Even with rain threatening, busses of students from Branch County schools and surrounding areas including Indiana rolled into Heritage Park to look, listen, and learn about early settlers in the area.

’River through Time,” formerly Civil War Days, still focuses on the Civil War era but now includes trappers and Native Americans through the Civil War.

Students got hands-on experience making rope, trapping, looking at weapons from axes to guns, how to trap and skin wildlife for fur and see what foods were available for early settlers to eat. Those presentations and others will continue through the close of the events Sunday afternoon. The largest crowds are expected for the annual Civil War battle reenactments Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. on the hill overlooking the plain toward the Coldwater River.

Food and other vendors are set up in the park for Saturday, and Sunday events. Little River Railroad will take travelers from the Park Street station to Quincy and back to experience itinerant entertainers, a wild west style robbery, a historical battle and a cowboy shootout along the route.

You can ride the Steam Train Through Time Saturday from 9 to 11 a.m. Tickets are $20 per person.