When Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act of 1862, there was a rush of people who moved west to claim the free land that was offered.

However, there was a problem. Creating physical divisions for plots of land on the prairie was difficult when there was no wood or stone.

Eventually there was a solution to the problem, which offered a cheap way to divide land,

and created a whole host of new problems as well.

Learn more about Barb Dwyer and how it shaped the American West, warfare, and much more

on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. The idea of putting physical barriers between land goes back a long way.

When early farmers were tending their land they would often

kill two birds with one stone. They would clear the land of stone and rocks and

then pile up the stones and rocks on the dividing line with other farms.

Another option that's been practiced for centuries is the planting of hedgerows.

These were bushes or shrubs which were planted along the borders between farms.

The oldest evidence of hedgerows goes back almost 6,000 years.

England and Ireland are still filled with farmland divided up by hedges and stone walls, some of

which were created over 700 years ago.

When Europeans came to North America,

they used many of the same practices of dividing up farmland.

With the ample forests found in the area,

they could also create fences that were made out of wood.

Compared to the rest of world history, the expansion of the United States was quite rapid.

But when the Homestead Act was passed in 1862, things went into overdrive. The American government, giving absolutely

no consideration to the Native people who already live there, wanted to encourage as many Americans

as possible to settle the vast American West.

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