Rural Success Stories

Royal Plastic Mfg.

Picture a military aircraft just a couple of clicks from what you’d see in a Star Wars movie or an advanced communications satellite rocketing into space. These are some of the most advanced technologies in the world today – mind-boggling complex structures of the highest-technology materials, in which every component down to the tiniest rivet has been engineered to the nth degree. That's the kind of work they do at Royal Plastic Mfg. in Minden. more about Royal Plastic Mfg.

Cambridge Bed & Breakfast

Timeless and grand, the historic Cambridge Bed and Breakfast was built around the turn of the Century by Cambridge’s first mayor, founder of the bank as well as a retail emporium called the Regulator, a tireless real estate speculator, town booster and extraordinary pioneer in every sense of the word. more about Cambridge Bed & Breakfast

Weatherman turned newspaperman is true rural entrepreneur

This is a story about flexibility and optimism and plain, old-fashioned gumption. Meet award-winning journalist and entrepreneur, Jason Frederick, who started out his working life as a weatherman but — isn’t life great? — now publishes and manages three weekly newspapers with his wife in the rural Nebraska that he loves. more about Jason Fredericks

Trenton finds winning an ethanol plant is a massive job, but worth the effort

Most business experts agree that entrepreneurs are found in only a small fraction of the population, yet they can have an outsized impact because they pioneer change and create wealth. Discovering one entrepreneur in a community may be akin to finding gold in the nearby hills. more about the Trenton Ethanol Plant

Wurst Haus summer sausage

We rural Nebraskans participate in Christmas traditions with gusto! We’re the first to hang up the Advent calendar, string the lights, cut out and frost cookies, and sing carols with our neighbors. For no small number of rural Nebraskans – and people around the world – part of that holiday tradition is handmade “wurst” from the sausage capital of Nebraska, Eustis. For many, spicy sausages are a must-have for holiday tables. more about Wurst Haus

Take 5 Coffee House & Restaurant

Question: How is the Take 5 Coffee House and Restaurant in Arapahoe, Nebraska like Ben & Jerry’s famous homemade ice cream business in Vermont? Answer: Take 5, like Ben & Jerry’s, invents its own ice cream recipes. And although ice cream brings a lot of people into this charming restored drive-in, a lot of other factors bring them back. more about Take 5

Horizon Gymnastics

One of the best kept secrets in small town USA is nestled in a plain metal building just outside of Holdrege, NE. Inside the former home of Walco Animal Health, Horizon Gymnastics hosts classes for over 170 kids. they are busy learning the routines, apparatus and discipline necessary to become a good - or even great - gymnast. more about Horizon Gymnastics

Kat's Korner Market and Korner Café

More than one visitor has seen trains a mile long stopped along U.S. Highways 6 and 34 in Axtell, then noticed the crew scurrying back to the train carrying plates of hot, homemade food. Did they stop for lunch in Axtell? Can trains do that? Kathy Johnson, owner of Katz Market and Korner Café in Axtell smiles when she hears the story. more about Kat's Korner Market and Korner Café

Olsson's Associates big business in small towns

It is 1956 and fortune’s face is smiling on rural Nebraska — grain prices are up, irrigated acres are showing a profit and rural citizens are feeling prosperous. Community improvement projects that were put aside get underway. John E. Olsson, an engineer working in Lincoln, NE, recognizes a market opportunity and starts an engineering firm. more about Olsson's Associates

Nebraska Adoption Services

The impact of coinciding life events among three colleagues inspired them to start an entrepreneurial business in rural Nebraska. And despite their widely-separated geography, it seems to be working. Nancy Morris, Barbara Swanson and Michelle Warner met early in their social work careers, and through the years their work intertwined, friendships developed, and they discovered a mutual interest in interracial and international adoptions. more about Nebraska adoption services

Dancing Leaf Lodge B&B

Jan Hosick and her husband Les had idyllic childhoods growing up in the area not far from where they currently live along Medicine Creek in southwest Nebraska. “Like all the kids in the area, we spent our days digging holes, climbing trees, making forts and running up and down the creek banks,” says Jan. “We still spend our days pretty much that same way.” more about Dancing Leaf Lodge B&B

Thelma Lou's Restaurant and Bar

In rural Nebraska we place a high value on our entrepreneurs. Many feel the future of our small towns may be linked to the creative and independent spirits who convert their ideas into innovations and take risks in the name of an idea. Thelma Bushnell, owner, manager and chef of Thelma Lou’s Restaurant and Bar in Oxford, NE, is a sterling example of a prosperous rural entrepreneur. To begin with, she’s not afraid of hard work. more about Thelma Lou's Restaurant and Bar

Kramer's Hardware and Steamer's Lunch Counter

A true entrepreneur is always looking for a marketing opportunity, and they often put things together in unique ways. For example, one day Oxford’s Karl Kramer realized: He had unused space in his own hardware store, he had popular brats, burgers, brisket and ham available from his own butcher shop, the Oxford Locker... more about Kramer's Hardware and Steamer's Lunch Counter

Allmand Bros.

