The Manitoba Historical Society has a new APP to help folks find hidden treasures they might not otherwise be aware of, that being historical sites that include heritage homes, old train stations, grain elevators and municipal buildings.
By downloading the App onto your cell phone or ipad you simply enter in the town or city that you're interest in, and automatically little houses will pop up on your screen. You simply touch on the house to see a photo and a brief history about the structure or site. By tapping on this again, you can be directed to the MHS website for more information on that location.
"We've had the database that underlies that App for quite a while now," shares head researcher for the MHS, Gordon Goldsborough, "but it wasn't in a format that was readily accessible, especially if you were on the road. Like, if you're walking from place to place or you're biking somewhere or you're driving your car, you know, we want people to say, 'hey, just up ahead, there's a such and such and stop and have a look, you know, or 'I didn't know that about that thing!'
"And that's what we're hoping to achieve, that people will recognize things that are surrounding them, and we are literally surrounded by history, and by knowing a little bit more of it, hopefully you're a little more appreciative of it," adds Goldsborough.
For example, the Lake of the Woods Grain Elevator in the Cameron area is on the top ten endangered structures in Manitoba, according to the MHS. The InSite App helps folks learn more about the structure, generating more interest and thus learning more about the importance of grain elevators on the Prairies.
The MSH InSite App has close to 10,000 sites in its databank.
"And what that means is that pretty much any community, especially in southern Manitoba, will have something - it may have a lot, it may have a little, but then there's the challenge because ultimately we are dependent on assistance."
Goldsborough points out that they rely on the public to share information on historical sites, to help identify places and structures in their communities that the MHS may not be aware of. He adds the InSite App is an ever-evolving program that will be constantly updated as more sites come to light, and landowners change, buildings get repurposed, and historical building are brought back to life, or boarded up.
"With new information and if people find mistakes, they can tell us about them, we'll fix them and then the next version of the app will have that information corrected," he explains. "So, we're always looking for feedback from people on what they find in it. If they're excited about it then we want them to say so!"
Thus far the MHS InSite App has been downloaded 3000 times.
"And that's incredible to my mind because you know, the heritage community is not especially large and what it says is there's may be more people out there interested in local history than I knew!" notes Goldsborough.