POCATELLO — The Bannock County Historical Society is inviting the public to step back into the 19th century this Saturday at the 63rd Annual Fort Hall Replica Celebration.

Rain or shine, the free community event runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Bannock County Historical Complex, 3000 Avenue of the Chiefs.

The morning opens with a welcoming ceremony including the raising of the Hudson’s Bay Co. flag and a seven-gun muzzleloader salute. Community leaders expected to speak include Pocatello Mayor Mark Dahlquist, Chubbuck Mayor Rodney Burch and a representative from the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes.

Historical presentations will include Jim Hardy of the American Museum of Mountain Men speaking on the expeditions of Nathaniel Wyeth, who established Fort Hall in 1834 as a fur trading post. The Hudson’s Bay Co. later took it over and expanded it into a key supply stop along the Oregon and California trails.

Arlen Walker, president of the Bannock County Historical Society, will speak on the history of the replica and efforts to locate the site of the original fort.

The celebration will also feature traditional dances by Sho-Ban Dancers, live blacksmithing demonstrations in the replica’s original blacksmith shop by Gandy Blacksmithing, yarn spinning on traditional spindles by the Portneuf Yarn Spinners and members of the American Association of Mountain Men available to speak with visitors.

Children’s activities will include handcart rides and games and crafts reflecting what children did for fun in the mid-1800s to early 1900s. Chili from Yellowstone Restaurant and rolls from Texas Roadhouse will be served at noon while supplies last. Local vendors and a raffle will also be on site.

For Chelsea Blanchard, social media and marketing intern for the Bannock County Historical Complex, the event reflects something larger than a single afternoon’s festivities.

“Their whole mission is to save the past for the future,” Blanchard said. “It doesn’t matter who you are in Bannock County, or if you’ve lived here a couple of months or all of your life — you’re connected to the people who helped shape who we are and the place that we live in.”

Blanchard pointed to something as simple as the Center Street Bridge as an example. People walking across it today are retracing the same steps as those photographed there in 1894.

“There’s a common thread, and it creates a sense that everybody in the community has a place,” Blanchard said. “We are connected through our shared humanity of this space.”

That connection, Blanchard said, is precisely why keeping the event free matters. The complex — which includes the Fort Hall Replica, the Pocatello Junction and a museum — exists to serve the community, and the celebration is an opportunity for residents to see firsthand what the society is working to preserve on their behalf.

The Fort Hall Replica is a three-quarter-scale reconstruction built from Hudson’s Bay Co. blueprints using traditional methods and tools. It was erected as a commemorative monument for Idaho’s Territorial Centennial in 1963 and is open to the public May through October, weather permitting.