Photo: chensiyuan (CC BY-SA 4.0)
A self-guided audio walk of about three kilometers through Salem, Massachusetts, told from the court records. It starts on Salem Common and at the statue of Roger Conant, who settled Naumkeag in 1626, then goes to the Howard Street Cemetery, where Giles Corey was pressed to death in 1692, and the site of the jail that held the accused. Past the East India Marine Hall of 1824 come the Charter Street burying ground, where judge John Hathorne lies, and the Witch Trials Memorial, where the protests of the accused are cut off mid-sentence in stone. Old Town Hall, the site of the courthouse where the Court of Oyer and Terminer sat, and the house of judge Jonathan Corwin follow. The walk turns to the merchant town of the Ropes Mansion, Samuel McIntire's Hamilton Hall and Chestnut Street, and ends at Proctor's Ledge, the site of the hangings confirmed in 2016, where nineteen stones carry the names of those who died there.
14 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 90 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 10 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Salem Common, Roger Conant statue, Howard Street Cemetery, Site of the 1692 jail, East India Marine Hall, Charter Street burying ground.
Salem Witch Trials Memorial, Old Town Hall, Site of the 1692 courthouse, Witch House of Judge Jonathan Corwin.
Ropes Mansion, Hamilton Hall, Chestnut Street, Proctor's Ledge Memorial.
The open field beside the 1692 jail where Giles Corey, who refused to plead, was pressed to death.
Salem's burial ground from 1637, where judge John Hathorne lies; none of those executed in 1692 is buried here.
Granite benches carrying the names of the twenty executed, and a threshold where protests of innocence are cut off mid-sentence.
Where the Court of Oyer and Terminer sat in 1692, out in the middle of today's Washington Street, marked by a bronze plaque.
The house of about 1675 of a judge of the 1692 court, moved back from the street and restored in the 1940s.
The ledge confirmed in 2016 as the site of the hangings, with nineteen stones naming the dead, dedicated in 2017.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 14 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 14 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Salem — 1692 and the Town that Tried Its Neighbours, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
14 narration points, including Salem Common, Roger Conant statue, Site of the 1692 jail, East India Marine Hall and Charter Street burying ground. That is about 22 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~1–2 hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 14 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.