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Does anybody know???

bluejaybee

bluejaybee

Veteran Expediter
Please! No speculation or opinions, as I have plenty of those. But I want to try and find the real truth or reason for what I am about to ask. You may coment after we find the answer to my question. And the question or curiosty is:

While driving through various areas in Texas (mainly rural, but some surburbs as well), I noticed they all have fences around their property and it includes a gate at their drive (or entrance). This requires opening and closing when entering or exiting. My question is why do they all have it. Is there a law that is the reason? A code maybe? Even most of the businesses have them. There has to be a reason for it and I was just wondering what it could be. They don't all have livestock, but yet they all live behind a gate. I am hoping there is someone who knows the answer. I am sure we could all guess or comment, but I would like someone who lives there and knows for sure to answer.
 
dabluzman1

dabluzman1

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
I heard that they thought it would be hysterical to fence in all the property and have gates making people wonder why the fence and gates were there.........ehheheheheheheh:D
 
Turtle

Turtle

Administrator
Staff member
Retired Expediter
I actually know the answer. :D

Ranch property in the West wasn’t always fenced and gated, obviously. Open-range ranching was the norm from the early Spanish and Mexican occupations on through to the 1880s. After the Civil War, open-range ranching made possible the great Texas Longhorn cattle drives up the Chisholm Trail to Kansas. “The Trail” soon pushed farther and farther west taking on other names with many extensions. These trails soon became what was known as the “rivers of Longhorns,” some 10 million in number between 1866 and 1890.

This mass migration of livestock would establish the ranching industry throughout the American West and on into Canada. When the “great die-up” took place in the late 1880s, brought on by a succession of summer droughts and severe winters, ranchers throughout the West began fencing their property. By 1895 the cattle trails out of Texas were no more, fenced across or plowed under. Born out of necessity, fencing gave ranchers more control over breeding practices and care of their livestock, where they could make sure they're fed and watered.

Also, in the American Southwest the practice of marking livestock began with the branding iron. Early sixteenth century Spanish conquistadors branded horses on their hips, cattle on their shoulders and in some cases, Indian slaves on their cheeks. Spanish brands tended to be flamboyant often based on the signature of the Spanish grandee or owner. Each successive generation (males only) would then add a bar or curlicue or some other additional paraph. Some eventually became quite ornate. The early Anglo settlers in Texas abandoned this tradition and reverted back to more basic patterns. Texas enacted its first branding law in 1848 requiring all stock owners to register their unique brands and earmarks with the local county clerk, a practice that continues to this day. Most ranchers have their brand displayed above the entrance to the ranch.

Back when every ranch had cattle, the gates were needed. Now it's more tradition than anything. And the gates have evolved to do the same things the intricate brands used to do, allow the owner to show a little flair. The more traditional ranchers still use the simple "wire gap" form of gate, but new ranchers, especially those who earned their money elsewhere and moved out west to start ranching, they've begun to have more elaborate gates, some costing anywhere from $5000 to $10,000 each, depending on the ironwork. They come out west and they buy their ranch that they’ve always dreamed about. Then they’ve got to have an entrance that makes a statement and they spare no expenses. They’ll do whatever it takes to make a big nice fancy ranch entrance.

There ya go. :)
 
bluejaybee

bluejaybee

Veteran Expediter
What you posted makes sense. And may be the real reason. But why do the businesses do it now? I thought there might be a law saying "if you had a locked gate and found somebody doing harm to your property behind that gate, you could legally drop them". I think Texas has something similar to that.
 
Turtle

Turtle

Administrator
Staff member
Retired Expediter
Well, if you found somebody doing harm to your property, you can protect your property, gate or no gate, locked or not. This is a subject that I wondered about, too, so I looked into it a while back, talked to a few people about it. A gate, locked or not, certainly discourages trespassers, and some businesses have them, but not all businesses do. It's a tradition more than anything.

It's weird to be driving along in rural nowhere and all of a sudden there's a gate, sometimes insanely ornate, with no visible evidence anywhere of a dwelling in sight. Sometimes the reason for the gates is precisely because you can't see the ranch house, since it may be many miles off the main road.

I've spent the better part of the last 10 weeks criss-crossing Texas, almost all of it on non-Interstate roads, so I've gotten plenty of opportunities to see a lot of these gates. Since the first of September, I've spent 7 days outside of Texas. Fortunately, I'm about to get out of this state, finally, in an hour or so when I pick up in McAllen, headed for Chicago. I'm not going to know what to do with a temperature lower than about 45 degrees. :D
 
greg334

greg334

Veteran Expediter
I have a rule during this holiday with my guests as I do every day of the year

Alice's Restaurant Massacree will never be heard in my home or in my vehicles.

Sorry for those who like the story/song but it was a while ago (before Cable and XM) where every radio station I listened to played it every frickn' two hours for three days, it just got to me.

I think it got to me so much my autographed copy of the first pressing went into the trash ... I still have the cookbook intact if anyone knows what I am talking about.
 
highway star

highway star

Veteran Expediter
Owner/Operator
5 or 6 years ago I tried to start a tradition with my boys that we'd listen to Alice's Restaurant during our Thanksgiving Dinner. They'd never heard of it. It lasted 2 years and now we can't find the CD.

Edit: OMG!!! We've strayed off topic with idle chit chat. I'll be spanking myself as punishment and I expect the other offending parties to do likewise.
 
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bluejaybee

bluejaybee

Veteran Expediter
Turtle said:
Well, if you found somebody doing harm to your property, you can protect your property, gate or no gate, locked or not. This is a subject that I wondered about, too, so I looked into it a while back, talked to a few people about it. A gate, locked or not, certainly discourages trespassers, and some businesses have them, but not all businesses do. It's a tradition more than anything.

It's weird to be driving along in rural nowhere and all of a sudden there's a gate, sometimes insanely ornate, with no visible evidence anywhere of a dwelling in sight. Sometimes the reason for the gates is precisely because you can't see the ranch house, since it may be many miles off the main road.

I've spent the better part of the last 10 weeks criss-crossing Texas, almost all of it on non-Interstate roads, so I've gotten plenty of opportunities to see a lot of these gates. Since the first of September, I've spent 7 days outside of Texas. Fortunately, I'm about to get out of this state, finally, in an hour or so when I pick up in McAllen, headed for Chicago. I'm not going to know what to do with a temperature lower than about 45 degrees. :D
Click to expand...

Well in Tennessee, you can pull a gun on somebody and hope they will follow your orders. But unless they are about to harm "YOU or YOUR FAMILY", you better not shoot. I was thinking I saw on T.V. where a Texan shot a man while stealing tires from his truck and he was justified by Texas law to do so. That's what made me wonder if maybe you had to have a fence or gate or something to be able to do this. Regardless, just look at the history we all got out of this.
 
M

Mdbtyhtr

Expert Expediter
In Texas, they have a cover of darkness rule, that assumes that if you are on private property under the cover of darkness, it is assumed that you are up to no good and can be shot on site. qa few years back a repo man was shot through the back window of the truck catching the bullet in his head and died. The shooter was never charged. Because he was shot in the back, he clearly posed no threat, but that was not material. The fences may have something to do with this or something to do with the Texas Republicans, but I would only be assuming.

Scott
 
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