The annual Fall Harvest Fest will return to the Conestoga Area Historical Society (CAHS), 51 Kendig Road, Conestoga, on Saturday, Sept. 28, and Sunday, Sept. 29. The community celebration will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sept. 28, and the festivities will continue from noon to 4 p.m. on Sept. 29.

The event will feature demonstrations of various crafts, kids' activities and live music on both days. On Sept. 28, a hammered dulcimer player will perform throughout the day, and a banjoist and a guitarist will play tunes on Sept. 29.

Children may participate in activities such as pumpkin painting and rope-making during both days of Fall Harvest Fest. At the rope-making station, kids will have an opportunity to assist an expert as he uses a machine to twist colored ropes, which the children can take home as souvenirs. Interactive activities will also be offered at a Native American teaching table operated by members of Circle Legacy Center, who will be present to answer questions and offer demonstrations of traditional Native American crafts. In recent years, Circle Legacy members have incorporated chanting demonstrations and fur displays at the stand.

Every year, attendees of Fall Harvest Fest have an opportunity to glimpse into the past as expert craftspeople in period-accurate attire demonstrate skills such as blacksmithing, weaving, spinning, tin-making and carpentry. This year, the event will also feature demonstrations of rope-hooking, basket weaving and the making of traditional early American headwear. A wool-dyeing exhibit will take place in the tannery building, and the owner of two early 20th-century vehicles will display them on Sept. 28.

During Fall Harvest Fest, guests may view CAHS' vast collection of historically significant artifacts and information about the Conestoga area and its earliest inhabitants. The collection includes petroglyphs left by early Native Americans that are estimated to be more than 1,500 years old, as well as items from Colonial settlers. The collection also features three Conestoga wagons, one of which is currently being used by Sight & Sound Theatres in Ronks for an upcoming production.

"Most people enjoy seeing all the displays because they can say, 'My grandmother had that in her kitchen,' or 'My mother had this in the parlor,'" said CAHS member and event organizer Jim Kauffman. "They love to see old things they might have had when they were kids." Kauffman added that the historical society sells various books about the Susquehanna River and trinkets in its gift shop, which will be open during Fall Harvest Fest.

For more information, visit http://www.pennmanorhistory.org.