The 2026 Scenic America Symposium is at Missouri Botanical Garden, where guest speaker Don Corrigan will present on his new book, “Scenic Missouri.”
Sister Jan Hayes, RSM, longtime media instructor at Webster University, will lead a nature walk to view a labyrinth, wisdom garden, and cosmic trail at the Mercy Conference Retreat Center on North Geyer Road in Frontenac.
The Retreat Center Labyrinth is an expansive, outdoor 11-circuit walking meditation path located on the grounds. At 88 feet in diameter, it is twice as wide as a standard French Labyrinth and is considered one of the largest permanent outdoor labyrinths in Missouri.
Sister Hayes will be accompanied by Don Corrigan, professor and author, who will give a book talk on “Scenic Natural Wonders of Missouri.” More details are available for the 2-4 p.m., Sunday Sept. 20 event at the Retreat Center: 314-909-4646, or email: jhayes@mercycenterstl.org.
“Scenic Natural Wonders of Missouri: Lakes, Trails, Caverns and Vistas,” includes landscape portraits by photographer Diana Lindsley and prose by Corrigan. He is a longtime journalism professor at Webster University Journalism Professor Don Corrigan.
Dawn Stringfield, executive director at the Retreat Center, has arranged for the event to be livestreamed at the retirement center for Mercy sisters, which is also on the Mercy Center Campus.
Hikers and bikers, poets and philosophers, tree huggers and flower children, all will take delight in the book on the outdoors by Corrigan.
“Scenic Natural Wonders of Missouri” is an illustrated collection of 80 state nature sites. It’s the perfect guide for shutter bugs to locate memorable images, and to capture memories on their cell phones or digital cameras.
“My first outdoor guide in 2007 featured pencil drawings,” said Corrigan. “This new guide boasts colorful photos. Diana’s shots of cypress trees in Allred Lake, antlered beasts in Lone Elk Park, or 100,000 snow geese in Big State Park are awesome.
“Photographers like Linsley and journalists like me can be on very different wavelengths. But that’s actually okay,” added Corrigan. “We complemented each other on this project.
He said Linsley has an eye for wildflowers and wildlife, and he likes hiking trail settings and bluff views. Linsley brings out the colors of coneflowers and black-eyed Susans at sites like Valley View Glade or migrating fowl in flight at wetland preserves.
Environmental Echo 