If a man lived on the moon, even he might be aware that a bunch of folks in the Ozarks are anticipating his rare midday appearance during the 2024 total solar eclipse.
On April 8, 2024, a narrow band of total darkness will pass through Mexico before heading northeast across the United States and into Canada. The most central part of the path will experience about four minutes of “totality,” or total darkness, as the moon moves between the earth and the sun. And a chunk of that band falls across both the Arkansas and Missouri Ozarks.
The topic is buzzing on Facebook, where groups and pages talk about destinations and camping options, and one commenter even recognized that “Yep, can’t get away from it.” It’s on billboards along major roads. Information is on posters at a Missouri state park and it’s shared at events, where volunteers are being recruited to help with the masses of people expected to travel to the region.
“We are going to see an influx of people and I really hope it will be an economic boost to our local businesses and even our organizations,” said Melissa Wharton, tourism manager for the Ozark Heritage Welcome Center in West Plains, a community of about 12,000 people near the Arkansas-Missouri state line. “We’ve got to have a huge volunteer effort to pull off all of these different events. I know we have a lot of different nonprofits that are stepping up to help with that.”
While the eclipse doesn’t arrive until April 8, West Plains begins its festivities three days earlier. Music – including a kickoff concert with The Ozark Mountain Daredevils – fills the days, as does an after-dark neon parade, art events, an astronomy presentation, duck races and more. It all leads up to the Eclipse Blackout Party from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., during which the “totality” will arrive at 1:54 p.m.
“If you’re from southern Missouri and you have not traveled to totality, you have not seen a total eclipse,” Wharton said. “It was 1869 that there was a total solar eclipse in our area, and we won’t have another totality for another 150-some years. This really is a once-in-a-lifetime event.”
There’s so much hope that others will feel similarly – bringing money and return visits – that the Missouri Division of Tourism allocated $250,000 in grant funding to communities in the 26 Missouri counties that will be in “totality” for their promotion of the event. West Plains was one of the recipients.
“Based on the massive interest and visitor turnout that happened during the 2017 eclipse, we knew that we wanted to support Missouri communities in the path of totality as they plan events that will draw tourists who are excited about the eclipse,” Katie Blake, a representative of the MDT, told me. “It’s our hope that during the time they’re in Missouri they will get to experience some of our incredible attractions, charming towns and our abundant outdoor recreation opportunities.”
Even though the event isn’t exclusive to the Ozarks, the region is taking full advantage. Yet, as with so many things in life, this event’s benefits and questions come on a spectrum – and mean different things across the region, particularly with regard to the size of communities that are expecting an unknown number of people.
For example, where will visitors go to the bathroom in a community with one gas station with one bathroom, no restaurants and whose residences are on septic systems?
The Spectrum of Solar Power
It’s not a hypothetical question in Mt. Judea, a community of about 100 people in rural Arkansas. The tucked-away, tiny community is close to Sam’s Throne, a hiking and rock-climbing destination where visitors are common – but not in the numbers the local arts council wonders may show up.
But while the area around Mt. Judea is rich in natural beauty, it’s not in resources or infrastructure.
The town just has one gas station that doubles as a short-order cafe, a mercantile that’s open seasonally, and a free little library that operates in the town’s former post office. Its residents are on septic tanks, not a joint system for waste.
I heard more about this latter challenge from members of the Mt. Judea Area Alliance, whose members met in the basement of the town’s junior high in late January of 2024 as they worked on a plan for the eclipse. In addition to discussing buttons they bought to sell at the eclipse – “I blacked out in Mt. Judea, Arkansas,” the small circles say – they contemplate basic questions, starting with where two put two portable toilets they rented a year ago.
That’s not the only question that they must consider for the community that’s about 25 miles from the nearest Walmart on winding rural roads that are likely to be clogged with traffic.
“Another thing we’re trying to do is get it (the message) out to our elderly in our community,” said Sue Campbell, one of the meeting’s attendees. “To make sure they have plenty of groceries for those five days; plenty of their medicines.”
There are other questions, too. Should they sell bottled water? (Yes, it’s decided, and they discussed a plan to stock up on cases over the next few weeks.) They want to get the word out to local folks who might have wares to sell. Fried pies, created by a fifth-generation local woman, will be sold.
School has already been canceled for the day – specifically called off because of the eclipse, it’s said – where totality will arrive a little before 2 p.m.
Yet, the ultimate goal in Mt. Judea is hospitality.
“We want to leave people with a good impression of the community as opposed to, ‘There was no water, there was no bathroom,’” said one of the members.
A Second Celestial Event
Those are things that Trish Erzfeld agrees are important to consider. Erzfeld is the director of tourism in Perry County, Missouri, which is located along the eastern state line.
This isn’t her first eclipse. She was brand new in her role when one in 2017 passed over the county, one of few places in Missouri covered by totality in both celestial events.
“We thought of this a little differently than some communities do,” Erzfeld says of 2017 planning. “We didn’t think of this as a one-time, cash-cow kind of event. It wasn’t our thinking to say, ‘How much money can I make at this one-time event from these people who have never seen us before and may never come again?’
“Our thinking was we wanted people to come and see us, and see us for who we were. We did not charge for viewing sites, we did not charge for parking. Many of our events were free to the public because they were free to our community as well.”
They did sell solar glasses for $2 per pair. And ultimately, they did make money – about $50,000, she says – and drew 18,000-or-so visitors, an estimation made by cell phone data, and a figure that effectively doubled the county’s population.
“We had a plan, and we had a schedule. I know one person who came into our airport said, ‘Today the path of totality intersected with the path of hospitality,’” Erzfeld said. “As a tourism director, he just melted my heart because that is exactly what we wanted.”
The success took Erzfeld on the road, where in her estimation she’s spoken to between 20 and 30 groups about eclipse planning – in addition to planning for her own event in April.
The 2024 Perryville Solarfest, which also received Missouri tourism funding, builds on the 2017 model – make things good for locals, and others will come – with attractions like hot air balloon rides, planetarium shows and a foam party. Access to the event is expanded this year through the LightSound device, which allows individuals with low or no vision to participate through a series of auditory emissions. The higher the pitch, the brighter the sky.
“We’re taking our LightSound box and we’re plugging it into a sound system and making it more of a group experience,” Erzfeld says. “So those with vision impairments can experience it with their family and friends that they’ll be here with. It’s kind of a cool thing that we can kind of stretch our legs a little further and think of these all-inclusive things we can do for other folks.”
That enthusiasm builds on 2017 where, in Perry County, the effort to be good hosts paid off. The area has seen an increase in tourism, which Erzfeld attributes in part to the focus on dining destinations and local attractions – which include a full-scale, exact replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. and the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal.
“We did focus a whole day on just relaxing and going to our museums and our natural areas and exploring what we have here,” she said, and gave another example of growth: the local airport.
“We’re not a commercial airport, but we do have fuel and amenities there that people can utilize,” Erzfeld said, noting that the municipal airport was the one place they hoped the eclipse would affect. During the 2017 eclipse, the airport saw 147 planes – but the increase wasn’t limited to that one event.
“Now we have people that stop in and buy fuel. Our airport is full once again in six short years,” Erzeld said. “They are exploring opportunities to build on now.
“Was that all because of eclipse? I’m going to say probably a lot of hard work came from our economic development and city partners, but the eclipse was a huge voice screaming, ‘Hey, we’re here.’”
And regardless of their size, that Ozarks hospitality is a line that runs through communities. As one person put it in Mount Judea, “I just hope everybody has a good time and makes good memories.”
CORRECTION: This article was updated to correct the name of the Mt. Judea Area Alliance.
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