John Debelak hopes that giving visitors a chance to talk with George Washington and Benjamin Franklin this weekend will ignite a passion for history.

Washington, interpreted by Brian Cunning, and Franklin, portrayed by Paul Stillman, will be among as many as 270 costumed participants taking part in a two-day free history festival in Boyce Park.

Mr. Debelak and Tom Klingensmith are co-chairmen of the event, which begins today and continues tomorrow. It commemorates the 250th anniversary of Washington's Encampment in what became Plum.

Washington was a provincial officer in the Forbes Expedition, which crossed the Pennsylvania wilderness in 1758. It drove the French from Fort Duquesne and established Pittsburgh as a British settlement.

Re-enactors, craft demonstrators and sutlers -- an archaic term for merchants -- will set up camps that re-create life among Native Americans, provincials and French and British soldiers.

Other activities will include performances by an 18th century-style circus, English and Scots country dancing and daily re-enactments of the Battle of Grant's Hill. British and Colonial troops under Maj. James Grant were overwhelmed by a French and Indian force near what is now Pittsburgh's Grant Street in September 1758.

"We want to show people some of the real history that happened here when two Colonial powers vied with Native Americans for the same territory," Mr. Debelak said. "Everybody wanted control of the fur trade and the waterways. The English also wanted land for settlement."

The encampment is a joint project of the Allegheny Foothills Historical Society and the Allegheny County Department of Parks.

Admission to all events is free, as is parking at the Boyce Park wave pool on Old Frankstown Road. Shuttles will transport visitors to encampment areas around the park. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. tomorrow.

More information is available on the historical society's Web site, www.plumhistory.org.