Minute Man tourists can dial up history

CONCORD -- Elaine Engelberg gazed at the crumbled brick remains of a historic house as the man with the cellphone approached. He wasn't just dialed in; the guy had his speaker phone turned up, blaring who knows what down the dirt road running through Minute Man National Historic Park.

Before Engelberg could complain, a park ranger standing nearby explained. The man on the cell wasn't chit-chatting with his girlfriend. He was showing off the Minute Man's revolutionary new audio tour.

This month, the park became the first in the country to offer the cellphone guide. For $5.99, visitors can call up an hourlong take on Paul Revere and the North Bridge.

It's a move that's sure to inspire debate. Out on the trail yesterday, Joy Gilbert, Engelberg's friend, said she had no problem with the idea. Engelberg, a retired high school history teacher, wasn't so pleased. "I don't want it," Engelberg said. "When I come here, I want to hear the birds and see the surroundings."

For years, the park's staff has been trying to develop a feasible alternative to the audio tours offered at most museums. The guides are wildly popular, with 100,000 of them rented during just the last year at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. But Minute Man officials say the nature of the site -- it's spread over 967 acres -- and its limited staff hours make renting prerecorded units a logistical nightmare. "It's a way of adding a tour with very little investment," says Scott Hilton, whose company, the Virginia-based Spatial Adventures Inc., has been signed to provide the service. "You're basically using something you have in your pocket, your phone."

Spatial Adventures, which Hilton helped found in 2000, has been looking to corner the market on cell-tour technology even though it's far from refined. The Freedom Trail Foundation, for example, considered offering cell tours but was concerned about recording quality and the fact that a two-hour cell tour would burn through too many minutes, according to Linda McConchie, the Freedom Trail's executive director.

Like the MFA, the Freedom Trail uses a portable MP3 player for tours. "Right now, we're keeping our eye on that cell technology because we think, eventually, that's where all this will go," she said.

Hilton says the quality of the audio tour recording is strong, though it depends somewhat on what phone you use and whether you listen on speaker or a headset. The narrative has been vetted by experts, as Spatial Adventures hired a local historian to interview park rangers to develop a script. There are three themed tours in total, covering 22 stops, and a visitor can either run straight through or click on a particular number on their phone.

Minute Man receives 20 percent of the revenues from the tours. Phone air time and roaming charges are not included in the fee. But Hilton believes that enough phone companies are starting to offer free weekend plans and prepaid minutes to make the tour reasonable.

There's been controversy over the use of portable phones at national parks, particularly at Yellowstone in Wyoming, where five towers have been installed. But there are no plans to build a tower at Minute Man. That's an important distinction for Dennis McKinney, development director at the Washington, D.C.-based Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, an outspoken opponent of the Yellowstone towers.

"If I'm walking on a trail, backpacking in Yellowstone, and some guy is talking to his stockbroker, I'd be irked beyond belief," he said. "But if I'm walking down a path in Minute Man park and somebody's listening to a historical, interpretive tour -- and they're just listening, they're not talking -- I would probably just walk by them."

Lou Sideris, a Minute Man ranger who is chief of interpretation, said he doesn't expect many complaints.

"People come here for content," he said. "They don't come here to commune with nature. They're here because a battle happened, and they want to know about it."

Geoff Edgers can be reached at gedgers@globe.com