Connie Torneden, who heads the Tonganoxie Days steering committee, says organizers expect at least 3,000 people to attend the 2004 edition of the festival.

“My main goal is to have people get together and have a relaxing day, take in the programs and vendors, and come back next year,” Torneden said.

Fourth Street will be the venue for many activities, including arts and crafts, food booths, an auction, a carnival, a quilt show and an art show that will feature work from high school students, among other artists.

Also on tap is a Lewis and Clark dialogue featuring Jim Two Crows Wallen, Lee’s Summit, Mo., celebrating the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition, at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturday at Ammana elan, Third and Main streets.

The dialogue ties in with the Tonganoxie Public Library’s summer reading program’s theme of “exploring new frontiers” and is loosely based on Lewis and Clark.

The annual Friends of the Library run and fun walk is set for Saturday morning. And a dedication ceremony for Winifred Turner, a librarian at Tonganoxie Public Library from 1969 until 1995, will begin at 11 a.m. Saturday.

Among other events taking place at the festival are:

• The County Cruisers Car Show and a motorcycle show, both at VFW Park. A VFW Flag Day Ceremony and an Air Force fly-over also are planned at VFW Park.
• A miniature horse show, the Leavenworth County Barbecue Cook-off, a demolition derby and a Miss Tonganoxie Beauty Pageant, all at Leavenworth County Fairgrounds.
• Several activities at the Tonganoxie Historical Site, 200 W. Washington, which will include Fred Leimkuhler who will demonstrate weaving with a loom; Barbara and Emily Say who will spin wool; Larry Ross who will carve gunstocks; Steve Woolf who will fashion willow furniture; Lana Howe and Kathy Owens who will make goat soap; and Richard Sack who will build a new bench for the Tonganoxie Community Historical Society.

Also at the historic site, children will be invited to visit a Kids Corner where they can experience what it might have been like to move to Kansas in 1854 in a covered wagon. Also for the children, members of the society will be demonstrating how to churn butter, load a wagon, wash clothes with a washboard and beat a rug.

Susy Ross, a member of the historical society, said she has great expectations for the weekend and she hopes people take the opportunity to enjoy the museum.

“The Tonganoxie Community Historical Society Museum is for the community and we all volunteer so the community can preserve history and we want people to come see it and enjoy it,” Ross said.