Joanne S Liu
Author
Pub. Date
2009
Description
How could an ordinary fence shape the development of a nation? Before the 1870s, much of the American West was an uninterrupted expanse of prairie and cowboys ran cattle on an open range without a fence in sight. Then the Homestead Act of 1862 passed and settlers poured into the west looking for land to tame and farm. This set up a conflict between the farmers who wanted to keep cattle off their crops and cattlemen that needed the land for their livestock....