With mobile live broadcasting now enabled, our goal is to deliver real-time, on-the-ground coverage straight from the field. This isn’t studio content—it’s raw, immediate, and rooted in actual exploration. Whether we’re navigating backroads, documenting remote landscapes, or working through changing conditions, the focus is on showing things as they happen, without filters or delay.

Prior to TerraQuest Magazine becoming what it is today, it was known as TrailsWest...

Sandhill cranes are as old as the story of migration itself. Tall, gray-bodied, crimson-capped, they move with a purpose that has outlasted ice, drought, and the rise of cities...

It's a silent sentinel — a low mesa rising above the western Nebraska plains, weathered by wind and time, hiding layers of human occupation. Signal Butte, perched above Robidoux Pass, is more than a landmark. It’s one of the most important archaeological sites in the Central Plains. Its bones, hearths, and tool fragments whisper of people who lived here long before settlers crossed in wagon trains.

The American Avocet (Recurvirostra americana) is one of those birds that doesn’t sneak into a wetland; it arrives with grace and purpose — stilt-legged, black-and-white wings flashing, its elegant upturned bill slicing through the shallows. It’s a bird built for margins where land surrenders to water. When avocets thrive, wetlands are healthy. When they vanish, the system is failing.

The American bison — from the edge of extinction to their powerful return across North America. Once reduced to just a few hundred animals, bison now roam public lands, Tribal nations, and private ranches thanks to decades of conservation and rewilding efforts. This in-depth feature explores their history, near-eradication, genetic legacy after early cattle crossbreeding, and the modern movement to restore wild, free-ranging herds while balancing ecology, culture, and ranching.

For more than a century, sugar beets have helped define the agricultural backbone of western Nebraska and northern Colorado. Generations of farm families have relied on the crop to pay mortgages and put kids through college. The sprawling factories in towns like Scottsbluff, Gering, and Fort Morgan have long been symbols of rural industry — steam stacks billowing, trucks lined up with harvest loads, the air tinged with the earthy scent of beets.

No one cares about squirrels, right? I mean, how many people do you know who enjoy squirrels in a park, in the woods on a hike, or just in general? The answer is everyone — unless they’re suffering from sciurophobia (from Sciurus, the squirrel genus, + phobia, meaning “fear”) — and let’s be honest, you’ve probably never even heard of that because it’s basically a made-up word… a funny one at that. But everyone should care about squirrels, and here’s why.

On the western edge of Nebraska, the prairie rises abruptly into stone. Scotts Bluff National Monument isn’t just a pretty skyline for Gering and Scottsbluff—it’s a waypoint that told generations of travelers they were on the right path.

Discover the rare Blowout Penstemon (Penstemon haydenii), one of North America’s most endangered wildflowers, found only in Nebraska’s Sandhills and parts of Wyoming. Learn how relentless winds, shifting dunes, and fragile blowout habitats shape its survival, the threats it faces, and ongoing conservation efforts to protect this unique prairie survivor.

Discover the hidden richness of the Great Plains and the crucial role of the black-tailed prairie dog in sustaining biodiversity. From western Nebraska’s towering buttes to Montana’s shortgrass prairies, learn how this keystone species supports hundreds of wildlife—from burrowing owls to bison—and why habitat loss, poisoning, and unregulated eradication put the entire ecosystem at risk. Explore conservation solutions, community involvement, and how protecting prairie dogs means safeguarding America’s grasslands for future generations.

When I first moved to western Nebraska from Colorado, I carried with me the...