Situated west of Lincoln, a little-known, cash-strapped university outpost spawns renowned work, serious awe

The year was 1974. It was early fall. Or was it late spring? Never mind all that, Gary Hergenrader says. It isn't the season he remembers today, but the site: the old campground across the water, a dozen red cabins clinging like ticks to the canyon walls, the lodge overlooking Keystone Lake, the geology exposed in the rocky shelves above.

Before retiring in 2005, Hergenrader served nearly 25 years as the Nebraska state forester. But back in 1974, he was a 34-year-old professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He studied lakes, not trees.

He remembers leading a small convoy to the Sandhil...