The short version

1. Get a clue. Every chapter starts with a riddle, and it points to a real shop on Central Avenue.
2. Walk there. The Tunnel Map tells you about how many minutes it is on foot.
3. Touch your phone to the white card on the counter. Your door opens.
4. Play the door. A piece of a 1936 mystery, a quick hands-on puzzle, then a lock to solve.
5. Claim the reward the shop picked. Everyone who opens that door gets the same thing.

What the white card actually is

It's a small NFC tag, the same kind of chip that lets you pay by tapping. When you hold the top of your phone to it, your phone opens a web link that belongs to that shop's door. Most iPhones from the last several years read these tags without opening anything first, and most Android phones do too, as long as NFC is turned on in settings.

That's it. There's no account and no password. Your stamps, your items and your rewards are kept on your own phone.

Nobody else touches your phone

I built the claim screen so the clerk never has to hold it. When you tap Claim my reward, your phone shows a CLAIMED screen with a live clock, today's date and a turning seal. You turn the phone toward the counter, the clerk looks, and you're done. A screenshot won't pass, because the clock wouldn't be moving. Each door can be claimed once per phone.

Not downtown right now?

You can play a door from your couch. On the Tunnel Map, the button says Open Door 4 from here (or whichever door is next). The story, the puzzle, the lock and the stamp all work at home. The reward is the only part that waits: it stays on your phone until you come in and tap that shop's card in person.

Where things stand today

The game is in preview. Ten chapters are written, Case One and Case Two both whole, and the story walks past 55 downtown shops. No shop has signed up yet, so the cards aren't on counters, and a door shows "reward coming soon" until its shop joins. You can play every chapter from home right now, and I'd love to hear what you think.

Open the Chapter 1 map

Short legs, short walk

When you start a chapter, the game asks one question: how much time do you have? About 30 minutes is a short walk of 4 shops. About an hour is all 8 and the whole story. You can switch later, and your stamps stay put.

Things to do with their hands

Every door has a quick mini-game before its lock: line things up, find what's out of place, tilt the phone to look around a room. Every door also has its own 3D room behind it, and kids can pick things up and turn them over. Then a stamp slams onto the Tunnel Map, and that stamp is the best sound in the game.

Nothing scary, nothing grown-up

• The story is a 1936 newspaper mystery. Nobody gets hurt, and the only spook is a con man called the Lark in a bedsheet.
• The story never shows drinking.
• Every phone is asked its age once. Players under 21 never see a 21+ business. Restaurants that serve meals are family doors.
• No luck, ever. No spins, no mystery boxes, no "first ten kids win". Everyone who opens a door gets the same reward, so nobody walks away crying because a sibling got the good one.

Brass Tokens and a detective's office

Opening doors, solving a lock cleanly and finishing a chapter all pay Brass Tokens, a fixed amount, the same for everyone. Kids spend them furnishing their own 1930s detective office, one piece at a time. Tokens can't be bought and they never trade for a shop's reward. They're just for fun.

One phone is enough

A family can play on one phone and take turns tapping. It's free to play, there's nothing to download, and progress stays on that phone.

Where the story goes

The chapters walk past places kids already love downtown, like sweet shops, an ice cream counter, a magic shop and a miniature town. A shop's door only gives out a reward once that shop has joined. Until then the door says "reward coming soon", so nobody walks in expecting something that isn't there.

See how it works

Play it from your chair

You don't have to be downtown to play. On the Tunnel Map, under the next shop's name, it says Not downtown? Open it from here. Tap it and the door opens at home: the story, the puzzle, the lock and the stamp. The shop's reward waits on your phone until you're next on Central and can pick it up at the counter.

That means you can read a chapter on the porch on Tuesday and stop in for the rewards on Saturday, or never walk it at all and just enjoy the mystery.

The Aa button

Every page has an Aa button at the top. It opens three switches:

• Bigger text. Everything gets larger.
• Sun mode. Black on white, easy to read outside in bright light.
• Read every screen to me. Your phone reads each new step out loud, in its own voice.

Your phone remembers your choice, so you only set it once.

