Fence Cutting War

The Fence Cutting Wars occurred near end of the 19th century in the American Old West, and were a series of disputes between farmers and cattlemen with larger land holdings. As newcomers came to the American West to farm, established cattlemen began to fence off their larger tracts of land with barbed wire in order to protect them from the farmers' claims. The settlers viewed this as a closing of the open range, and began to cut fences to attempt to reclaim lands in the public domain. The ensuing, widespread series of conflicts was known as the Fence Cutting Wars.

Under the Homestead Act of 1862, the United States government offered 160 acres (65 ha) of lands in the west to those willing to reside on and improve their land. Farmers who were seeking cheap, plentiful land on which to raise herds of cattle flocked west. Some of these men accumulated more cattle than others, and companies or syndicates began to invest in the big cattle operations. Those with larger holdings of cattle were known as "cattle kings," "cattlemen," or "cattle barons."

Barbed wire, which was patented in 1874, was revolutionary in allowing farmers to protect their claims, crops, and livestock, particularly as the land started to fill up and competition for rights to and use of the land intensified. Barbed wire was a farmer’s product at first, but cattlemen eventually adopted it to fence off their larger tracts of land. Barbed wire became an important factor in changing the cattle industry, as the free, open range became parceled off by barbed wire. Because of this development, the West saw the rise of big-pasture companies.

By the 1880s, newcomers' livestock were beginning to overcrowd the herds of the larger cattlemen. The cattle kings began to fence off their lands to protect access to the rangelands and water, which infuriated many homesteaders. There were many cases when large ranch owners not only fenced the property over which they claimed ownership, but also property considered public land. Some homesteaders retaliated by cutting the barbed wire of the fenced areas to give their livestock access to these lands, prompting the fence-cutting wars. Fence cutters were usually small-scale stockmen or farmers who used the free range and resented its appropriation, but also resented the fact that their stock could get tangled in the fences, injuring or killing the animals.

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