A once-in-a-lifetime event

• TRIBUNE PHOTO / LINCOLN OGLESBY
• (Above) Local students gathered outdoors to view the total eclipse Monday. (Right) Vendors set up shop during the weekend-long events. For more photos of the events, see page 14. COURTESY PHOTO
• TRIBUNE PHOTO / NICOLE KIMBALL

On Monday, April 8, 2024, precisely at 1:40 p.m., Mount Pleasant went dark. The solar eclipse engulfed the small town, turning day into night for us and other areas of Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and several other states. The last time a total solar eclipse happened in North America was 1979.

Though the eclipse itself was just one day, people came from all over to be in the totality zone and make a mini-vacation of the event. Mount Pleasant saw travelers from states like Colorado, Florida, Georgia, and Hawaii. It wasn’t just Americans who dropped in, a couple from the United Kingdom flew all the way here, just for the eclipse.

Mike and Claire Mather are from Davenham, a small village in the Cheshire County of northern England. They flew to Houston earlier in the week, explored Galveston, then drove up to Mount Pleasant to stay at the KOA for the eclipse. Claire said, “This was a once-ina- lifetime opportunity for us. There’s one in Europe in two years, but it’s nowhere near as good as this one. And this town is lovely, it hides lots of little treasures.”

In the aftermath of the eclipse, the coordinator for Great Eclipse 2024, Kellye Cooper, said, “Everything turned out far better than I ever imagined. Everyone was so happy and excited and the scavenger hunt was a huge success. All the businesses I talked to had a great weekend.”

Cooper, along with a dozen other local businesses, organized this downtown event in three weeks. In that time, they were able to get at least twenty other businesses involved, put together a scavenger hunt on the town square, gathered the food trucks, a car show, and musicians for live music.

Owner of Best Kids Afterschool and Summer Camp, Shea Taylor, said, “It was so pleasing to see people walking around downtown, proclaiming how much fun they had and how cool it was to visit stores they didn’t even know existed.”

It wasn’t just downtown that was full of energy. There was also an I-30 Block Party hosted by JoJack’s Smokehouse, Mayben Realty, and Holiday Inn. Besides the tantalizing smell of barbecue, they lured in eclipse excitement with live music from Cole Scroggins, Zapman Productions, David Levee, and Covie. There was also face-painting with the MPHS Tiger Dolls, cornhole, and margaritas to go around.