Wondering about wild grapes

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Wondering About Devil''s Rope.

There is a red guy with a long tail and scales chasing me and he has a rope he made into a lasso . . . Help, he is going to get me!!!

Yep, if that were the case, that lasso would be the Devil's rope.  But that is not what this blog is about.  This blog is about the barbed wire that was used to fence the west.  There were a lot of different styles and I suppose they all were designed for a special use, but it got the nickname, Devil's Rope.  Now, I don't know but I would guess that the open range cowboys gave it that name. 

 
You sure wouldn't want to get tangled up in this:

I guess that everybody and their brother had their own idea of how barbed wire should be designed.  Here is a sample of some of the wire used with the name and date listed:

This seems to the most common, at least of the ones I have seen up close:
 
The Devils Rope Barbed Wire Museum is the place to see all the old barbed wire fencing and its history.  It is located in McLean, Texas and was officially opened in 1991.  This is what it looks like:
 
If we are ever up in the panhandle area again, I would like to stop and see it.  Now, don't any of you get tangled up in barbed wire but have a great day, you hear?

18 comments:

  1. Ahhh never like barbed wire and what it did to horses's hides. But electric fencing, well well there is always some dumb kid who will try to pee on it!
    KarenInTheWoods and Steveio
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    1. I have had my problems with both of them, but I never peed on one. Now, one time when I was a kid, I bumped into one and it hit that bone at the back of my neck. . . woo eee - tingled all over. Didn't like that.

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  2. I never liked barbed wire either. On the Appalachian Trail in many places they build a stile so that you can go up a few steps on one side and down the other. That doesn't work for dogs though - they don't want to climb up that contraption, so I always had to try to hold the barbed wire up enough so Smoky could get under it.

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    1. I didn't know that about the Appalachian Trail. I was always under the opinion that it all was owned by the park service. I should have known better.

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  3. Treat a horse that has gotten tangled in some. Where's my styptic pencil?

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    1. That would not be a pretty sight. No fencing for horses should be made of barbed wire, in fact, I don't think it should be used for anything except prisons.

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  4. We didn't use barbed wire... had electric fence for our goats. Come hunting season we had to lower the wire and take the fence chargers to the barn (also the goats)... folks who weren't even supposed to be on our land would cut the fence... too bad we didn't have barbed wire to snag their britches as they tried to cross over it.

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    1. I used to hunt a lot, but I respected peoples property and asked permission to hunt. If you were at home at the time you should have had them arrested for trespassing. . . or maybe some buckshot hitting the rear of their pants. .

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  5. Interesting stuff! Handled a lot of barb wire on the farm when I was a kid.

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    1. Hope you were careful and wore real thick gloves.

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  6. And now of course there is razor wire. No safe place on the wire.

    Wade in NW Florida

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    1. Yes, I have seen pictures of that nasty stuff.

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  7. We saw a huge collection of Barbed wire in Har Ber Village Museum in Grove Oklahoma, very interesting history.

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    1. They have made some nasty looking barbed wire through the years, that is for sure, but it is great that they have museums that safely display it.

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  8. Back when we had a biker's meet, a camera man tried to go thru a half fallen barbed wire fence,,my bro had to help him get out...lol

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    1. I bet that camera man was hurting, but thanks to your bro, got out OK.

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  9. O yeah, he showed up at the house after that, asking if we had any super glue, said he had broken a 3000. lens on his camera. We did, i handed it to him and he smeared it all over his lips!!! Said, not drinking any more! hahahahah

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    1. I wonder how many years it took him to get his lips apart??

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