By Gary Bridgman, White River Now
When the Great North American Total Solar Eclipse occurs on April 8, 2024, one of the most ideal places to view it will be in Arkansas.
An eclipse is when the Earth, Sun, and Moon align. The Earth covers all of the Sun’s rays and the Moon appears dark as it passes through the Earth’s shadow. During this eclipse, the Moon’s dark central shadow will form a 115-mile corridor across Mexico that will sweep northeast through Texas through the middle of Arkansas, up to Maine, and then darken the Canadian Maritimes.
The corridor crossing the middle two-thirds of Arkansas — from the southwest to the northeast, from Texarkana and De Queen through Little Rock and Conway, Russellville, Clinton, Mountain View, Batesville, Melbourne, Pocahontas, and on out of Arkansas — will be the place one needs to be to experience the 100% solar eclipse.
In the north central section of the state, the full eclipse view will be from just south of Newport to south of Harrison, so if you live in Heber Springs, Batesville, Mountain View, Newport, Melbourne, Mountain Home, and a host of other small towns in this region, you’ll get the full view.
In Batesville, for example, you will get to view the total eclipse for four minutes and 2.2 seconds. If you’re in Mountain View, it’ll be four minutes and 13.7 seconds.
It will be another 21 years, in 2045, before another total eclipse occurs over North America.
The real deal to me will be the major impact it will have on Arkansas’ economy. An estimated 3.5 million visitors are projected to visit to the state — with 25,000 to 30,000 visitors coming to Batesville alone.
Imagine: a state’s population doubling for a few days in early April 2024. A region needs to prepare for that.
In fact, the Batesville Area Chamber of Commerce has already formed a task force to work on the expected influx of visitors. And, I believe another area that can reap a huge benefit will be Mountain View.
For more information on the 2024 eclipse, visit a page from Ozark Gateway dedicated to the event by clicking here.
The Great North American Total Solar Eclipse’s path across Arkansas
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