New App will Guide Visitors Around the Site of John Brown’s Famous Raid

Another famous site from the Civil War era may be getting its own mobile app soon.

The National Park Service posted a presolicitation notice on Wednesday seeking a vendor to build a mobile app-based tour of its Harper’s Ferry Center in West Virginia, former site of the military arsenal that abolitionist John Brown famously raided in 1859.

The park was also the site of an 1862 battle between Union and Confederate forces.

Foundations and other groups have built numerous mobile application-based tours of Civil War battlefields, including for Gettysburg and Antietam. Visitors to many other Civil War sites must be content with analog tours.

The proposed Harper’s Ferry app should be available on both Apple and Android devices, the park service said.

From the presolicitation notice:

Besides functioning as a navigation aid, the visitor information kiosk and mobile application shall provide visitors with park-related interpretive information in the form of text, audio, and/or video that can easily be updated by park personnel. If possible, the mobile application shall be self-contained, including all multimedia content, when downloaded from their respective on-line stores. The visitor, upon downloading the application, will have in-hand a complete system to navigate and learn about the park.