Local News

App Offers Self-Guided Tours of Local Historic Sites

BEND, OR -- The Deschutes Historical Museum is going high-tech. Executive Director Kelly Cannon-Miller tells KBND the nonprofit recently launched a new app, "It’s called Historic Deschutes, and what we can do is build tours within the app. So, right now, we have our first tour loaded up, called ‘Cruisin’ 97,’ which is an exhibit we’re working on that explores travel and tourism down Highway 97 between 1930 and 1960." She adds, "The cool thing about the app is that it’s as big or as little as we want to make it. The 'Cruisin’ 97 Tour' is our first tour; we’ve just gotten it loaded, we’ve just gone live on both Apple and Android products. But, we intend to keep going and build in tours of downtown Redmond, downtown Bend, downtown Sisters."

 

Cannon-Miller says the app is a high-tech, but less expensive approach to the audio tours offered in the past, "Museums used to have to buy in to those very expensive systems where you check something out to a visitor and they’re packing it around and listening, or it keys into different signs. This is totally something that you can download to the phone or tablet that you have on your person, and you can do it at your own pace and wherever you want to explore throughout the county."

 

Historic Deschutes is available for free in the Apple app store and Google Play store for Android devices. It costs the museum about $3,000 a year, paid for by grants. The "Cruisin' 97" exhibit opens at the Deschutes Historical Museum in June. 
 

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