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New Illustrated Guide Examines Missouri’s Many Natural Wonders
BY JANE BANASZEK
Don Corrigan, editor and co-publisher of the Webster-Kirkwood Times and South County Times, has written a guide to well known and not so well known scenic areas in Missouri—some very close to home.
Show Me…Natural Wonders-A Guide to Scenic Treasures in the Missouri Region is divided into four main categories of natural attractions: Unique Bluffs and Overlooks, Streams and Springs, Caves and Caverns, and Just Special Places. The book is beautifully illustrated by E.J. Thias. The black and white drawings give the reader a sense of place while also connecting with the area’s history. A section at the end of the book gives directions to each location.
—–Corrigan gives readers a clue to the book’s contents in his Preface.
“This book is all about climbing bluff tops and fording streams-excitedly and without embarrassment-in search of the special moment, the unexpected enlightenment. Show Me…Natural Wonders is an escape manual-a guidebook to natural havens away from the stress of career demands, information overload and multitasking lifestyles.”
“Although a wide assortment of travel guides are already available to help with journeys to selected sites in the heartland, this book takes a different approach. It’s designed as a guide on how to uniquely
experience a natural setting: how to encounter it; how to think about it; how to meditate upon the meaning of place.”
Here is just a sneak peak at a few locations in Show Me…Natural Wonders with some of Corrigan’s personal observations:
•Hughes Mountain. “Hughes Mountain could just as easily be called the home of the Mad Stonemason. The place looks like it was inhabited by a very strange stonemason who started one foundation only to move to another and another-never finishing a job.”
•Mark Twain Cave. “Visitors are led on tours that pose little challenge-walkways are level, smooth, and there are no steps. Unlike many other Missouri caves, there is no mud or dripping or puddling on this tour. Never mind the memorized routine of the tour guide…Think, instead, of this young Twain fellow, and his coterie, exploring the cave and having a ball.”
•Chain of Rocks Bridge. “Legends tell of past droughts when Native Americans were able to cross the Mississippi by carefully hopping from boulder to boulder.” Referring to the water coming under the bridge, Corrigan says, “When it hits rocks, it bubbles and boils, froths and foams. At some points, it seems to literally erupt from the deep, like an angry lava flow.”
•Allred Lakes Cypress Swamp. “Its primitive scenery may actually inspire a bit of déjà vu form the old collective unconscious first described by Carl Jung. If you feel a chill and are creeped out as dusk falls at Allred, it could be that Jungian thing……it’s a swamp, dark and dank. The place hums with mosquitoes in the depths of summer, when its hellish heat and humidity rival any Louisiana Bayou.
•Creve Coeur Wetlands. “An important bird area also can be an important people area. This fact becomes obvious when you visit the IBA-designated site of Little Creve Coeur Wetlands in west St. Louis County. You know the people at this site are doing important things when you see them assembled with their tripods, telescopes and binoculars….they’re happy to let you have a zoom-lens peak at the birds.”
•Devil’s Toll Gate. “The wonder of Mina Sauk includes not only its ancient earthly mountain, but also cloud mountains assembling to unleash fury. If, as a visitor, you encounter this classing of high land and lowered sky, think beyond the Valley of Flowers maiden’s rescue. The skies may be opening up in indignation because of the Cherokee’s sad fate.”
•Pickle Springs.”Geological oddities crop up early and throughout the trail experience. These wonders can be traced to 500 million years ago, when sand deposits were cemented together by the work of weather and the elements. Curious sandstone formations were the result. Along the trail, you will witness geologic features such “The Slot,” “Keyhole,” “Owl’s Den Bulff,” the oh-so mysterious “Spirit Canyon” and the huge outcropping called “Dome Rock Overlook,” which affords beautiful vistas to the south.”
BOOK SIGNING DATES
Corrigan will have three upcoming book signings. The dates are: Saturday, July 14, Borders Brentwood at 1 p.m, (314) 918-8189, free Saturday, July 21, Missouri Botanical Garden at noon (314) 577-5136, free Sunday, July 22, Fairview Heights, Ill. Borders, 2 p.m.