Listen instead of reading

Every door has a Listen button. The KTHS Radio Hour, my 1930s-style radio show, reads that door's story with voices. The Radio Hour also plays around the clock on its own station page, so you can have the whole mystery on in the kitchen like an old serial.

A short walk, with places to sit

When you start a chapter you can pick About 30 minutes: 4 shops instead of 8. The map tells you how many minutes each walk is. Several stops in the story are places where you'd sit down anyway, like the pancake houses and the coffee and tea shop on North Central, and two of the free story stops are things you look at from the sidewalk, with no walking up anything.

Nothing to sign up for

No app, no account, no password to forget. It opens in the phone's web browser and remembers where you left off.

Try Chapter 1 from home

The plan for a Saturday

1. Park once. The city's Exchange Street Parking Deck is one block west of Bathhouse Row and costs less per hour than the meters on Central (the city's parking page has the current rates).
2. Open Chapter 1 on your phone and pick the 30-minute walk or the whole hour.
3. Follow the clues along the shop side of Central, across from the bathhouses.
4. Have lunch in the middle. A couple of the story's stops are breakfast and lunch places.
5. Do Chapter 2 after lunch, or save it for the car ride home, from your phone.

How long it really takes

About 30 minutes for a short walk of 4 shops, and about an hour for all 8 in a chapter, plus however long you browse. Ten chapters are written, so it can fill a whole weekend if you want it to. Each one is its own little case with an ending.

The park is part of the story, never an ad

Bathhouse Row, the Grand Promenade and the fountains are Hot Springs National Park. In the game they're free story stops: you look at something from the public sidewalk and answer a question about it. There are no cards, signs or codes on park land, and nothing on park land is for sale through the game.

What it costs you

Nothing. Players never pay. Shops pay for their doors, and the reward a shop picks is the same for every player who opens it. There's no drawing and no luck involved.

Honest note

Hidden Springs is in preview right now. The story is finished through Chapter 5, but shops are still signing up, so the white cards aren't on counters yet and rewards show "coming soon". You can still play every door from your phone. The public launch is planned for March 17, 2027.

Start playing

Things on Central you've walked past

• FACT 518–520 Central, the Rix-Adamson Building, built in 1886, is the oldest building on the National Register's construction list for the district. Look up at the top for its small pediment.
• FACT 410 Central, the Woodcock Building, has an incised stone panel with its name and its year, 1929. It went up after a fire took most of the 400 block in 1928.
• FACT 350 Central, the old Savoy Hotel, has a carved shell over its stair door.
• FACT 250 Central was the Southern Club, a gambling club, before it became the wax museum.
• FACT You're driving over a creek. Hot Springs Creek has run in a stone arch under Central since 1884.

Every one of those is something you can see from the public sidewalk. The game's history pages are full of them, and every line is tagged so you know how sure anybody is.

The Archive and its secrets

The Archive is the true-history side of the game: who built Central Avenue, who walked it, and what's still standing. Each page hides a few secrets, 81 in all so far. Some you find by tapping what looks out of place, some by answering what you can see from the sidewalk, and a few only show up after dark.

A new case most Tuesdays

New chapters open on Tuesdays. There's also a weekly challenge, the same for everyone, like "open 3 north-end doors by Sunday". It's a good excuse to walk a block you usually drive.

Hidden Finds

When shops join, each one can hide one reward out on the public sidewalk near its door: by a lamp post, a planter, a bench. Nothing is physically placed there. You find it with your phone's camera and GPS, and every player who finds it gets the same thing. Searching is the skill. Hidden Finds are never on park land and never near a grate, a basement or any real door.

Open the Archive

FACT

Documented. You can look it up.

CLAIM

Someone says so, and I'll tell you who.

LEGEND

Folklore. I always say "legend says".

FICTION

My story. Made up, and proud of it.

The tunnels

FACT Hot Springs Creek runs in a stone arch under Central Avenue. The first section was finished in 1884, in front of Bathhouse Row, so bathers no longer had to cross an open creek full of runoff on narrow bridges. The original arch is about 3,500 feet long and was built of granite and novaculite. It cost $136,745. (Encyclopedia of Arkansas; City of Hot Springs; NPS)

FACT The Park Service runs a pipe inside that arch that carries hot spring water to the bathhouses. The city's Stormwater Division maintains the arch, and going inside without permission is against the law. There are no tours.

