Ginger Murphy, deputy director for stewardship at the Indiana Department of Natural Resource’s Division of State Parks, said what makes this eclipse unusual is that it will cover such a large path through Indiana, starting down at the Ohio River near New Harmony and expanding all the way up to the eastern parts of the state, including Brookfield Lake and Ouabache State Park.
“This is a longer time period and a wider swath than many confluences are, so that makes it a good one to see. Folks across the state are going to see anything from a minute to four minutes, and Franklin is right there in the center of it at least four minutes,” Murphy said.
“We have 54 DNR properties that are in the path of totality, so we’re expecting lots of Hoosiers and lots of people from out of state,” she added.
Murphy said she expects the campgrounds to be full as campers from 45 states come to witness this big event. DNR properties will have telescopes available with solar filters for people to take a closer look at the eclipse.
“I think from a people’s perspective, there’s going to be a lot of people who join it together as a group. We are not doing music festivals or anything like that. We are focusing on the nature of the eclipse and what’s happening naturally, “ Murphy said.
Trenton Bush, director of marketing for Visit Muncie, said he believes the eclipse will attract 3.9 million out-of-state visitors. He believes between 100,000 and 200,000 people will show up in Delaware County for the eclipse.
“If the weather stays nice, for a town of 64,000 people, that would be incredible,” he said.
“We’re calling it “Experience the Magic in Muncie.” We used to call it the Magic Town during the oil boom, and the population increased because of that. And so we’ve rekindled that moniker,” Bush said.
Bush said there will be many special events and exhibits in Muncie during the eclipse, such as zip lines, a music fest with 13 bands, activities at the Academy of Model Aeronautics and a Darth Vader March.
In addition, he said people can visit some large parks in Muncie to view the eclipse, such as McCulloch Park and Prairie Creek Reservoir.
The city of Indianapolis expects 100,000 people to show up for the eclipse and has planned 60 eclipse-related events.
“Our city has had ample opportunity to learn from the experience of others in the past, and we want everyone to know what to expect as Indy experiences this incredibly rare event,” Mayor Joe Hogsett said in a press release.
The Indianapolis Cultural Trail is hosting the Indy Solar Stroll, which contains a scale model of the solar system that extends 1.3 miles along Virginia Avenue. The model includes visual representations of each planet along the route that are placed according to their distance from the sun.
“We’re excited to provide something new for people to experience the Cultural Trail and celebrate the upcoming solar eclipse with an activity that also gets people walking, bicycling and strolling around Indy’s cultural districts and neighborhoods,” said Karen Haley, executive director of the Indianapolis Cultural Trail, in a press release.
Vincennes is expected to have the longest totality of any other city in Indiana with four minutes and five seconds. Sarah Wolfe, eclipse director of Knox County, said Vincennes’ location in the center of the path makes it one of the state’s prime viewing locations.
“If you want to be the first to experience it here in Vincennes, we’re right on the line, we’re directly in the center of the path of totality,” Wolfe said.
Wolfe said she believes the weather is looking good heading into Monday’s event for viewing the eclipse.
“The other advantage we have is that we’re only showing a 20% chance of cloud cover on Monday. Also we’re one of the great deal of locations that offers a chance of a double-sided ring effect,” Wolfe said.
Website Sky & Telescope explains it this way: “The ‘diamond ring’ first appears 10 or more seconds before totality: a dazzling burst of light that clings to one edge of the Moon as the soft glow of the corona emerges from the background sky and silhouettes the opposite edge. Its striking resemblance to a diamond engagement ring is unmistakable. After totality, the effect is briefly visible once again.”
Two bursts of light at once mean a double diamond ring.
Wolfe said she believes the eclipse will bring between 50,000 and 75,000 people to the town of Vincennes and it will generate $6-15 million.
Many big events will also be held in Bloomington during the eclipse. Bloomington is another of the places offering one of the longest totalities: a little over four minutes.
“Star Trek” actor William Shatner, age 93, is coming to Bloomington to deliver spoken-word poetry, singer Janelle Monae will perform, and Mae Jemison, the first Black woman to go to space, will give a presentation at Memorial Stadium.
“For a college town, we’re a little bit of a bigger city. We have a lot of great amenities here. So we are expecting possibly 100,000 to 300,000 visitors depending on the weather and everything,” said Teal Strabbing, visitor services manager at Visit Bloomington.
“Something like this isn’t going to happen in this area for probably another 100 years. So most of our lifetime, we will never get to experience something like this again.”
