Eclipse darkens skies and brings crowds to Northern Vermont

Solar eclipe from 2017. Image Credit: State Farm

The sky went dark on Monday, April 8, as a total solar eclipse struck Winooski and the rest of Northern Vermont for the first time since the 1930s.

“A total eclipse is quite a rare phenomena, especially in a particular place,” said Joe Comeau, vice president of the Vermont Astronomical Society. “In northern Vermont, we’re right in it.”

John Perry, a senior lecturer in physics with expertise in astrophysics at the University of Vermont, said that waiting for a total eclipse of the sun to “come to you,” would require waiting “about 360,370 years on average.”

“Some places get lucky and have more often,” Perry said. “Others are just unlucky and haven’t seen one in 1000 years.”

In addition to local observers, large numbers of tourists entered Chittenden County. Ahead of the event, Burlington City Arts festival and event director Zach Williamson, said the city was preparing for an uncommon number of tourists.

“30,000 is on the low end,” Williamson said. “If it’s a sunny day and there’s a great time to come to the state, we are thinking there could be more like 50 to 70,000 people here.”

Secretary of Transportation Joe Flynn said in a press conference that his department estimated about 160,000 visitors traveled to Vermont by car, according to a report from Vermont Public’s Corey Dockser. Chittenden County has a population of about 169,000, per the US Census Bureau’s last count.

Essex Junction resident Holly Biracree said that passengers on her flight were offered $1,200 incentives to take a later flight the day before the eclipse. 

“The plane was very overcrowded, and they needed people to volunteer,” Biracree said. “My friend actually stayed back, and I went because I didn’t want to miss this.”

Biracree said her friend had “just landed,” making it in time for the eclipse.

“I think she probably just wants to get home,” Biracree said.

Williamson said this wave of tourism was both “a good thing and a bad thing.”

“It’s an awesome boost for the economy,” Williamson said. “We don’t normally have hotel occupancy rates at this level in April by any stretch of the imagination.”

On the other hand, Williamson said, there are fewer resources available and already set up like there would be in the summer.

“We are really kind of getting out the lawn furniture for a big party when you haven’t even gotten it out of the garage yet.” Williamson said.

Williamson said the city has been working on preparations for about a year to make the event work during Vermont’s “mud season.”

Williamson said the city has been working with the local hotel community and the short-term rental alliance, and preparing for “a lot of traffic and cars.” They’ve also been in communication with the Vermont department of tourism, department of transportation and emergency management.

Traffic was a major concern on the day of the eclipse, with a long line of cars exiting Vermont by day’s end.

Luke from Richmond, who declined to give his last name, traveled fifteen miles to Essex Junction to see the eclipse with his family. 

“Take the back roads back to Richmond, won’t be too bad for me, but people traveling further probably have a lot to deal with,” Luke said.

The ECHO, Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, a Burlington science and nature museum, instituted a timed-ticketing policy to compensate for demand.

Nicole Bova, ECHO’s director of development, said ticketing had to be closed due to “overwhelming desire.”

In an email, Bova said that ECHO has sold about 1,050 tickets.

Billy Ernest, ECHO’s public program’s manager, said ECHO has been preparing for Monday's eclipse as far back as the last contiguous one in 2017.

“We learned a lot of things about how excited people can get about the eclipse, even though Burlington wasn’t in totality,” Ernest said. “We started making plans then.”

The bulk of the planning took two years, according to Ernest, with the creation of exhibits and “general logistics plans.”

While the city prepared designated viewing sites, Vermonters like found their own ways to mark the occasion.

“We’re at a retirement place in Shelburne, Vermont, so I’ve got telescopes set up there,” Comeau said. “There are about three, four hundred people that will be able to participate in eclipse activities on that day.”

Comeau said other members of the Vermont Astronomical society are “scattered all over the place,” some at local libraries “to deal with questions on the eclipse.”

Williamson said that the eclipse would be “the most watched cosmic event ever in the world’s history.”

“35 million people are expected to watch this eclipse from a totality experience in the course of this day,” Williamson said. “It’s a huge event across our country.”

The eclipse in Vermont was a singular event, which likely won’t repeat for decades. While it only lasted about three minutes, its effect on the community was strong.

“When you think about the time that we’re going to see it and the time spent planning, it can kind of sound crazy,” Bova said. “It’s just something that you most likely will not see again in your lifetime, and I think that kind of makes it all worth it.”