New Richmond this weekend will turn into a miniature Colonial Williamsburg, with dulcimer players, candle-making stations and blacksmith demonstrations.

And starting today, historical re-enactors will set up camp just upriver of downtown New Richmond. The encampment will bring people back to the early 1800s, with spinning wheels, knife making and buffalo meat roasting on spits.

"We want to take you back in time," said Jill Cochran, director of Renaissance New Richmond. "We want to present our history as a river town. It's not your typical small-town festival."

River Days Heritage Festival, which the town hopes to make an annual event, follows last year's Lewis and Clark Legacy Tour in this historic town.

"It went over so well, we wanted to do it again," said Ron Shouse, president of the Grassy Run Historical Arts Committee. "We're just having some fun with the great history of this area."

Tonight, county historian Richard Crawford will sprinkle in local ghost stories during his tour of sites in New Richmond that played a part in the slave-escape route.

Shouse said the festival highlights New Richmond's "River Age" - from the mid-1750s to the Civil War era.

E-mail rforgrave@enquirer.com