Thanks everyone. It was a John Wayne movie I am thinking of though I will watch Man Without a Star, sounds very good.
What I have stuck in my mind is an image of John Wayne, he is older and he takes a sledge hammer or axe and breaks a small wooden dam or levy that is blocking up a creek, preventing the water to flow down stream to the Hispanic farmers below...They came to him to plead with him for help because they and their cattle are dying of thirst. This always stuck with me because there was such urgency in getting the water to flow again and Wayne had to fight off another idiot that thought he could just take over all the water. There was also a part where he is disgusted by the barbed wire getting put up. That could be from another movie, though my husband seems to agree with me that this was all in the same movie. I am wondering if the John Wayne Estate hasn't release this movie? We haven't seen it in years and I have been looking at all the Wayne movie synopsizes and haven't seen it yet.
Glad to see that I am not the only John Wayne fan! He's the best! Laura