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From now until Sept. 2, kids and their families can use the free Agents of Discovery mobile app to complete missions and win prizes at sites across Lolo, Stevensville, Darby and Hamilton as part of the Bitterroot Explorer campaign.

The campaign is the result of a collaboration between Montana State Parks, City of Hamilton Parks, Historic St. Mary’s Mission, Nez Perce National Historic Trail and the Bitterroot National Forest. It was born out of the United States Forest Service’s long-standing partnership with Agents of Discovery, which allows sites to create their own augmented reality missions on the app.

Here’s how it works: Players download the free Agents of Discovery app. Once they open it, the app will find missions nearby and will give the player the option to download the missions.

Each mission has about seven to 10 challenges in it. At each challenge, the site’s virtual agent will give some background on the area, and will ask players questions about site-specific history and nature facts.

Once a player has done every challenge, a "Completed Mission" pop-up will appear on the screen. Players can show this screen at one of three locations to enter to win prizes: Travelers Rest, Historic St. Mary’s Mission and the Bitterroot Valley Chamber of Commerce. Prizes range from a swag bag to a mountain bike, depending on how many missions a player completes.

“The thing that I particularly like about it is that it’s not just a game, it gives education,” said Molly Stockdale, the executive director of Travelers Rest State Park’s nonprofit partner, Travelers Rest Connection.

At Travelers Rest, the mission is based off of what the park usually does for field trips, Stockdale said. Agent Seaman, a virtual newfoundland dog, guides players through the history of the Lewis and Clark Trail, the culture of the Salish peoples and the natural habitat of the area.

“We incorporated that into the app so that if kids are here with families instead of on a field trip, they’re kind of getting the same information, but in a different way,” Stockdale said.

Travelers Rest has been using the app for years as a way to draw in younger families. They even host a mission year-round, with the challenges changing to match the seasons.

The summer-long campaign across different sites has been helpful, Stockdale said, because it means she can send folks who have enjoyed the experience to other participating sites, and vice versa. And each mission has a different focus, so there’s something to fit each kid’s interests.

“The goal for all of us partner organizations is to get more kids and families outside exploring and learning, and this is just another tool to make that happen,” Stockdale said.

Along with educational merits, the campaign could also have health benefits for kids and their families, said Christina Voyles, the director of marketing for Bitterroot Health. Bitterroot Health is one of the event's local supporters.

Voyles said the campaign aligns with the hospital’s goal of being a “partner in health” and encouraging a healthier lifestyle. Participating in a mission could have positive physical and mental health effects, as players get active exploring a site and spend time in nature socializing with their family.

“This just is a fun way to engage both with technology and the outdoors, and get out there and move and be with people and have a good time,” Voyles said.

Voyles found out about the campaign through Kristine Komar, the nonprofit stewardship partner to the Nez Perce National Historic Trail. The trail was one of the first in the Bitterroot Valley to start using the Agents of Discovery app back in 2019.

Komar wanted to be an early adopter of the technology because it seemed like an intriguing new way of communicating and sharing information with visitors.

“As we lessen paper and increase electronics, augmented reality is just a fun thing to think about, how to take a kind of gaming approach but use it for learning,” Komar said.

She wants the app to become a summer staple for families in the Bitterroot Valley. Her goal is for kids in the valley to think of the app’s missions in the summer the same way they think of corn mazes and haunted houses in the fall.

“But it takes time to get something to be part of the culture like that,” Komar said.

So far, participation in the app and its missions hasn’t been as high as Komar would like it to be. Stockdale said that at Travelers Rest, participation has been slow.

A windstorm that hit Missoula on July 24 could have dissuaded some people from coming to the park recently, Stockdale said. But even without the storm, the park’s usual visitation is part of the challenge.

“The folks that are following the Lewis and Clark Trail tend to be older, and so getting this in the hands of the younger families is our challenge,” Stockdale said.

But Stockdale is confident the app will catch on eventually, and it's already had some success. Since 2021, the park's mission has garnered about 2,000 plays, she said. It reminds her of Pokémon Go, another augmented reality app where players can find virtual Pokémon based on their location. When the app’s popularity was at its peak, the park dealt with visitors who’d leave the trail to follow a Pokémon on their phone screen.

“Instead of following Pokémon, we’re hoping now that they’re going to use Agent Seaman and walk around and do the missions here instead,” Stockdale said. “It’s just about getting in front of the right people, right?”

Find the original Ravalli Republic article HERE