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Play the marker hunt. Spot historic markers wherever you explore, snap a photo and build your own collection.
The marker hunt is a game you play wherever you explore, a little like geocaching: spot a historic marker, snap a photo of it with your phone and save it. Every marker you record goes into your own collection on My markers. See how many you can find, in how many states, and work toward the marker badges. It's a game you play for yourself: nobody is ranked against anyone else.
Every marker you add also helps share the history of your area: the markers members record can become stops on the hikes people build. The Marker Hunt page sums it all up.
That's the whole capture: a photo of the front and where you are. Your phone's location places the marker, so there's nothing to type. A name and the words on the marker are optional; see Names and words.
All historic markers count, official or not: ones put up by a federal, state, county or city government, and ones put up by anyone else. Plaques, signs, monuments and history boards all count, as long as they share historic facts about the place where they stand.
The first time you tap Add a marker or Found a marker?, you're asked to join the marker hunt. Joining is a one-time agreement: the photos you add are your own, anyone recognizable in them has agreed to be shown, and you release them under CC BY-SA 4.0 and grant HistoricTrails.org the license in the Terms of Service; and the markers you record, with their photos and where you found them, become part of HistoricTrails.org's collection of historic markers and may be used to build hikes. Tap Join and start recording and you go straight on to your first marker. There's no box to tick each time after that. You're asked again only if the Terms of Service change. Joining needs a connection.
My markers, in the menu under your name, is the home of your collection. The Add a marker button is right under the title; on a phone it stays at the bottom of the screen as you scroll. Once you have recorded a marker, the top also shows:
Below that is the list of every marker you recorded: its photo, its title, the hike and the nearest stop when it is on one, and the month you found it. Only you can see that list and those numbers. A marker whose photos were all hidden after a report doesn't count until an administrator restores one.
Adding a marker is something you do standing at the marker, with your phone's location turned on. You need to be signed in and to have a connection.
That's all a marker needs. If you like, tap Name or words (optional) before saving; see Names and words.
If the marker stands within about 200 meters of a published hike's route, your find is put on that hike, near its nearest stop. Otherwise it is on no hike, and your list shows just the marker and the month you found it.
A marker can't be added without your phone's location. If location is blocked for this site, the page says so. Open your browser's site settings (often the icon beside the web address) and allow Location. On an iPhone, also check that Location Services is on in Settings, under Privacy & Security. Then tap Try again.
If your phone can't find where you are, or knows it only to within more than about 200 meters, step into the open if you can, wait a moment and tap Try again.
If the camera opens but shows only black, your phone has blocked the camera for your browser app. On an iPhone, open Settings, then Apps, choose your browser (Safari, Chrome or another) and turn on Camera. On Android, allow Camera for your browser in its app permissions. Then tap the photo button again.
Adding a marker this way can't be saved on your phone for later: if you lose your connection, the page says so, and you can try again once you're back online.
On a hike in trail mode you can record a marker at the stop you are at. You don't need a signal; see Without a signal.
Trail mode then says the marker is in your markers. See my markers opens your list in a new tab, so your place on the trail is kept.
You're never asked whether a marker was recorded before. Each find goes to the marker standing in the same spot, a square about 5 meters across around where the marker is. If a marker is already recorded there, your find joins it as its next find: 2, 3 and so on. If not, a new marker is created and your find is its first, number 1. If you record the same marker again, your new photos are added to your earlier find: you record each marker once. If nobody has given the marker a name or its words yet, you can add them.
A photo is enough: the name and the words on the marker are optional, folded away under Name or words (optional). A marker saved without a name is shown as "Historic marker near" the nearest town, such as "Historic marker near Gettysburg, PA". Far from any town, it is shown as "Historic marker in" the country.
If you do add them, use only what appears on the marker itself, never text copied from a website. Text that names a site it was copied from is turned down. The first name and words given for a marker stay with it, so check the spelling before you save. What you typed is also kept with your own find.
When you add a marker, it is placed where your phone says you are, or where you moved the pin, a short way from there. Your phone's own reading is kept with your find.