If you were blindfolded and set down on the Allmand Brothers factory floor, you’d find it hard to believe you weren’t deep in the crowded industrial sections of Omaha, KC or Denver. The thud-thud-bang of a metal punch mixes with the high-octave ring of a steel cutting laser, the pop of welding torches, and the rhythmic whoosh, whoosh of paint sprayers. more about Allmand Brothers

Timber Creek Homes

If your idea of a modular home is all about plywood and plastic, with cheesy designs and a slapdash finish, you ought to get to know Timber Creek Homes. A photo gallery of Timber Creek’s past projects reminds one of browsing through the pages of Sunset magazine. Many are dramatic mountain lodges, with towering columns of stone, log and brick. more about Timber Creek Homes

Bumblebees & Ladybugs

Think you can’t run a business and make a living from a small town? Maybe you just haven’t been thinking far enough out of the box. A few years ago, they were trying to think of an enterprise to run from a rural location, when Barrere suggested they start a children’s clothing consignment. more about Bumblebees & Ladybugs

Flippin' Sweet Cafe

This is a story about how a small-town café got a new lease on life. But it’s also a story about the profound effect children have in a marriage. Because if you learn nothing else from parenthood, the one thing most of us do learn is that you can do things, even if you’ve never done them before. more about Flippin Sweet Cafe

Those Blasted Signs

While the career path of an entrepreneur may seem illogical and confusing to someone on the outside, Sondra Smith’s journey from a degree in animal science to an ostrich farming venture to owner of Those Blasted Signs in Bertrand makes perfect sense. more about Those Blasted Signs

Der Deutsche Market

This is the story of how a Nebraska town with a German heritage wanted a place to buy German folk carvings, German crystal, German sausage and other German treasures, and how they took the bull by the horns and made it happen. more about Der Deutsche Markt

Kayakjak

Love of fishing and kayaks helps Benkelman man get a new business afloat. If success in starting your own business stems from doing what you love to do, Marty Hughes should be an entrepreneurial poster child. more about Kayakjak

Mid-Nebraska Individual Services

Rarely does one find honest-to-goodness entrepreneurial business people in the non-profit sector of the economy, but Mid-Nebraska Individual Services Area Manager Lori Erickson proves you can do good and still do well. more about Mid-Nebraska Individual Services.

Grayson Tool Co.

Although a machinist by trade, Al Lux is a creative kind of guy. His creative bent led him to design and develop a whole series of predator calls – designed to attract coyotes, bobcats and mountain lions, among others. more about Grayson Tool Co.

One Good Adguy

‘Adguy’ finds Holdrege is a long ways from Los Angeles...in more ways than one. Growing up in Denver, Phil Soreide never dreamed of being an ad man – or an “adguy” as he likes to refer to himself. In fact, he never considered advertising as a career at all until he was fully immersed in it and by then, he says, “it was too late.” more about One Good Adguy

Great Nebraska Hunting

“If a hunter is looking for an old fashioned hunting experience – the way it used to be, the type of hunt your parents and grandparents talk about – we are the destination of choice,”says Arlo Schurr. Schurr and his father LaRaye and their families manage 4,000 acres of habitat near Eustis, Nebraska, and provide hunting privileges for pheasant, quail, turkey, Nebraska mule deer and whitetail deer, rabbit, and coyote from September through March. more about Great Nebraska Hunting

Eustis Auto Body

Close your eyes and visualize a thirteen-year-old boy paging through Hot Rod magazine in a hot Nebraska summer 30-odd years ago. As he flips the pages, he dreams of driving his own lustrous, high-powered road rocket.  more about Eustis Auto Body

Mama's Salsa

Rhythmic chopping sounds radiate from the production area of a 6,000 square foot food processing plant in Orleans, Nebraska, confirming the fact that employees chop and dice vegetables by hand for the popular Mama’s Salsa brand of salsa. more about Mama's Salsa

Joe Camera

“Gather together with thankful hearts and good things happen over coffee,” says a printed sign in Joe Camera Coffee House and Film Lab in Alma. Photography supplies and one-hour film processing may draw customers into Joe Camera, but they often sit down and order a rich coffee drink, a tea or a frosty drink and a cinnamon roll and sit down to listen to a story, tell a story or meet a friend in the community.  Joe Camera is unique...and just the kind of place to make it happen. more about Joe Camera

The Village Piemaker

If you think a rural Nebraska town can’t be headquarters for a global packaged food enterprise, you’d be wrong. As president of The Village Piemaker, Judith Odgen makes, packages, freezes and delivers 15 different frozen, ready-to-bake pies to markets across the globe from a restored slate green tile-and-brick dairy building on the main street in Eustis, Nebraska. She has some 350 steady accounts, five bakers, a sales representative and ambitious plans for growth. more about The Village Piemaker

Oxford Locker

Red and gold autumn days, sweet apples and the pungent smell of burning maple leaves come to mind as you savor a morsel of country ham smoked at the Oxford Locker, a custom meat processing plant and retail storefront in Oxford, Nebraska. more about Oxford Locker

Gourmet House

“Welcome” is printed in both Chinese calligraphy and English and spoken with a smile to greet customers who enter Adam and Cora Chen’s immaculate Chinese restaurant in Holdrege, Nebraska.  more about Gourmet House

C-Clear Ice

Seated at a vintage 1950s chrome table, sipping a creamy latte, Chris and Carolyn Crossett describe how they started their commercial ice cube business and California-style diner in Benkelman, Nebraska. more about C-Clear Ice