American Safari tour guide Tad Pierson stands beside his 1955 pink Cadillac. Visitors to Memphis can get a personalized tour that highlights the city's rich music heritage. Debbie Elliott/NPR hide caption
Nickel Tour: Get To Know Great Tour Guides Some tour guides can make even the most mundane place interesting. In this summer series, NPR profiles some of the nation's most engaging rangers, docents, tram drivers — the people who make historical sites and natural wonders come alive.
Special Series
Nickel Tour: Get To Know Great Tour Guides
NPR profiles some of the guides who make historical sites and natural wonders come alive.
Seasonal Ranger Mike Donahue (right) discuses the Battle of Little Bighorn with Jon Jones atop Custer Hill. Jim Kent/NPR hide caption
Take a tour of the Hanford site, a nuclear production complex in Richland, Wash., and you'll see the hundreds of mechanical water pressure gauges wired to the process tubes inside the core. Tour guide Paul Vinther warns that bumping these gauges could throw off the readings enough to trigger a an emergency shutdown of the reactor. Martin Kaste/NPR hide caption
A Peek Inside A Once Top Secret Spot In Atomic Age History
The Banjo Billy bus tour starts and ends outside the Hotel Boulderado, at the corner of 13th and Spruce streets. Banjo shares some haunting tales from previous (and possibly still-current) guests, particularly those on the third floor and inside the still-functioning Otis elevator. Courtesy of Vince Darcangelo hide caption