In trail mode, a marker is placed where you recorded it:
The screen shows which one it is using. Your phone's location is kept even when it is some way from the hike's route. Either way, the marker is also linked to the stop you were at.
The position is sent to us only when you save the marker. We keep it private, with your find: only you and site administrators can see it. It never appears on your profile.
Your photos can also carry where and when they were taken, if your phone's camera adds that. We read it from the photos you send and keep it with your find for site administrators only, so they can check that a find's photos were taken where it was recorded. It is never shown to anyone else. See Privacy and what we store.
Photos go at full quality. When you add several, the button counts them as they upload: Uploading photo 2 of 4…. Photos too large to send all at once go in turns, all to the same marker. If the signal drops part way, the marker is already saved with the photos that arrived; tap Save marker again to send the rest, or in trail mode they wait on your phone and go when the signal is back.
Only a single photo larger than the site accepts is made smaller: your browser shrinks it before sending, only as much as it needs to, and the button reads Preparing photo… while it does (Preparing photos… when more than one needs it). Where and when the photo was taken stay with it.
You can record a marker with no signal at all. Fill in the form as usual and tap Save on this phone. Trail mode says Saved on this phone. Sends with a signal., and the stop shows how many markers are waiting to send.
Waiting markers are sent by themselves the next time trail mode is open with a signal, on any hike. A line under Found a marker? says what happened to each one. The date recorded is when you saved it, not when it was sent. If the signal drops while you are saving, the marker is kept on the phone in the same way, and it is never recorded twice.
When the marker arrives, it joins the marker in the same spot, or starts a new one, as it would have online. The front, back and extra photos you took are sent with it.
A waiting marker is kept only on this phone, in this browser:
A new find is shown on your public profile right away, and its photos appear on the marker's page. On My markers, untick Show on my profile beside a find to hide it, and tick it to show it again. Show all on my profile shows every find at once. Finds you recorded before this change stay as they were, shown or hidden.
A shown find appears on your profile under Markers found as a small photo with the marker's title and the month you found it. Tap it to open the find's page. Only that small photo is shown: your full-size photos and where you stood stay private.
Every marker with a shown find has a page at an address like
/markers/us/ga/fort-gate-marker-djwqn37v9. It shows the marker's title,
how many finds it has, a map pin where it stands, and the small photos from
every shown find, newest first. Each photo is labeled Front, Back or
More, and links to its find, and each find is
numbered: the first find of a marker is 1, the next 2, and so on. A find's own
page, like /markers/us/ga/fort-gate-marker-djwqn37v9/2, is the same page with
that find's photos first, who found it and the month, and the hike it was found on while
that hike is published. Anyone can open these pages, and anyone can report a
photo on them.
The end of the address is a code for the spot where the marker stands, and a find's number never changes, so a shared link keeps working if the title does. If two records of the same marker are later combined, links to either one still open the right page.
If you have turned off "Show my hiking activity on my public profile", a shown find still appears, but without the month or the hike. A photo that was hidden after a report is not shown, and a find whose photos are all hidden has no page until an administrator restores one. A find you hide, or delete, can take a few minutes to disappear everywhere.
Once enough markers have been shared, Markers lists them by country and state, newest first, from the home page and the Marker Hunt page.
Each small photo under Markers found on someone's profile, and on a find's page, has a Report link. A report hides the photo right away, the same as reporting a photo on a hike, and a site administrator then looks at it. If they restore it, it shows again.
On My markers, tap the bin beside a find and confirm. The find and its photos come off your list and your profile. The marker itself stays on the site, because other members may have found it too. If you record the same marker again later, it starts a new find.
Closing your account removes your finds and their photos in the same way.
Recording markers earns badges once the site has launched them: for 1, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 different markers, and for recording markers on three different hikes. Every marker counts toward the first six, including one that isn't on a hike. My markers shows how many more you need for the next one. Only markers on published hikes count toward the three hikes. A marker waiting on your phone counts once it is sent. See Badges.