Don Corrigan has served for more than 40 years as a professor of journalism at Webster University in St. Louis, where he received the Kemper Outstanding Teacher Award and the Presidential Faculty Scholar Award. He also was editor and copublisher of the Webster-Kirkwood Times, South County Times, and West End Word. Corrigan has received the Lewis C. Green Environmental Service Award, in recognition for his decades of writing in the area of environmental journalism, as well as for founding the program for the Outdoor/Environmental Journalism Writing Certificate at Webster University. The award was presented by Great Rivers Environmental Law Center.

Diana Linsley has been a professional photographer for more than 40 years. She has exhibited her nature photography at galleries in St. Louis and throughout Missouri. She served as photographer for the Webster-Kirkwood Times, South County Times, and West End Word for several decades. She has won numerous awards from the Missouri Press Association for her work in photojournalism. Working on this book was a reminiscence of her childhood road trips with family that allowed her to visit all 50 states.