Visitors to Eureka Springs have a new way to learn about the city’s public art and natural springs. And all that is needed is a smart phone.

A new augmented reality tour called Eureka Springs AR Tour (ESART) is sponsored by the Eureka Springs Arts Council and the City Advertising and Promotion Commission and will give users an interactive way to discover many areas in the downtown area.

“The Eureka Springs Augmented Reality Tour is a COVID-era friendly way to explore the city,” according to an announcement regarding the tour from the arts council. “The tour will help guide and inspire visitors to explore the city’s many natural springs and public art features including murals and sculptures. Viewers will meet the artists telling the story of their creations.”

Approximately 12-inch-tall informational 3D printed rock cairns are located at multiple springs around the city to direct visitors to augmented reality points of interest, as well as signs or markers at various other locations. The rock cairn markers are embedded with near field communications (NFC) chips and a QR code to direct visitors to a web link with the augmented reality content.

Once a visitor arrives at a public art or natural spring location, a marker will direct them to use either an NFC or QR code to open the web-based augmented reality camera on their smartphone or tablet. Depending upon the point of interest, the visitor will then either point their camera at the artwork and watch it come to life or point it at the ground near a spring to watch a “ghostly” virtual tour guide appear and tell them about the history, interesting facts, or little-known secrets.

“We’ve been wanting to do something around public art for a long time, especially since we have so much of it and it’s growing,” said Sandy Martin, chair of the Eureka Springs Arts Council. “The idea really came about from retailers telling us that people were always asking where all springs were and if there was a map. Well, there wasn’t a map. We have list of them but not all of them.

“And then with COVID, we had to pivot and come up with more creative ideas. We thought doing an augmented tour was perfect.”

The tour is based loosely on the previous two projects Edward Robison and MacKenzie Doss produced for the arts council, Martin said.

“Edward Robison did the interactive art wall that’s downtown and since that’s augmented reality, we contacted him to see if he could put something together for our public art and streams,” Martins said. “He said he’d love to.”

Martin said the tour currently includes 25 of the city’s 65 springs and 30 pieces of public art.

“This is just the beginning,” she said. “We plan to grow this in the future.”