Fences, Plows & Windmills

These icons of American agriculture line and dot the landscape and the mind. The Homestead Act of 1862 brought the plow west. Late 19th-century laws brought barbed-wire fences to keep farm animals off the open range. Legends were made by men and women alike. The National Park Service preserves the places and stories of farms and ranches across the United States. Dig into the many views of the meaning of the land.