Slide 1 of 6,

Forty-nine years ago, Ashley Yost’s grandfather sank a well deep into Section 35, a half-mile square of rich Kansas farmland. He struck an artery of water so prodigious that he could pump 1,600 gallons to the surface every minute.

“That’s prime land,” he said not long ago. “I’ve raised 294 bushels of corn per acre there before, with water and the Lord’s help.” Now, he said, “it’s over.”