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MOUNTAIN HOME, Ark. — Moutain Home hosted people from all over to the eclipse.
“We started planning for this two years ago. I’m getting prepped and ready,” said Mountain Home Mayor Hillrey Adams as he made his latest round around the square in downtown Mountain Home.
As more and more people park and plant themselves in one of the several spots to watch a total eclipse, Adams himself can’t help but notice.
“We’ve been seeing a steady build-up of traffic here since Friday, for sure. It’s a great weather day. Couldn’t be any better for it,” Adams said.
“I’ve talked to people from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Alabama, a few Texans, California,” he said.
One of those Californians Adams speaks of could very well be Chris Schelin, who OzarksFirst spoke to at Hickory Park.
“I’m from the San Francisco Bay area of California, and I’m an amateur astronomer, so I’ve been really excited about the eclipse and looking forward to it,” Schelin said. “[I] needed to find a good place in the path of totality to get the full experience, and I found it in Mountain Home, Arkansas.”
Schelin flew into Branson, Missouri with his family, and brought his own equipment with him if others wanted to get a closer look at the sun.
“I have my Orion tabletop Reflector telescope with a solar filter on it so people can look through that and get a magnified view of the sun. Not only do they see the moon going across the sun, but they can see a few sunspots as well, and of course, we have solar eclipse glasses for more direct viewing,” Schelin adds.
Schlein said the whole family made the trip for one reason … Time.
“I’m going to be a lot older [when the next total eclipse happens] and it’s good to come out while I’m still pretty young and have this experience,” Schelin said. “When I’m older, it’s good to do it again, it’ll be great. I’m just glad to be able to do this and have my kids experience it at totality.”
Retired couple Margaret and Chuck Peterson drove from the Lawrence, Kansas area.
“We wanted to come down here to see it. We selected Mountain Home because my father was stationed at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho in the seventies,” Chuck says.
Margaret said she missed out on the eclipse in 2017.
“It was kind of a last minute trip. We just decided to come this way,” Margaret said.
As one of the crowds celebrated the minutes of totality, shortly after, OzarksFirst checked in with a Northwest Arkansas couple who experienced an eclipse for the first time.
“It was nothing like what we actually imagined it was going to be like. It was pretty impressive,” Bridgette and Kevin Folsom said. “It was cool to feel the temperature change, then it get dark and then actually getting to see it. I think was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. Definitely was not expecting what we saw. It was really, really cool.”
They made the trip similar for the same reason as Schelin.
“For me and my family, it was it was super important. It was really important for us to experience that,” The Folsoms said. “You never know where you’re going to be in the next 20 years. So you want to see it when you get a chance here, and it was super close to home, so why not travel to go check it out?”
Mayor Adams hopes the small investment from tourists in the area bodes well for returning visitors, while also excited to see what the economic boost has on his city.
“It’s just amazing what three, three and a half minutes of darkness attracts the number of people. The people [might be] here just for a few short days right now, but hopefully they’re going to like this area and come back in the future,” Adams said. “One of the things I’m looking forward to the most is when our sales tax numbers for this week, [later this year], we’re anticipating a very, very large impact.”
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