I saw these limestone fence posts, called post rocks, on a recent drive to western Kansas.
I’ve lived in Kansas most of my life, but I hadn’t seen more than a few limestone fence posts until this past weekend when I saw miles of them as I drove west in a section of the state I’d never visited before. It has been estimated that at the peak of their use, there were about 40,000 miles of these stone post fences in central Kansas. In the last quarter of the 19th century, ranchers and farmers needed fences to keep the cattle from wandering onto cropland, but wood was scarce. Providentially, there is a bed of limestone buried only a few inches beneath the top soil, which is about about 18 inches in thickness, the perfect dimension for fence posts. It was easy to shape the soft stone, which hardened, enabling the posts to resist weathering in the elements.
More about Post Rock Fences and Where to Find Them.
Catherine Sherman 