LEGEND Legend says Capone and friends walked that tunnel unseen, from the Arlington to the gambling clubs. Local historians don't buy it. They call the tunnel damp, dark and dangerous, and point out the gangsters walked around town in the open anyway. No bowling alley or buried gold has ever turned up.

The gangsters

FACT Owney Madden, a New York mobster, settled in Hot Springs in the 1930s, and by 1940 he held a controlling interest in the Southern Club at 250 Central. That building is now the Josephine Tussaud Wax Museum. (Encyclopedia of Arkansas)

FACT In 1936 Lucky Luciano, New York's "Public Enemy No. 1", was hiding out here. A New York detective in town on another case spotted him on Bathhouse Row. Luciano was arrested on April 1. Governor Futrell and Attorney General Carl Bailey forced the issue: about 20 state troopers moved him to Little Rock, and on April 18 he was sent back to New York by train. (Encyclopedia of Arkansas)

CLAIM The Arlington says Al Capone rented its whole fourth floor and stayed in Room 443. The hotel's own history page says so, and the Encyclopedia of Arkansas repeats it. A 2008 AP story said 442.

The fire that didn't reach the 300 block

FACT On September 5, 1913, a fire that started in a house on Church Street burned a huge stretch of the city. About 2,500 people lost their homes, and no one was killed. Firefighters stopped it at the south end of Central, and the 300 to 500 blocks didn't burn. That's why so many of the buildings across from the bathhouses are older than the fire. (Encyclopedia of Arkansas; National Register nomination, 1984)

Where the fiction starts

FICTION Dewey the courier, Pip the newsie, Detective Fitz Mulroy, the Lark in his canary-yellow suit and every room behind every door are my story. The game always tags them that way, right next to the real history, so nobody walks away thinking a made-up room is real.

Read the creek arch page

What's really down there

FACT Under Central Avenue there's a stone arch, finished in 1884, that carries Hot Springs Creek under the street. It's a stormwater tunnel. It floods in big storms, it's dark, and it's maintained by the city. Going inside without permission is against the law, and there are no public tours.

LEGEND Everything else, the gangster passages, the bowling alley, the secret doors from hotel basements, is legend. Fun legend, but legend.

So the game opens a pretend one

FICTION In Hidden Springs, every downtown shop is a sealed door. You open it on your phone, at the shop's counter, by touching the white card. Behind it is a tunnel room I built: a 1930s scene you can look around in 3D, a piece of the story, a puzzle and a lock. You get the adventure of going underground without leaving the sales floor.

The rules I wrote into the game

• Every door opens at a shop counter. The game never sends anyone to a real door, grate, manhole, basement, stairway or the creek arch.
• The game says plainly that entering the real tunnel is illegal.
• Hidden Finds, the little rewards shops hide outside, can only sit at approved spots on the public sidewalk at street level, like a lamp post, a planter or a bench. Nothing is ever physically placed.
• The free story stops on National Park land are look-from-the-public-sidewalk only. There's nothing to climb and nowhere off the path to go.
• On Bathhouse Row it's a walking game. Crossings use the signals, and no clue asks anyone to cross mid-block.

If you want to see the arch

You already have. Stand on Central in front of Bathhouse Row and you're standing on its lid. The game's Archive page on the creek arch tells its whole story, and that's as close as anybody should get.

The 1884 creek arch

What works today

• Bigger text. One switch under the Aa button makes everything larger.
• Sun mode. Black on white, for bright days and tired eyes.
• Read every screen to me. The phone reads each new step out loud with its built-in voice.
• Listen buttons. Every door's story is also a Radio Hour episode with voices.
• Play from home. Any door can be opened from anywhere. Only the reward pickup happens at the shop.
• No timers. Nothing in the game runs out. Take a week on one door if you like.
• No account. Nothing to sign up for or remember.
• Calmer motion. If your phone is set to reduce motion, the game tones its animations down.
• Big buttons. I build for a 390-pixel-wide phone held in one hand, with buttons sized for a thumb.
• Nobody takes your phone. The clerk only looks at your screen to see a reward is claimed.

