Small town festivals have a charm that you don’t see with bigger city festivals. It seems everyone knows everyone else and the festivals are an all-town party. I had the pleasure of visiting historic Newburgh, Indiana, a town of about 3,300 people, during their Ghostly Stroll Halloween Parade and Harvest Festival in the Park. It was actually the second weekend of the Newburgh Halloween celebration, which began the prior week with Ghostly Walks.
In the mid-1800s Newburgh, Indiana, flourished. Steamboat traffic and coal mining were big industries. Warehouses lined Water Street. Mills and small factories contributed to the town’s success. Today, the steamboats, mills and warehouses are gone. A walking trail parallels the Ohio River, with benches on which you can sit for a while and watch barges that still ply the glistening waters. Restaurants and shops attract visitors. The atmosphere is casual, resort-like. However, the town embraces its historic roots, combining the old with the new, as we discovered during our visit to Newburgh during our road trip last fall along Indiana’s Ohio River Scenic Byway.
