A "Then and Now" photo of Blackfalds from the app 'On This Spot' which features six communities throughout central Alberta. (On This Spot)

By Sheldon Spackman

Then And Now

Local history showcased in app featuring guided walking tours

Dec 12, 2020 | 9:30 AM

Central Alberta features prominently in a new app that takes people on guided walking tours through the history that surrounds them.

The “On This Spot” app takes users on a journey to where they will find themselves standing on a spot where an historic photo was taken.

Central Alberta communities now featured on the app include Blackfalds, Alix, Bentley, Clive, Eckville, and Lacombe.

Their inclusion thanks to the start of a large, six location project done in partnership with Lacombe Regional Tourism and Blackfalds Historical Society.

Spokesperson Ross Hiebert says the app is unique and designed to highlight the history of a community’s landmark locations and tell the stories that go along with them.

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Initially featuring walking tours of Vancouver five years ago, he says the app officially launched in 2016 to include other places in Canada and now central Alberta this year.

“The tours show how a community or city came to be or the trials and the challenges that have been faced as they grow,” he explains. “It started out as a travel blog, so it was repurposed. We then built the app because there’s so much you can do with an app.”

Described as utilizing blended then and now photos, Hiebert surmises the app’s purpose is to be the change that we want to see in the world.

“It’s our intention to be the future of history and to change how people learn about history,” says Hiebert. “Cities commission us to create content for them so they can use the app as a tool to market for tourism and showcase their city’s history and the people that were there. It’s our intention to get people into museums and to show them that history is more interesting than they believe it may be.”

Hiebert hopes to see the app further expand into school curriculums as well.

“The traditional way of learning has changed,” adds Hiebert. “Teachers don’t really do textbooks anymore. It’s up to them to find resources online and things to teach students and there is a lot of resources for teachers, but this is a different, unique history tool for them, as opposed to Wikipedia and things that aren’t reliable or historically accurate.”

For the average resident, Hiebert suggests the app can also show them things they likely didn’t know or had forgotten about their own community.

“And what this does for new residents, is it gives them the culture that they’re looking for. It teaches them how their area came to be so that they’re not just living in a box on a patch of dirt. It gives them a connection to their community so that they can understand it and helps them to be able to set up roots.”

Hiebert says they are aiming to be the world’s best history app, and to help make history accessible to everyone.

“We’re striving to do the best we can with providing then and now photos with good comprehensive writing and in-depth tours and in-depth content in a way that’s available for skimmers, dippers and divers,” shares Hiebert. “The people that just want to look at the photos and read the captions or the people that want to take a longer read and really get a bead on the history that’s there.”

Although Red Deer is not currently included in the app, Hiebert hopes to see that change in the future.

“When we were commissioned by Lacombe Regional Tourism, we took the opportunity to snap some photos of Red Deer, knowing that eventually we’re going to do some content for Red Deer,” he reveals. “Cities are reaching out to us constantly and we’re negotiating with them what stories they would like to tell and are perusing our photo collection to see which ones would make for great locations to put into the app. So there is, and always will be new content coming up.”