During the early 1880s, Jacob and Warren M. Brinkerhoff invented and patented 13 varieties of a galvanized ribbon barbed wire with saber-type points. Most Panhandle historians agree this Brinkerhoff ribbon was the most famous barbed wire in Panhandle history as the XIT Ranch used some 6,000 miles of the invention to fence their vast grasslands. Being a wire collector, I purchased several rolls of Brinkerhoff for various reasons. The largest group of rolls came from an old-time farmer in the Channing area whose grandfather had rolled up the wire after purchasing land from the XIT Land Company when they began offering their best farming acreage for sale. A recent construction project here on the Trew Ranch involved fencing a few acres surrounding a new fishing and camping site. For nostalgic reasons, I had the inspiration to build a 100-yard stretch of the new fence using the old XIT ribbon wire. It just might be the only "new " section of fence in the Panhandle using the old Brinkerhoff wire now older than 100 years. This turned out to be a new learning experience for me in spite of a lifetime of working on barbed-wire fences. Before I finished this section of fence, I determined the Brinkerhoff wire was alive and working diligently to thwart every move I made....
Monday, December 22, 2008
It's All Trew: Barbed wire called 'Devil's Rope' for a reason
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During the early 1880s, Jacob and Warren M. Brinkerhoff invented and patented 13 varieties of a galvanized ribbon barbed wire with saber-type points. Most Panhandle historians agree this Brinkerhoff ribbon was the most famous barbed wire in Panhandle history as the XIT Ranch used some 6,000 miles of the invention to fence their vast grasslands. Being a wire collector, I purchased several rolls of Brinkerhoff for various reasons. The largest group of rolls came from an old-time farmer in the Channing area whose grandfather had rolled up the wire after purchasing land from the XIT Land Company when they began offering their best farming acreage for sale. A recent construction project here on the Trew Ranch involved fencing a few acres surrounding a new fishing and camping site. For nostalgic reasons, I had the inspiration to build a 100-yard stretch of the new fence using the old XIT ribbon wire. It just might be the only "new " section of fence in the Panhandle using the old Brinkerhoff wire now older than 100 years. This turned out to be a new learning experience for me in spite of a lifetime of working on barbed-wire fences. Before I finished this section of fence, I determined the Brinkerhoff wire was alive and working diligently to thwart every move I made....
During the early 1880s, Jacob and Warren M. Brinkerhoff invented and patented 13 varieties of a galvanized ribbon barbed wire with saber-type points. Most Panhandle historians agree this Brinkerhoff ribbon was the most famous barbed wire in Panhandle history as the XIT Ranch used some 6,000 miles of the invention to fence their vast grasslands. Being a wire collector, I purchased several rolls of Brinkerhoff for various reasons. The largest group of rolls came from an old-time farmer in the Channing area whose grandfather had rolled up the wire after purchasing land from the XIT Land Company when they began offering their best farming acreage for sale. A recent construction project here on the Trew Ranch involved fencing a few acres surrounding a new fishing and camping site. For nostalgic reasons, I had the inspiration to build a 100-yard stretch of the new fence using the old XIT ribbon wire. It just might be the only "new " section of fence in the Panhandle using the old Brinkerhoff wire now older than 100 years. This turned out to be a new learning experience for me in spite of a lifetime of working on barbed-wire fences. Before I finished this section of fence, I determined the Brinkerhoff wire was alive and working diligently to thwart every move I made....
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