Backwoods Blog .164

HOULTON ECLIPSE

Backwoods Blog;

in the woods and on the road…

Total Solar Eclipse ’24 Houlton, Maine

Total Solar Eclipse ’24 was the biggest thing to happen in Houlton since “The Great Phish Migration” back in the late 1990s when the Vermont-based jam band Phish came for a series of concerts at the former Loring Air Force Base in Limestone, Maine. The Phish traffic flow of 70,000 concert goers mostly missed the Houlton downtown as travelers took the Houlton exit and then headed north up Route 1. At one point traffic was backed up 42 miles all the way from Limestone to the Houlton exit. I remember Phish-Heads pitching tents in the middle of the traffic median overnight and taking over any available parking lot. As Houlton prepared for the Total Solar Eclipse event, comparisons to the Phish concert were common, along with the recurring question of “How many people do you think will show up?” The best guess from event organizers, eclipse chasers and town officials was 10,000 to 40,000 attendees depending on a confounding number of circumstances and the weather forecast. Hotels and lodging were totally booked from Caribou to Bangor, so those provided some solid numbers, but how many more would come?

As it turned out, the crowds arrived slowly. On Friday it was lightly snowing (which probably didn’t help). Foot traffic was slow in the downtown, below expectations, and continued so into Saturday with modest attendance at various events around town. But that was about to change. The forecast had come out calling for clear skies, 50 degrees and 100% visibility on Monday for the eclipse. Suddenly, Houlton was one of the best spots in the country from Texas to Maine to view the total solar eclipse! Since serious eclipse chasers base everything on the best viewing forecasts, we knew the crowds were on their way. The major news networks and NASA covered the eclipse from downtown Market Square and the crowds, did indeed, show up under bright sunny skies with no clouds in sight. Estimated crowd size was 20,000 as the perfect score forecast certainly boosted the numbers. For one day, Houlton, Maine made the national news.

Personally, it was my first experience of a total solar eclipse, or what’s know as “totality.” Initially, I must admit, I downplayed the importance of clear skies and the role of the short range weather forecast. But now that I’ve experienced it, I can see why people go out of their way to get to the best viewing location possible. The clear view of totality is everything. People talk about totality as a life-altering experience, transformative or transcendent. While it is deeply personal, and each individual has their own specific experience of totality, I was amazed at how quick people were to comment about their experience when asked. I had the sense that you could literally walk up to anyone in the town of Houlton that day, ask them about what they had just experienced and have an engaging exchange. What I remember is everyone looking up at the sky at the same time. In our increasingly mechanized and artificial world, nature can sometimes sit quietly in the background without being noticed. A total solar eclipse gets our attention and places the focus on nature at large; the sun, the moon, the planets in motion and the extended cosmos beyond. You could literally stare down the sun directly for three minutes and eighteen seconds and not back off. You could feel the temperature drop as the moon occluded the sun, see the corona and then experience the return. Having directly experienced totality I am no longer the same person. I’m calling myself an eclipse person now. I’m not sure if I’ll travel all the way to Iceland or Spain in ’26 for the next total solar eclipse, but for now, let’s just say, “We’ll see…”

The eclipse episodes continue,

Dave

May 22, 2024