New audio tour brings Joliet Iron Works history to life

A new audio tour offers a modern take on exploring the storied past of Joliet Iron Works Historic Site.

The audio tour allows visitors to use their smartphone to learn about the site's history via the Open Audio Tours app, available on the App Store and Google Play. The app can be downloaded in advance or via a QR code located on signage at either end of the interpretive trail at Joliet Iron Works.

The intent of the audio tour is to allow people to explore and learn about the site on their own schedule, said facility supervisor Jen Guest. It will help visitors discover how the Iron Works site helped shape Joliet into the City of Stone and Steel.

"The audio tour adds another fun, flexible way to experience Joliet Iron Works," she said. "Visitors can stop by any time of year, from sunrise to sunset, and explore the site at their own pace while learning about its history."

The tour narrates information about the industrial history of the site, which was a bustling iron-manufacturing plant in the late 1800s and early 1900s. As visitors continue on their walk, additional narration will begin as they reach predetermined locations along the trail. Because it relies on invisible, location-based triggers to begin the narration at each of the 12 stops along the tour, visitors are able to walk at their own pace.

"This site is especially well-suited for a walking audio tour because you can listen to the stories while taking in the ruins around you, bringing the history of the site to life," Guest said.

The app also includes dozens of historical photos visitors can explore as they move through the tour, allowing them to make visual connections between the past and the present.

"It helps bring the ruins into context and gives visitors a better sense of what this place was like in its heyday," Guest said.

Visitors can start the audio tour at either end of the interpretive trail, which is 1.25 miles round trip. It takes between a half-hour and an hour to complete depending on how much time is spent looking at the ruins and exploring the photographs in the app.

Those interested in the history of Joliet Iron Works don't have to visit the site to learn more. People can also access the tour without visiting the site by downloading the app, searching for Joliet Iron Works and clicking through the available audio and photos.

The Forest Preserve hopes to offer more audio preserve tours via Open Audio Tours in the future after successfully piloting it at Joliet Iron Works, Guest said.

"We hope to build on what we learn from this first tour," she said. "We see this as another opportunity to make the history and stories of our preserves more accessible to the public."