Named “The Picketed Strip” it looked ominously medieval and was meant to be attached to existing fencing. In 1867 the sharply-monikered Alphonso Dobb created the first recorded type of fence with defensive points or barbs. Some kind of fence that mimicked the thorn bushes was needed, but how could you make such a fence? So began a low-tech prairie version of the internet boom in which hundreds of entrepreneurs from across the country rushed to create a new type of spiky fencing. Thorny hedges were perfect barriers to cattle, but planting thousands of miles of bushes was impracticable.
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However when a wire fence was placed between a 1,000-pound Texas longhorn and a patch of lush green pasture, it proved to be something of a pushover. Wind didn’t blow them down and snow didn’t pile up against them. Simple wire fences were light, inexpensive, and easy to erect. Wooden fencing was expensive because the plains lacked trees, and furthermore it was susceptible to fire. Following the Homestead Act of 1862, millions of acres of the western United States were opened up to farming and new settlers needed something to protect their crops from free-roaming cattle and bison. (Photo: SonNumber4/)Īlongside the Colt pistol and the railroad, barbed wire is usually listed as one of the three main factors in how the West was won. And of course there is its storied history.Ī tangle of barbed wire against a blue sky. It is this remarkable ability of a single piece of twisted wire to take on a multiplicity of forms that helps explains La Crosse’s peculiar attraction to it. The town even contains the Kansas Barbed Wire Museum, displaying around 2,000 unique varieties dating back to the middle of the 19th century. It plays host to the annual Kansas Barbed Wire Collectors Association Swap and Sell, as well as its showcase event, the World Champion Barbed Wire Splicing Contest, in which contestants race against the clock to try and repair a stretch of snapped wire. La Crosse (population 1,289, or a crowded New York subway train) is obsessed with the devilish stuff. So why on Earth would the small town of La Crosse, Kansas, proudly proclaim itself the Barbed Wire Capital of the World? For 150 years it has stuck cattle, ensnared soldiers and encircled concentration camps. (Photo: David Howells/Getty Images)Ĭould anything be less friendly than barbed wire? Its whole purpose is to deter, to turn back, to prevent both entry and escape. Different types of barbed wire on display at the Barbed Wire Museum in LaCrosse, Kansas.
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