USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -As newcomers came to the American West to farm, established cattlemen began to fence off their larger tracts of land with barbed wire in order to protect them from the farmers’ claims. The settlers viewed this as a closing of the open range, and began to cut fences to attempt to reclaim lands in the public domain.

Detailed explanation-2: -The widespread use of barbed wire changed life on the Great Plains dramatically and permanently. Land and water once open to all was fenced off by ranchers and homesteaders with predictable results.

Detailed explanation-3: -The cowboys hated the wire: cattle would get nasty wounds and infections. When the blizzards came, the cattle would try to head south. Sometimes they got stuck against the wire and died in their thousands. Other cowmen adopted barbed wire, using it to fence off private ranches.

Detailed explanation-4: -On October 27, 1873, a De Kalb, Illinois, farmer named Joseph Glidden submits an application to the U.S. Patent Office for his clever new design for a fencing wire with sharp barbs, an invention that will forever change the face of the American West.