The Summer the Wells Ran Dry

In the summer of 2012, farmers across southwest Kansas watched their fields turn to powder. Daryl Hestand, a third-generation wheat grower outside of Sublette, walked his cracked acreage every morning, pressing his boot into soil that crumbled like ash. The Ogallala Aquifer — the underground reservoir his family had relied on for sixty years — was dropping faster than anyone had seen.…