In 1883, when barbed-wire was very new in the area, large ranchers who had operated their cattle companies on the open range, became alarmed. They thought of the prairie like shrimpers think about the Gulf, it should be held in common. When water became scarce, some ranchers fenced in traditional waterholes, and some fenced off roads. The Wilson Ranch, near Hazel Dell began to build fences even though vigilantes threatened violence. After a mile of fence had been built, it was cut to pieces and every posts destroyed in one night.

Jewel Dukes Huddleston and Billy McCool, The Comanche County Sesquicentennial Committee: A Calendar of Comanche County History, 1986. Stephenville: Vanderbilt Street Press, 1985; and