California Surveyors Forums

Happy New Year everyone...

This photo raises a question that's long been on my mind. All over California -- at least the north half of the state, as I'm not very familiar with the southern reaches -- there are old barbed wire fences supported by split rail posts like the one pictured. I think most of them are redwood. Yet I've never seen such posts for sale anywhere, nor any in new fence installations. Did the split redwood fence post market fade out when steel T-posts became available, or did the declining availability of old-growth redwood spell its doom? Those fences are iconic, and I wonder how much longer they'll be around.

They're mostly split from cedar in most parts of the Sac Valley and surrounding foothills. In the high desert counties on the eastern side of N Ca you can find posts of split juniper. I recovered a scribed juniper set by the 1880's GLO that is still very much readable. It was from a range line and so has lengthy scribes on all 4 sides.
When barbed wire first became commercially available, large old growth/heartwood cedar were abundant in the hills surrounding the north valley as was cheap labor. Split products were a huge commodity from certain communities such as cedar posts, rails and shingles. Interestingly, sugar pine was also split into shingles.. I know of one mille in the eastern foothills from back in the teens through 50's that produced more spltwood products than sawn. Many ranches split their own posts from around their summer grazing lands. It is my understang that the economics of cheap steel, declining old growth cedar,and much less labor intensive installation made the t-post more attractive

Jim Frame wrote:... Did the split redwood fence post market fade out when steel T-posts became available, or did the declining availability of old-growth redwood spell its doom? ...

Don't get all environmentalist on me now Jim!!! There are plenty of Cedar Trees around here to make more wood post, and some guys do split them for corner post and brace post. The reason steel post are so much more common is you cane drive a steel post in about 5 to 10 wacks, maybe 5 to 10 seconds. While digging a hole for the wood post can take 15 to 30 minutes (adobe and hard pan)... short answer: Labor.

We are almost out of old growth steel trees...what will be the next source of fence posts?

Sustainable foundries.

I'm thinking 2nd and 3rd growth steel trees may be fine except for the sap-steel-too weak.