For generations, visitors to Maine have flocked to Maine's rocky coastline with its lobster boats and crashing waves to the east, or its ski resorts, tranquil lakes and mountains to the west. Aroostook County is a remote area in the north, and those who set foot in the county tend to suspect — and not without reason — that residents south of Bangor don't even know they exist. There aren't many.
So the news that “The County,” as Maine is known, will be in the midst of next month's total solar eclipse, potentially drawing thousands of tourists to this proud and unassuming place, is caused mixed emotions. Some county residents, accustomed to ceding the spotlight to glamorous places like Bar Harbor, aren't sure how they feel about Bar Harbor's fleeting status as a place.
“It's a little bit new for us here, so it's stressful,” said Lindsay Anderson, manager of Brookside Bakery in Halton, a town of 6,000 people on the Canadian border. Plans for the town's eclipse weekend include baking 500 whoopie pies, an official statement from the state of Maine said. handle. “
It's a small shop next door to Market Square Antiques and Pawns, watched over by several deer heads on horseback, but co-owner Tom Willard has his own problems. .
“Where do 20,000 people pee?” he asked.
No one knows how many people will be in Aroostook County for the April 8 solar eclipse, and planning can be a bit of a roulette game. Estimates are that between 10,000 and 40,000 people will take part, but the distance may reduce participation. Stretching north beyond the end of Interstate 95 to the Canadian border, where the little-known battleless Aroostook War of 1838-1839 broke out, the county borders Rhode Island and Connecticut. It is about the same size as the combined. Caribou, near the northern pinnacle, is 600 miles north of Boston, more than a six-hour drive.
However, for eclipse enthusiasts, that may not be a problem. Dan McGlone, 60, who has witnessed 15 solar eclipses and runs a website dedicated to next month's solar eclipse, once traveled to French Polynesia and spent 1.5 hours “ He said he once walked “eight miles through the trees to the middle of nowhere.” Sec – according to his own estimation, the only person on Earth who is in the path of a solar eclipse.
“Eclipse nerds, we're a strange bunch,” he admitted.
Northern Maine is not the only remote area of the country expected to see an influx. The trail also crosses areas such as the Ozark Islands, the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, and parts of South Texas, all of which are hoping to capitalize on the fleeting attention.
In Aroostook County, where potato farms are abundant and practicality is paramount, stories like McGraw's only heighten public alarm. It's inevitable that the solar eclipse would occur during northern New England's notorious mud season, when the molten earth turns into tire-sucking mud and unsuspecting motorists from “far away” swerve on country roads. Concerns grow that they might become stranded and have to be pulled out of the car. .
Also to no avail was the last major event in August 1997, when the band Phish held an outdoor concert festival at the former air force base in Limestone, a town of 1,500 people, which drew 65,000 fans. It is a memory of a large-scale influx. Local residents, who had scoffed at expectations of attendees, were caught off guard when people actually showed up, causing traffic jams and emptying grocery store shelves. (“They looked like locusts,'' one county resident recalled.)
When talk of an eclipse began two years ago, given the decades-long population exodus, some doubted the crowd's predictions again. That's when the Houlton City Eclipse Committee sprung into action, convincing the town that it needed to start planning and taking advantage of the fact that it would be the last town in America.
“The biggest challenge was that people didn't take it seriously. They said, 'What's the big deal? Three minutes of darkness? Who's going to come here for that?'” said Johanna Johnston, lead organizer of the solar eclipse event. “We had to explain to them that this is something they have never experienced before and that this is an opportunity to show them what we can do and what we can offer.”
Many companies are seizing this opportunity. Ivy's Motor Lodge in Houlton has received its first solar eclipse reservation for 2022, its manager said. Hotels realized what was happening, tripled their rates for pre- and post-eclipse nights, and tightened their cancellation policies. Most hotels in the area are fully booked for the event, but Ivey's still had rooms available earlier this month. Probably because I was being charged $650 per night.
Keeping in mind that their 15 minutes of fame lasts only 3 minutes and 18 seconds (the total phase, where the moon completely blocks the sun, begins at 3:32 p.m. in Houlton), the eclipse commissioners The group planned a four-day event. The festival aims to get travelers to arrive well in advance of the main event and keep coming back.
The town has six “Star Parks” designated for eclipse viewing, and a crew of welcoming “eclipse ambassadors” to provide guidance. Some churches plan to serve traditional Maine dinners, including baked beans and chowder, to feed crowds if restaurants become crowded.
Jane Torres, executive director of the Houlton Chamber of Commerce, took the opportunity to hire a performance art troupe from Rhode Island to assist couples looking to get married in the city during the eclipse. , helped arrange a NASA broadcast at the historic downtown movie theater. We filmed a solar eclipse moving across the country and enlisted the help of a yoga teacher to fill a “metaphysical tent” with tarot card readers and healing demonstrations.
She also rented 100 portable toilets, a number she admitted is hopeful.
“The challenge is the unknown,” Torres said.
The biggest unknown is the weather in northern Maine in early April. Of the 15 states in the total path, Maine has the lowest chance of clear skies and the highest chance of snow. This is what is likely to cause hardcore eclipse enthusiasts, known as umbraphiles, to move to areas with less cloud cover. probably. (Ironically, the name Aroostook is probably derived from the native Mi'kmaq word, meaning “clear.”)
There's a 60 to 70 percent chance of cloudy weather during the eclipse, said Priscilla Buster, a meteorologist with the Caribou National Weather Service.
“The situation here doesn't look good for us,” she said.
Because of the cloud threat, Linda Mitchell canceled a hotel reservation in western Maine (part of Franklin County, which is fully affected) and booked a flight to Texas instead.
“We may have great weather in Maine, but I don't trust the weather,” she said. “I'm not really into bucket lists, but this will never happen again in my lifetime.”
Still, the Houlton eclipse committee is on guard. That hope was recently buoyed by an article describing scientists observing an “eclipse cooling effect” in which clouds dissipate as the sun darkens and temperatures drop.
Kevin McCartney, a retired geology professor at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, plans to focus on a different sun on the day of the eclipse. That morning, he plans to unveil a new 40-foot-tall 3D model of the sun at the campus entrance. Serving as the new northern terminus of the main solar system model, it is a vast roadside attraction established 20 years ago along 160 miles of Route 1 in rural Aroostook County, and is based on the actual distances from each other. “Planets” are arranged at intervals proportional to . In space.
“Ready to travel the solar system from the comfort of your car?” its website asks.
McCartney said it is the largest model of its kind in the Western Hemisphere and a top tourist attraction in the county, attracting families and “believe it or not, solar system model enthusiasts.” The new sun, visible from Route 1, is easier to spot than the old two-dimensional sun painted on a wall inside the university's science museum and shines even when the county's skies are cloudy.
“People are always wandering around campus asking, 'Where is the sun?'” he says. “Now they won't be able to miss it.”