Lacrosse, Kansas: Kansas Barbed Wired Museum

It's been six years since we visited and very little has changed. It is still very interesting to see the enormous variety of barbed wire. There are other buildings of interest to visit (1916 bank, etc.).

If you think there is only one type -- or maybe a couple of varieties -- of barbed wire, this museum will show you over 2,000 varieties. This museum is extensive. The friendly staff will answer, with detail, any questions you have. My wife's favorite part was the wide selection of tools used for installing barbed wire, in particular the post hole diggers. Go in ignorant on barbed wire, come out an expert.

At the Barbed Wired Museum, we got a demonstration of how the first barb maker worked. It was made from a modified coffee grinder.

If you like barbed wire, or if you're in any way involved with ranching and want to know more about barbed wire, this museum is for you! I never knew that barbed wire came in so many different varieties. Did you know that there's a different style of barbed wire for horse fences than for cattle fences? Antique and modern fencing tools as well as barbed wire samples are on display as well as a few truly unique exhibits, such as the raven's nest made of mostly barbed wire. Call ahead to make sure of the hours. The museum is manned by volunteers so call ahead to find out when someone will be around. Numbers are posted on the door in case visitors arrive outside of museum hours.

No visit to Kansas could possibly be complete without a visit to Lacrosse. Here, on the same grounds, are both the Barbed Wire and Post Rock museums. The Barbed Wired Museum imparts a variety of little known facts that have been intentionally kept from generations of American schoolchildren: who knew, for instance, that Barbed Wire collecting is America's fasting growing hobby?

Similarly, the Post Rock Museum chronicles the ingenuity of early Plains farmers who, lacking available wood, looked around and noticed a surfeit of rocks just waitin' to be strung with (what else?) barbed wire.