Exhibition Docent Handbook - Museum on Main Street

THINK ABOUT ITEncourage your visitors to examine the image of areenactment of an illegal fence cutting and thinkabout the kinds of disputes that fences caused.LET’S TALK• Who do you think may have objected to fenceson the prairie? Why do you think cattlemenand farmers disagreed about fences? How wouldyou answer the question, “Livestock—fenced in or fenced out?” Why? Why doyou think ranchers and homesteadersdisagreed about fences? What aboutranchers and sheepherders?• Barbed wire was used to quickly and cheaplyclaim land. Take a look at the samplesof barbed wire and tell me what you think weresome of the benefits of barbed wire. What aboutthe drawbacks? Do you know how inventorsanswered the need for safe fencing?• How do you think ethnicity may have factoredinto the fence wars of the late-19th andearly-20th centuries?• Does anyone know what a “forty” is? Do youhave any idea how much barbed wire it wouldtake to fence a “forty?” (Answer: 12 spoolsor 15,840 feet.)• Do any of the tools or the images behind themlook familiar to you? Has anyone in thegroup ever used any of these tools? Describehow you used them.