Karen Ingram

While mounting our newest exhibit on ranching, both sheep and cattle, at the museum I got to wondering about barbed wire.  When was the first wire made, who made it and why?  These were the questions that first popped into my mind so to the internet I went.  My search led me to the wondrous discovery of a museum dedicated to the subject of barb wire.  Located in Texas the Devils Rope Barbed Wire Museum site was full of information and answered all my questions and then some.
Before wire man would have made fences or barriers to protect what was his from natural sources such as wood from local trees, stones, thorny bushes or mud, but as we started to discover new spaces, these weren’t always readily available.  By the late 1870’s smooth wire was available but ranchers and farmers found it didn’t do much to stop the animal that really wanted out of his pasture for the greener grass on the other side.  After a couple of unsuccessful attempts by others, a man by the name of Michael Kelly invented a wire with points in 1868, it was sold and used by many until 1874.  Joseph Glidden has been credited with the invention of the most common form of barbed wire still in use today.  Believe it or not, he was inspired after attending a country fair where he saw a demonstration of a smooth wire fence that had a wooden rail with protruding nails in it hung along the wire.  He made the first barbs shortly after and they were twisted onto the smooth wire fences.
The use of barb wire wasn’t easily accepted, religious groups demanded that it not be used as cattle were sometimes cut when they ran into the new fences that the groups had dubbed as being made from “the Devil’s Rope”.  Large ranchers who liked the freedom of the open plains for their animals to be herded and grazed on fought against the fences, often cutting them open when taking their herds to market.  Slowly the opposition diminished as the wire was used more and more and the need to control animals was accepted.
Another use for barbed wire was found when it was built up with ever larger and sharper barbs.  Wound together to create barriers the new wire was used against enemy troops during war.  Massive fences were created that could entangle troops and stop them advancing into the protecting nations territory.  Eventually heavy duty artillery made these barriers obsolete and today the barbed wire during war is mostly used to protect supply camps, assist in slowing advances at check points and for keeping prisoners with few resources in prison camps.
Today there are more than 530 patented barb wires, with more than 2,000 variations, according to this website.  Less than 10% of these patented wires proved practical to manufacture and use.  This meant that most of the wires became quite rare with small amounts produced, and wouldn’t you know it, with the nature of collectors, they started collecting samples of barbed wire.  This led to collections of tools used with barbed wire and advertising memorabilia.
Take a drive down through Alberta country side and pay attention to the amount of barbed wire still in use, keeping cattle in their pastures and out of the yards and fields cultivated by the farmer/rancher.  My memories of barbed wire include snagging jeans or shirts as we were trying to climb over or slide under, rather than taking the time to walk around to the gate.  These rips usually caused great concern to myself and my sisters as we knew mother would not be pleased when we got back to the house.