That history is on display in La Crosse, Kan., at the Kansas Barbed Wire Museum. You can see more than 2,000 unique varieties of the vital tool, which corralled livestock and, in many ways ...

Eli Reichman “Barbed wire was a lifesaver for this region,” says Brad Penka, president and curator of the Kansas Barbed Wire Museum, in La Crosse, Kansas. Let him count the ways: keeping ...

Barbed wire is still used by farmers and ranchers today and is showcased at museums dedicated specifically to the invention in Kansas, Texas, and Illinois. The impressive number of patents ...