Barbed wire is a critical innovation that shaped the High Plains. Field Editor Lacey Vilhauer takes a look at its origins.

His original double-strand design, the Winner, lived up to its name; it is the best-selling barbed wire of all time. ... Soon barbed-wire fences were everywhere, and sure enough, ...

Enter Henry Rose, who is more widely recognized and often credited as the “father of barbed wire.” His early fencing involved wooden rails with metal spikes —a design that eventually evolved into the ...

While “wildlife friendly” fencing designs that use smooth instead of barbed wire for their top and bottom strands reduce the risk of injury and entrapment, few if any fences are friendly to ...

A yearling whitetail that was found dead in a barbed wire fence. Photo by Natalie Krebs. With an estimated 620,000 miles of old barbed wire criss-crossing the Western U.S., the group points out, there ...