Last May, Ron Snell of North Platte set out to do what his friends said couldn't be done: float the Platte River across Nebraska. He would do it on a homemade fiberglass boat that looked like a big surfboard. It would float in an inch of water . . . if he had that much. As he stood just across the Wyoming border, pole in hand, Ron knew that more than 500 miles of poling, paddling and walking lay before him.

Four months of the year, Mike Jirschele works at a furniture store in Wisconsin, attends his son's basketball games and checks his wife's honey-do list. The rest of the year he's in Omaha or on the road. He's a laid-back guy and a disarmingly honest one. He hasn't earned material wealth and his schedule is grueling for his family. But it seems to be worth it because he loves baseball.

Weeping Water: A Nebraska 'Boom' Town

There's more to this land than meets the eye, and 30 miles south of Omaha we began to notice clues. Along Highway 50 we met a steady procession of chalky-looking dump trucks with “pups” tagging along behind. Among profiles of windmills, barns and silos, we saw a series of stark, rectangular towers connected by long conveyors.The story of Nebraska's limestone capital starts deep underground.