The Great North American Eclipse is coming Monday, April 8, 2024, and almost 95 percent of Arkansas will be in the dark around 1 p.m. on that day.
As White River Now’s Gary Bridgman noted in a June 15 post, the state will be one of the most ideal places to view the eclipse.
“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.”
With Batesville in the viewing path of the eclipse, tourism in the area is expected to be heavy.
Kimberly Williams, a project manager for the 2024 Great American Eclipse for Arkansas Tourism, will be Batesville Mayor Rick Elumbaugh’s special guest at the mayor’s monthly community meeting Thursday, Dec. 1, to discuss how the eclipse will affect the region in terms of tourism as well as how the state is gearing up for the once-in-a-lifetime event.
The Batesville mayor’s monthly community meetings are open to the public and are held at The River Waterfront Steak & Grill, 50 Riverbank Road, in Batesville. The event will be held from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
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