Not all stories are about how the West was won. More often than not, it was lost -- with dreams of getting rich quick and settlements that popped up overnight both fading forgotten into history.

W hen I thought about Nebraska before my recent four-day trip -- and I almost never did -- I imagined an utterly flat place populated by legions of cows and mega-acres of corn. It is the Cornhusker ...

Every village, town and city in Nebraska had the same humble roots -- ambitious settlers and big dreams. As the state was settled, moving from southeast to northwest, new communities sprang out of the ...