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The next program in the Nature and the Arts Series at the Springfield Conservation Nature Center tonight will feature author Don Corrigan. KSMU’s Michele Skalicky spoke with Corrigan and has this story…

As a kid growing up in Missouri, Don Corrigan had an uncle who took him to many different nature sites in the state. The Webster University professor and editor and co-publisher of Times Newspapers in St. Louis, decided to write a book, in part, based on those experiences. He says the book started out as a novel.

"I was going to write a story about a columnist who gets in a lot of trouble because of his political columns, and he switches over to doing nature sites in Missouri, and I had so much fun doing the nature sites that I decided, 'well, this should just be a book in itself.' So, I ended up putting together a compendium of about 100 different places in Missouri that are fun to go to."

Corrigan’s book, Show Me…Natural Wonders, A Guide to Missouri’s Scenic Treasures, is illustrated with pencil sketches that he says give it an antique feel. He writes reflective pieces about each nature site that’s listed in the book.

"Some of them are sites I visited when I was a kid, so there's a certain amount of nostalgia in the book. I talk about how my old Uncle Stanley used to pack up all the kids, and we'd go down and look at the Greer Spring or Big Spring, or we'd go to the Shepard of the Hills area, and so there's a certain amount of nostalgia in the book about what those times were like."

Some sites in Southwest MO he mentions are caves such as Crystal Cave and Talking Rocks Caverns. He also writes about other sites in the area, including Roaring River State Park and the Springfield Conservation Nature Center.

At the Nature Center tonight, Corrigan will give a 45-minute presentation.

"It's really a power point, and a try to do it in a Mark Twain-sort of-style with some humorous stories about each area. That's what makes this travel book sort of different. There's some great travel books about Missouri, but this is more a reflective book where you are sort of asked to think about history or geology or nostalgia for each place. And, there's a little bit of something for everything. I also talk about the different recreation that goes on in some of those areas, whether it's mountain biking or kayaking or canoeing or whatever."

The Nature and the Arts presentation will start tonight at 7 at the Nature Center. To register, call 888-4237.

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