Historical Markers

Historical Markers is a free and open source mobile application that serves as an interactive guide to historical markers, allowing users to find historical markers near them and even view the contents of the markers on their mobile devices.

This project began on a barstool in Gold Hill, Nevada (just downhill from iconic Virginia City) when the developer came up empty-handed in a search for a mobile app that could ably serve as a guide for exploring the history of the Comstock. The first prototype of this project was a simple list-based guide to the official historical markers designated by the Nevada State Historic Preservation Office, and the project has since evolved into a codebase that can be easily repurposed for creating location-driven guides to regional history.

The code in this repository supports the following published iOS applications (in the order they were released):

• Nevada Historical Markers
• New Mexico Historical Markers
• Arizona Historical Markers
• Colorado Historical Markers
• Montana Historical Markers
• California Historical Markers (coming soon!)

Developers interested in creating versions of this app for other regions or topics are encouraged to use this codebase as a template to create their own applications.

This application is built with Expo and React Native and is optimized for iOS (both iPhone and iPad). Android is also supported, though the developer has not yet conducted extensive testing of an Android build.

Note that while this app is and always will be free and open source, most of the textual and graphical content contained within this app originated from The Historical Marker Database (HMdb.org) and its contributors. Marker content that originated from HMdb.org is governed by the Historical Marker Database's content license and copyright policy. Most historical marker content obtained from HMdb.org is stored in state-specific files named "markers.json" in the "assets" directory in this repository. Users of this app and this repository should be aware that this content is governed by HMdb.org's copyright policy and is NOT licensed under the GPLv3 license. All content originating from HMdb.org may NOT be used for commercial purposes under any circumstances.

Features

• View markers in a list (optionally sorted by distance to the user's location) or in an interactive map that uses marker clustering and multiple basemaps;
• See details of each historical marker, including the marker's location, its inscription, relevant background information, and (for most markers) photos of each marker itself and its surrounding area;
• Interact with marker content and photos even if your device is offline -- marker photos can be downloaded in-app for offline use;
• Create your own variant of this app easily by using this code as a plug-and-play template, as historical marker content is stored in a simple and standardized GeoJSON-based data structure.

Roadmap

The developer plans the following improvements for the app's next major version:

• Conduct testing on Android devices and correct any related issues prior to releasing on Google Play Store
• General code audit and clean-up to reflect best practices of React Native development (current codebase is disorganized and probably violates a bunch of optimal practices for using React Native)
• Experiment with AR mode with a focus upon improving accessibility of marker information (i.e., users will be able to point their devices at historical markers to view or hear the marker information without having to physically approach the marker)

Screenshots

Installation

First, install Node.js and Expo. You may also wish to install Xcode with appropriate iOS SDKs or Android Studio, but you will still be able to run the app using Expo Go without installing those tools/SDKs.

Begin by cloning this repository and changing into the corresponding directory:

git clone https://github.com/sierra760/historical-markers.git
cd historical-markers

Then, use expo to install dependencies:

npm install

Note that since this project offers support for creating apps for multiple regions from a single codebase, the state of Nevada is used as the default region for this repository. You can change the region at any time by running a shell script in the root directory of this repository that applies the necessary configuration changes. For example, the following command switches configuration to the state of Nevada (two-letter abbreviation "nv"):

./select_region.sh nv

Regions can be modified, added, and removed by editing src/regions.js as well as creating symlinks to a valid app.json file and assets directory for each region. Historical marker photos and images that were obtained from HMdb.org are not contained within this repository as the developer does not hold the copyright for these assets.

You can then run the app on iOS or Android simulators and/or devices by executing the following command to launch Expo's app server and Metro Builder:

npx expo start

Contributing

Contributions and issue reports are always welcome!

Please open issues and/or pull requests to suggest bug fixes, changes, and/or improvements. All pull requests should remain consistent with the app's purpose, which is to provide intuitive and user-friendly access to information about historical markers in western U.S. states. Changes that are inconsistent with this purpose may not be accepted, though developers are welcome to fork this project and use it as a foundation or template for similar projects for which substantive modifications to the codebase are required.

Authors

• Sierra Burkhart, Ph.D. (Academic Director, UCLA Geospatial): @sierra760

License

GNU General Public License version 3