The Devil's Rope - How Barbed Wire Changed America
Artifact of the Month - September 2025
Curated by Collections and Exhibits Volunteer, Robert Harris
1969.13.10, 11 - Gifts of Raymond Peters; 1983.21.19, 22, 24, 29, 32-34, 37, 40 - Gifts of Dr. Howard Gard; 2000.14.1 - Gift of Cal Trans
In the Northstate, barbed wire is ubiquitous.
We see it everywhere from rural ranchland to the occasional suburban backyard fence. Depending on our perspective, we might think of it as an annoying fence that is hard to get through without ripping our clothes. Or we might rely on it to keep our cattle from wandering into the road. Barbed wire brought huge changes to the American West following the Homestead Act of 1862.
Prior to the act, ranchers grazed their cattle on unfenced open range. This practice rubbed up against homesteaders trying to farm as fencing was expensive, which slowed the rush for land. In 1867, the first of many barbed wire patents was issued in the U.S. based on a French invention. Joseph Glidden advertised the new fencing material as the “Greatest Discovery of the Gilded Age.” It was, “lighter than air, stronger than whiskey, and cheaper than dust.” Homesteaders quickly adopted barbed wire and strung it from anything available to enclose their land. Some ranchers also began fencing their land to manage grazing with fewer hands needed to handle their cattle.
Good fences make good neighbors…unless you are a native herd animal or an Indigenous tribe that has been on the land since time immemorial. Tribes saw their land fenced in and inaccessible. The bison that had freely roamed the plains were cut off from their range and herds dwindled as a result. Some Native people began referring to barbed wire as, “The Devil’s Rope.”
Did you know that most of Shasta County is still Open Range?
In the Western United States, open range is rangeland where cattle graze freely, regardless of land ownership. Open Range means that people wanting to keep animals off their property must fence it. Most eastern states require owners to fence in their livestock.
As western land became more populated and developed, open range laws were challenged. Open range was significantly curtailed. The invention of practical barbed wire in the 1870s made it easier to contain cattle, helped prevent overgrazing, and made fencing large areas cheaper than hiring cowboys to handle the cattle. Today, free roaming cattle can be a nuisance to some and a danger in developed areas.
In the 1850s, just after California attained statehood, an open range rule was adopted for the entire state. During the latter part of the nineteenth century, the California legislature enacted a series of statues effectively closing the range in designated counties. In the Estray Act of 1915, the legislature adopted for most of California the English rule that the owner of livestock is strictly liable for trespass damage. This is a closed range statue. However, the statue retained the open range rule in the six northern counties of Shasta, Del Norte, Lassen, Modoc, Siskiyou, and Trinity. Since then, some foothill counties have opened parts of their mountain forests to open range.
In 1945, the California legislature enacted two amendments to the Estray Act. The first changed the prime farmland south of Redding from open to closed range. The second amendment empowered the Shasta County Board of Supervisors to adopt ordnances to close the range in places that were no longer chiefly used for grazing. As a result, Shasta County has a pattern of open and closed range that no other county can match. When buying property in rural Shasta County, is important to ask if it is an open or closed range area.
It’s Not Just for Cattle — Barbed Wire’s Use in War and Law Enforcement.
Barbed wire was first used in war in Magul, Mozambique in 1895 by the Portuguese. In 1899, barbed wire was used in the Boer War in South Africa to bring areas under control at military outposts and concentration camps. It was also used in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905.
The United States built its first international border fence from 1909 to 1911 along the California –Mexico border. Barbed wire was first used to prevent cattle from moving between the two countries. When the United States created the Border Patrol in 1924, additional barbed wire fencing was used to prevent people from crossing.
In WWI, all participants used barbed wire to hinder troop movement. Barbed wire was placed in front of the troop trenches to prevent direct charges. Barbed wire became less effective with the use of tanks in 1916.
The United States migratory work camps of the great depression were enclosed with barbed wire. During WWII, the United States used barbed wire to enclose the Japanese internment camps. At the same time, the Germans used barbed wire for concentration and extermination camps. During the Chicago riots in 1968, the police and National Guard vehicles had barbed wire attached to the fronts of their vehicles to move rioters.
Can you think of other ways that you have seen barbed wire used?