DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say, right there in Moore County, Texas. Now settle in, because this story starts with something that sounds simple — the absence of a single fence — and ends with two hundred miles of wire strung across the Panhandle sky. Until the mid-1880s, there wasn't a range fence to be found in the Texas Panhandle.
Not one. And out on the open plains, that might've seemed fine — until a blizzard rolled down out of the north. See, when those winter storms hit Oklahoma, Colorado, and Kansas, cattle didn't just hunker down.
They drifted. They drifted south, the way cattle do when the wind is at their backs and the cold is at their heels. And where did they end up?
Right here. On the Texas ranches along the Canadian River breaks. We're talking about some serious outfits.
The Box T, run by the Dominion Cattle Company Ltd. The Seven K — York, Parker and Draper. The Bar C's of Creswell Land and Cattle Company.
The Turkey Track, belonging to Hansford Land and Cattle Company. The LX, that was Bates and Beal. The LIT — Littlefield's operation.
And the LE, which was Lee and Reynolds. Seven ranches, all sitting in the path of every northern herd that wanted to ride a blizzard south. By spring roundup, the situation had gotten genuinely remarkable.
There were as many northern cattle in those herds as local ones. Half the animals on a Texas ranch might've spent the winter in Kansas before the weather changed their plans. And separating them all out?
Costly. Time-consuming. The kind of work that makes a rancher sit down hard and do some arithmetic he doesn't enjoy.
So those seven Texas ranchers did something that, out here, took some doing — they agreed. Each one agreed to build a fence along his north boundary line. And when you string that many agreements together across the Panhandle, something remarkable takes shape.
Two hundred miles of fence. That's what they built. It ran from the northeast corner of the Panhandle, southwest to near the site where the town of Dumas would later be founded, then turned west — another thirty-five miles, right on into New Mexico.
Four strands of wire. Four barbs per strand. Posts set every thirty feet.
A gate every three miles, so the land wasn't entirely closed off, just — guided. The materials alone came to about sixty-five carloads of wire and posts, hauled all the way from Dodge City. Sixty-five carloads.
Now here's where the story gets its wry little twist. In 1890, to comply with an 1889 state law prohibiting any fence from crossing or enclosing public property, most of that fence was removed. Two hundred miles of wire, posts every thirty feet, sixty-five carloads of material — and the law said, no.
Not like that. So they took it down. Most of it, anyway.
All that agreement, all that wire, all those miles of four-barb logic strung across the Panhandle wind — and in the end, the drift fence that stopped the cattle couldn't outlast the legislature. That, friend, is Texas in one story.
What the marker says
Until the mid-1880's, no range fences existed in the Texas Panhandle. Thus when winter blizzards came, cattle drifted from Oklahoma, Colorado, and Kansas onto the Texas ranches of T ("Box T"--Dominion Cattle Co. Ltd.), 7K ("Seven K"--York, Parker & Draper), CC ("Bar C's"--Creswell Land & Cattle Co.), ^ ("Turkey Track"--Hansford Land & Cattle Co.), LX (Bates & Beal), LIT (Littlefield), and LE (Lee & Reynolds). The influx caused these ranches in the Canadian River breaks to be overgrazed, for by spring roundup there were as many northern as local cattle in the herds. To prevent the costly and time-consuming job of separating the cattle, each Texas rancher agreed to construct a fence along his north boundary line. The resulting fence was 200 miles long and ran from the northeast corner of the Panhandle southwest to near the site where Dumas was later founded, then west about 35 miles into New Mexico. It was a 4-strand, 4-barb fence with posts 30 feet apart and a gate every 3 miles. The materials amounted to about 65 carloads of wire and posts hauled from Dodge City. In 1890, however, to comply with an 1889 state law prohibiting any fence from crossing or enclosing public property, most of the fence was removed. (1969)