Free will donation. Photos Copyright H. Schuster . Please do not use without permission. More than 2000 t ypes of barbed wire are cataloged at the largest collection of such wire in the world, the Barbed Wire Museum in La Crosse. The land is flat here.
Grain elevators appear on the horizon like giant stick pins in some huge road map of Kansas.
The concrete towers grow larger as the miles speed by, until finally a town appears. In an area dominated by the endless skyline and country roads lined with limestone fence posts, perhaps it's as fitting place as any to house such an impressive collection of wire. You may have been led to believe by all those old Westerns the six-shooter won the West, but in reality it was barbed wire that tamed the western frontier. Wire cutters took their place along with the six gun for a time when cowboys rode the range. Range wars were waged, tempers flared, and blood was shed.