DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, there's a name that doesn't get hollered from the rooftops nearly enough — H. B.
Sanborn. But pull up a chair, because this man's story has a way of sneakin' up on you. It starts in Grayson County in the late 1870s, when Sanborn established what would become known as the Sanborn Ranch.
And not just any ranch — a showplace, the marker calls it, which is the kind of word you don't throw around lightly in Texas. But here's where it gets interesting. H.
B. Sanborn wasn't simply a rancher. He was one of the major promoters of barbed wire.
One of the major promoters. So when this man decided to fence his land, he didn't just run a strand or two along the road to keep the chickens honest. The Sanborn Ranch became the first large area in Texas to be fenced with barbed wire.
A model demonstration project, right there in Grayson County. And the marker is plain about what that meant — it contributed to the decline of the open-range west. The open range.
Gone. That fence wire, hummin' in the Texas wind, was changin' the whole shape of the land and everything that happened on it. Now you'd think a man who'd already pulled off something that consequential might settle in, maybe have his portrait painted, maybe let the years roll by on that showplace ranch.
But Sanborn had one more card to play. In 1888, he founded the city of Amarillo. Founded it.
And thereafter, he sold the ranch. Just like that — a showplace given up, a city planted in the Panhandle, and a chapter closed. H.
B. Sanborn: barbed wire man, ranch builder, city founder. He didn't just leave a mark on Texas.
He strung one clear across it.
What the marker says
Established in late 1870's by H. B. Sanborn, one of the major promoters of barbed wire. Ranch (a showplace) was first large area in Texas to be fenced with barbed wire -- a model demonstration project, contributing to decline of open-range west. In 1888, Sanborn founded city of Amarillo and thereafter sold ranch. (1967)