Indian (Oklahoma) Territory. A few recorded interviews with these renegades after capture revealed the one thing that curtailed their thieving activities the most was the presence of barbed wire fences. The actual theft, movement of stolen livestock and escape after a crime was committed became much more difficult because of these barriers sometimes erected almost overnight.
Now, back to the beginning of this story, all these things came about because those steers stopped at the barbed wire in San Antonio in 1876.
