KINGSTON — Members of the Kingston Chamber of Commerce and other groups wowed residents Saturday with the Little City by the Sea’s past — minus the use of a DeLorean time machine or a flux capacitor.

Instead, visitors to the Kingston Community Center and the Kingston Farmers Market were transported to the past with photos, outfits and artifacts.

Kingston Heritage Day began with an authentic logger’s breakfast that proved so popular organizers had to make an additional food run, said Kingston Chamber of Commerce Board member Betty Mathers.

“This has been really great,” said Kingston Historical Society member Roddy Reynolds, adding that people were lining up to view the exhibit before the community center doors opened at 10 a.m. “We’ve had a nice reception.”

The festival was designed to celebrate Kingston’s history and everything that makes the town unique, said Kingston Revitalization Association member and organizer Karen Ross. It was also an excuse to have a party in the fall, she said.

People flocked to the event, Ross and Mathers agreed.

“We’ve had three full pages of people signing in,” said Kingston Historical Society President Bill Reynolds, adding that community members seemed to be interested in learning more about Kingston. He was kept busy for the better part of the day answering questions about the photos and displays for more than 200 visitors.

“I brought some family photos in for them to display,” said Kingston resident Carl Miller, who was born and raised in the area. “There are a lot of folks here who have an interest, to some degree, in the history of Kingston.”

To give the day a more realistic feel, organizers decided to make some historic aspects of the festival more tangible for the general public. Along with the kids’ play time at 2 p.m. — during which children could participate in old-fashioned games — there was also a sheriff’s posse strolling the streets, making full use of a makeshift jail to lock up “lawbreakers.”

“We’ve had about 15 actual people in the jail,” said Kingston resident and sheriff-for-the-day Eric Lee. “We’ve had people in here for being too rambunctious, too loud, a few jaywalkers. We also had some guys in here who just wanted to be in here.”

“I got put in jail for jaywalking,” said 14-year-old Elizabeth Raber of Kingston. “I came quietly. This is really fun, I hope they do it again next year.”

Ross said the chamber and the KRA are indeed planning on hosting Kingston Heritage Day in 2007, with some improvements.

“Next year, we’ll probably have the kids’ play time during the Kingston Market,” she said, adding that many parents thought the event had ended when the market did. “Someone suggested we have the classic boat club come down. The only problem we had this year was the antique steamboats didn’t show up. Next year, we’d also really like to have more people who know about the area help out.”