What I haven't solved yet

• Shop entrances. I haven't checked every shop for steps or narrow doors. Some downtown buildings are more than a hundred years old. If you need to know about one shop before you go, text me at 501-575-8017 and I'll tell you what I know.
• The tap. Picking up a reward in person means holding your phone near the card on the counter. If a counter is hard to reach, the clerk can hold the card out to you. They still never touch your phone. The rest of the door can always be played from the map, anywhere.
• Screen readers. The main buttons are labeled, but the 3D rooms are visual. Their stories are always available as text and audio, so nothing in the mystery is locked behind the 3D.

Tell me what's hard

If something in the game is hard to see, hear, read or reach, text me at 501-575-8017. Accessibility fixes go to the front of my list.

Try the Aa button

One site, every shop

Every shop in the game hands it to its own customers: the white card is on the counter, and people ask about it. Every player who starts the game then walks to every door in the chapter to finish the case. So when you join, you aren't buying one ad on your own counter. You're getting your door into the story that every other shop is handing out.

The numbers, plainly

• The ten chapters I've written walk past 55 downtown shops, with 85 doors (28 shops have a door in more than one chapter).
• A Hidden Springs Door is $495 to build and $49 a month, cancel any time. (Shops I quoted before Oct 21 keep the price I quoted them.) The monthly starts the day the game goes live, which is when 8 shops have signed.
• If all 55 joined, your $49 a month would be spread over the 54 other shops handing out the same game: about $0.91 per storefront a month, each one sending its own customers down the trail.

I put the whole thing on one page, with real visitor numbers, what advertising costs around here, and a low, middle and high scenario so you can see how it works when more shops join. The assumptions are labeled as assumptions. I won't promise you a number of customers, and I'd be wary of anybody who does.

See the math

What your $49 a month covers

• Your door in the story, with your shop's name said by the characters.
• Your store as a video and AR walk-through people can step into from anywhere.
• Your shop's own radio ad, voiced for you, playing while players walk in (one change a month).
• Your reward, which you pick, the same for every player.
• Your shop window on the map, and the Back Door (in testing now): a free private board where downtown shops can borrow a hand truck, cover a door for 15 minutes or send a customer next door.

The fine print, up front

• No contract. Cancel any time.
• No drawings or lucky winners. Arkansas treats prize plus chance as a lottery, so everyone gets the same reward.
• Nothing on National Park land. The bathhouses are free story stops, never paid doors.
• Right now no shop has signed. The shops in the story are there because the story walks past them, not because they've paid.

Questions? text me at 501-575-8017. I answer every one.

See a door for your shop

A new chapter, on a Tuesday

Each chapter is a complete case with its own ending. When a chapter's finale plays, it points to the next case, and new chapters open on Tuesdays. Seven are written so far:

1. The Courier's Ledger. One soggy ledger, eight doors, and a man in an overcoat.
2. The Ninth Page. Eight green-ink letters, and a rival sure they spell CAPONE.
3. Curtain at Eight. An honest magician, violet chalk and a con man with a ticket.
4. Dead Air. Nine seconds of radio silence and two mountains flashing mirrors.
5. The Fellow at the Depot. Eight brass buttons and an old friend from the station.
6. The Notice Before Dawn. Two 'only originals' and a courier everybody blames.
7. The Avenue in Full. A directory page that stops halfway down, and a fold somebody glued shut.

The first five chapters make Case One. Case Two starts with Chapter 6, and Chapter 8 picks up where Chapter 7 leaves off.

The Tuesday Edition

Every week there's one challenge, the same for everyone, like "open 3 north-end doors by Sunday". It pays Brass Tokens. There's no ranking, no prize for being first, and no luck in it. If you do it, you get it.

The Radio Hour

The KTHS Radio Hour plays the whole story around the clock as a live station, with voices and music. When a chapter opens, its episodes join the station.

Where to see what changed

The Whole Story page keeps a short log of every update: new chapters, new ways to play, history pages and behind-the-scenes work. This blog will carry the bigger ones. If you use a feed reader, the blog has an RSS feed.

See the latest updates RSS feed