The Creston Museum is using modern technology to bring the past to life, with a new application, or app, leading cellphone users on a scavenger hunt of Creston’s heritage buildings.
“Technology is changing and museums have to keep up,” said manager Tammy Hardwick. “There’s a huge number of our visitors who come in and are taking pictures with their cellphones. … Even in the little Creston Museum, there’s this very obvious move toward people using their cellphones, and wanting to engage through that medium.”
A photo of one popular artifact, the mustache cup (designed with a barrier to keep beverages from messing up a mustache), was uploaded to Twitter, and retweeted many times.
“It was all over the place,” said Hardwick.
And that led her to create a heritage building scavenger hunt through www.ooklnet.com, where users can download an app through iTunes or Google Play. The app is usable worldwide, and will offer historical activities in whatever location it’s used.
The scavenger hunt was created mainly in anticipation of February’s Heritage Week, and will be updated with something new, likely before summer. It currently contains 15 buildings, all within a couple of blocks of downtown, starting at the Creston Valley Chamber of Commerce, running along Northwest Boulevard and Hillside Street, down 15th Avenue North and returning west on Canyon Street. Sharp-eyed scavengers will have to find buildings based on limited visual information.
“We just took a picture of a chunk of a building that has an identifying architectural detail,” said Hardwick.
It’s sure to get more popular as tourist season draws closer, but for now, Hardwick is pleased to see so many local enjoying the hunt.
“I know of probably a dozen people who have seen it and love it,” she said. “And of course, a few local longtimers are doing it in their armchairs.”
For more information, visit www.ooklnet.com and search for “Creston” or find a link at www.creston.museum.bc.ca.
