DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say, right here in Alamo Plaza. Now, you might think the story of the American West was written by six-shooters and longhorns. And you wouldn't be entirely wrong.
But there's another story — one told in twisted steel and sharp little points — and it started right here, in a spot the locals once called the quiet mudhole of Alamo Plaza. Barbed wire. Cowboys called it bobwire, and they didn't much care for it at first.
And that's fair, because it wasn't exactly a homegrown idea. It was a French invention, first patented in the United States all the way back in 1867. For a good decade, cattlemen kept their distance.
Didn't trust it. Didn't want it. Didn't need it — or so they thought.
Then along came a man named Joseph Glidden, out of DeKalb, Illinois. In 1874, Glidden received a patent for his own design of barbed wire, and that wire — his wire, straight from his manufacture — would be the first barbed wire fencing ever successfully demonstrated in the state of Texas. Now here's where the story gets good.
The year is 1876. The man handling the pitch is Pete McManus, a veteran salesman who had seen enough deals fall apart to know that a product like this needed more than a brochure. His partner was young — a fellow by the name of John Warne Gates.
Together, they had come to Texas with a corral's worth of what they were calling the Glidden winner. Some folks over the years have placed this demonstration over in San Antonio's bustling Military Plaza. But the marker sets the record straight.
It was here — right here in Alamo Plaza — that McManus and Gates set up their barbed wire corral and drove cattle into the pen. Now picture that. Cowboys standing around this so-called mudhole, arms crossed, skeptical as a cat at a bathtub.
And then the cattle went in — thundering, pushing, pressing against those thin twisted lines. And the corral held. It held.
Under the astonished eyes of cowboys and cattlemen, that little pen of Glidden wire did not give an inch. And if the story is to be believed — and it's too good not to — the flamboyant John Warne Gates then invited every last one of those spectators into the Menger Hotel to place their orders. You want to talk about a sales pitch.
After that demonstration, the market for barbed wire fencing didn't grow. It exploded. Large sales went out to Texas ranchers and all along the frontier.
Pete McManus reportedly sold more barbed wire fencing than any salesman in the entire world. And young John Warne Gates — who would one day earn the nickname Bet-A-Million — became the world's largest barbed wire manufacturer. He'd go on to help found the Texas Company, which you might know better as Texaco, and he developed the town of Port Arthur.
But the real story is what that wire did to the land. Within twenty-five years of that demonstration, nearly all of the open range had become privately owned and was under fence. The wide-open West — the one that seemed like it would run on forever — was divided and claimed and cultivated.
Barbed wire made it possible to introduce cultivated cattle stock into the beef industry. It opened the fertile land to farmers and homesteaders who had no other way to hold what was theirs. The whole landscape of the American West changed.
Ranching changed. Agriculture changed. All of it, because two men set up a wire corral in a mudhole, drove some cattle into it, and then bought a round at the Menger Hotel.
Sometimes the sharpest things come in the smallest packages.
What the marker says
Once called "bobwire" by cowboys, barbed wire was a French invention first patented in the U.S. in 1867, but it did not gain favor with cattlemen until the late 1870s. Joseph Glidden of Dekalb, Illinois, Received a patent for his barbed wire in 1874, and it was wire of his manufacture that was the first barbed wire fencing successfully demonstrated in Texas. In 1876, veteran salesman Pete McManus and his young partner, John Warne Gates, made their first demonstration of "the Glidden winner" barbed wire. Though speculation has placed this demonstration in San Antonio's bustling Military Plaza, it was here in the quiet "mudhole" of Alamo Plaza that McManus and Gates set up a barbed wire corral and then drove cattle into the pen. It is said that after the corral held the thundering animals under the astonished eyes of cowboys and cattlemen, the flamboyant Gates invited spectators into the Menger Hotel to place their orders. After the theatrical demonstration in Alamo Plaza, the market for barbed wire fencing suddenly exploded with large sales to Texas ranchers and others along the frontier. Pete McManus reportedly sold more barbed wire fencing than any salesman in the world. John W. "Bet-A-Million" Gates became the world's largest barbed wire manufacturer. He helped found the Texas Company (later Texaco) and developed the town of Port Arthur. Barbed wire fencing changed the landscape of the American west and with it the industries of ranching and agriculture. It made possible the introduction of cultivated cattle stock into the beef industry and opened up the fertile land to farmers and other homesteaders. Within 25 years nearly all the open range had become privately owned and was under fence. (2000)