Program 542a: Wild West Ghost Towns; Heroes of Ireland; Savage Harvest

Author Jim Hinckley recommends Old West ghost towns you can still visit, before they fade away. Irish singer Cathie Ryan shares how Ireland remembers its heroes in the lyrics of traditional songs. And journalist Carl Hoffman tells us what he learned about the disappearance of Michael Rockefeller, who vanished in 1961 while on an art-buying expedition in the jungles of New Guinea.

• Jim Hinckley, co-author of "Ghost Towns of the West" (Voyageur Press)
• Singer Cathie Ryan
• Reporter Carl Hoffman, author of "Savage Harvest" (William Morrow-Harper Collins)

• Jim Hinckley compiled the guide to "Ghost Towns of the West" with Philip Varney.
• Jim Hinckley also wrote "America's Longest Small Town" (Voyageur Press) as an historical tourism guide to the old U.S. Route 66.  Jim also spoke with Rick on Travel with Rick Steves program #530 in July 2018 about his work promoting historical tourism along the old US Route 66.
• Jim recommends Bisbee, Arizona as a small-town artist's colony with old Western features.
• Cathie Ryan's website includes lyrics to many of the songs she's written and recorded.
• The "National Historical Ballads, Songs and Poems," compiled by Thomas Davis in 1869, is available to view online.
• Carl Hoffman researched the disappearance of Michael Rockefeller among the Asmat people of southwestern New Guinea, in his book "Savage Harvest."
• Nelson Rockefeller's Museum of Primitive Art was incorporated into the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in 1969.
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• Carl Hoffman was previously on Travel with Rick Steves to talk about his books "The Last Wild Men of Borneo" in March 2018, and "The Lunatic Express" in 2011.

Ohio River
bratwurst mustard on my nose
scenic Roebling bridge

— Jim Snyder, Chuluota, Florida 

Mist over the moors
Daylight goes gray yearning for
fall to turn hopeful

— Roy Barnes, Cheyenne, Wyoming 

Puppets reenact
Pulp Fiction with tiny guns
Strings tangle, limbs fly

— Jorie Slodki, Raleigh, North Carolina