No one was certain how much interest Hopkinsville could muster for a partial solar eclipse just outside the path of totality — an event that might seem lackluster compared to the town’s center-of-the-world Eclipseville status in 2017.
The folks at Hopkinsville’s visitor center got their answer first thing Monday morning when a line formed at the front door an hour before they were set to open, said executive director Amy Rogers.
No one could have been happier than Rogers, who recently earned a promotion to lead the tourism agency.
“I love this,” she said, standing on the front lawn of the visitor center, where people had set up lawn chairs and blankets.
Several dozen people spent a few hours on the grounds for Monday’s partial eclipse. And thanks to a fortuitous parting of some gray clouds that hung over Hopkinsville, everyone with eclipse glasses was able to track the moon passing over the sun from 12:44 to 3:19 p.m.
The scarcity of eclipse glasses was a good indication of the local interest.
The visitor center sold out of its first supply of several hundred glasses late last week, so Rogers placed an order for another 100 pairs at the close of business Friday.
Then she had to track down the delivery Monday morning to ensure the glasses were on hand for last-minute shoppers. Unfortunately, at the moment Rogers needed them, the box was on a mail truck making residential delivers a few miles across town.
Rogers called a friend at the post office, who in turn connected her with their carrier. After another quick call, Rogers jumped in her car, met the mail truck and collected the package.
“Talk about in the nick of time …,” she said. “It just worked perfectly.”
That’s the thing about an eclipse. Time is crucial. The last box of glasses had sold out by the time the moon started to inch across the sun. In all, the visitor center sold 693 glasses and donated roughly 100 more to local hotels, Rogers told Hoptown Chronicle.
Compared to 2017, this eclipse was a laid-back affair in Hopkinsville. There was a lot of reminiscing about the last eclipse, when more than 100,000 tourists poured into the community and numerous news outlets covered the event.
Several of the eclipse gazers wore T-shirts they’d saved from 2017.
The Museums of Historic Hopkinsville-Christian County set up a display of 2017 artifacts, including a huge banner signed seven years by hundreds of locals and tourists.
A museum employee gave out chocolate moon pies, and two food trucks served barbecue and Mexican fare for lunch. A gourmet popcorn vendor added a county fair vibe to the scene.
This time the show in the sky was less dramatic, but it attracted a little crowd — and no one had to fight for elbow room or a parking space.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
