A pair of pedestrians walk past the statue of Esther Motanic on Friday in Pendleton.

Pendleton’s bronze history has gotten a digital age upgrade.

Travel Pendleton launched the Pendleton Bronze Trail Thursday, a mobile website that covers 20 public art pieces across the city, including the downtown bronzes on Main Street.

Travel Pendleton event recruiter Pat Beard estimated the trail can be roughly 1.5 miles long, starting with the bronze of Til Taylor and ending with the Cattle Drive statues by Interstate 84.

Each entry on the self-guided tour includes an audio snippet explaining the history of the subject and the piece, with directions from Google Maps for driving or walking to the next destination.

While most of the art featured on the tour are bronze statues, it also features other art forms like the Umatilla County Court clock tower and the Western heritage mural on the side of the Great Pacific Wine & Coffee Co.

Beard compared the Pendleton Bronze Trail to the world’s trendiest mobile game.

“This is Pendleton’s ‘Pokémon Go,’” he said.

Although the goal of the Pendleton Bronze Tour is to obtain historical facts instead of digital monsters, Beard said the point is to continue to enrich the city’s cultural qualities.

Conceived by former Oxford Suites manager Stuart Howell, Beard said Travel Pendleton worked with advertising agency Duke Joseph to develop the website.

The city provided Travel Pendleton with $5,375 to jump start the tour while Travel Pendleton committed to maintaining the website.

Using city money to pay for public art has been a contentious issue in the past, but Beard said tourists paid for the tour rather than taxpayers.

Half of the money for the tour was taken from the city’s art fund, which is derived from a 1.75 percent earmark on the transient room tax.

While some residents would rather see that money invested in street repair, Beard said investment in tourism can bring more people to expand the tax base.

“This will bring people that will help fill those pot holes,” he said.

Beard wanted to launch the tour last week when country fans flocked to Pendleton for the Zac Brown Band concert, but the posters weren’t ready yet.

With the promotional material printed, Beard is sharing them with downtown businesses and spreading the word with people in town for Pendleton Bike Week.

To further promote the tour, Beard said Travel Pendleton will start an Instagram page for people to share their pictures with the statues as well as add permanent signs near the art pieces advertising the website.

People can start the tour at www.pendletonbronzetrail.com, or go to the website and get a history lesson if you happen to find yourself in Pendleton staring at some art.

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Contact Antonio Sierra at asierra@eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0836.