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location-based technology + journalism

Locate Chicago’s History by land, river and elevated train

By Amy Lee

Fellow LoJo Team member Satta Sarmah on Saturday blogged about our recent trial of our Chicago Olympic 2016 Mediascape tour in Washington Park, and noted that while it wasn’t without a hitch (who knew balloons marking a path would prove confusing?), overall we judge the event as a success because of the largely positive feedback on both our reporting and on the use of GPS technology for storytelling. Our participants were kind enough to fill out a fairly lengthy and in-depth questionnaire we’d developed to gauge what worked, what didn’t and offer suggestions on how this technology might be applied to other subject matter to create a thorough and engaging storytelling experience.

One idea for other story ideas that could work with GPS-based devices that repeatedly surfaced from our “guinea pigs” this past Saturday was the idea that this technology could be used to create neighborhood historical tours, especially in a town like Chicago, which is known for its diverse and long-established neighborhoods. This struck me as pretty genius, so I decided to sit down and see what’s out there for Chicago residents looking for a mobile storytelling experience, even if it isn’t based on GPS technology (since there’s very little of that out there right now).

Turns out, the Chicago History Museum is a gold mine for location-based tours – and I don’t mean just audio tours of indoor museum exhibits.
I mean location-based storytelling by land, by elevated train and by boat, including self-propelled (kayak) and tours on the sightseeing boats on the Chicago River. They offer a variety of tours, some with an audio companion and some with real-life guides. They go into gritty neighborhoods and upper-crust neighborhoods. They go to pubs. They have not one but five elevated train tours in a series they call “Life Along the ‘L’.” They have a series of cemetery tours and a 25-mile bike tour – in fact, unfortunately, all three of their summer bike tours are already booked solid.

So, for those looking to delve deeper into Chicago’s history and get out and experience location-based storytelling this summer, check out their website – and if the bike tours are any indication, do it quickly, before the tour you’re looking for is sold out!

Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008 Filed under Audio tours, Locative storytelling |