I traveled to Greenville on Monday to walk in those same footsteps and be as close to the centerline of totality for the eclipse as I could get.
Although Tecumseh and his brother reportedly predicted an eclipse, I’m sure they and their followers were in awe when the sun disappeared.
People staged at the Darke County Fairgrounds on Monday had those same feelings after watching the totality of the eclipse for close to four minutes.
“You knew it was coming, but wow what a show!” said Brenda Edwards, who traveled to Darke County from Winchester, Virginia to watch the eclipse with her parents, Curt and Ann Mayrand of Centerville.
Tom Brown of Van Wert, Ohio, a retired teacher, celebrated the eclipse sharing smoked Old Fashioned drinks from his makeshift bar with his fellow Airstream campers as he demonstrated using a metal strainer how the eclipse turned circle shadows into ovals.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
“That was something, wasn’t it? Well worth the price of admission. Mother Nature did not disappoint,” Brown said.
The beginning
Just before 2 p.m., we began seeing the moon causing a partial eclipse of the sun.
Parents yelled out to their children to put on their glasses and watch what was happening. Children could be heard screaming with oohs and aahs as they witnessed the start of the eclipse.
Tammy and Anthony Stratton left their Lawrenceburg, Kentucky home around 5 a.m. Monday and picked up their grandson, Eli Brock, in Liberty Twp. on their way to Darke County, where a “Darke Side of the Moon” celebration was planned.
“We just wanted our grandson to witness this so he’ll remember it forever,” Tammy said as she adjusted her grandson’s protective eye glasses.
Around 2:30 p.m., the moon had traveled nearly halfway across the sun. Children were a little more restless and looking a their cell phones more than the eclipse. Parents could be heard saying, “It’s time to live in the moment.”
The weather was perfect with warm temperatures and a limited amount of clouds. Dani Brown of Anderson Twp. near Cincinnati sat in a chair wearing shorts and a T-shirt with her mother, Karen Brown.
“We wanted to be a part of something that we’ll remember forever,” Dani Brown said.
Emotional event
Just before 3 p.m., the eclipse chasers became a little more emotional as the moon was more than three quarters across the sun.
Couples embraced and families put their arms around each other as the Rollings Stones’ “Gimme Shelter” was playing in the background.
“I can feel goosebumps on my arm,” said Linda Yakshe of Plymouth, Minnesota.
Linda and her husband, Paul, a retired gastroenterologist, planned their trip to Darke County a year ago. They stayed in a hotel in Mason near relatives but wanted to be in a low population area to witness the eclipse.
When Ron Kelemen of Salem, Oregon was asked what to expect when the total solar eclipse arrived, he laughed and said, “I would be doing a disservice describing it to you. When you see it, it will set off emotions you didn’t know you had.”
Ron, a retired a financial advisor, traveled 2,220 miles with his wife, Kathy, to be near the center path of totality. They drove through snow and strong winds over nine days to reach Darke County.
“We witnessed a solar eclipse in 2017 in Oregon and wanted to see it again here,” said Kathy, who travels with her husband six weeks out of the year in their Airstream trailer.
Around 2:50 p.m. when there was sliver of the sun left to see, the daylight was more of glow. Children yelled out, “I can see it,” not knowing what they were about to witness totality.
The beginning of darkness
After 3 p.m., the shadows from the large oak trees in the fairgrounds had more of a curve to them and the temperature began to drop considerably. People looked at their shadows and noticed how small they seemed.
At 3:07 p.m. it began getting considerably darker and children ran around waving their lit cell phones in the darkness.
I have witnessed several Kentucky Derby races live at Churchill Downs in Louisville and what they say is true: It’s the most exciting 2 minutes of your life you will experience.
But starting after 3:08 p.m., I witnessed an extraordinary natural event in double that time that I’ll never forget.
When the moon fully eclipsed the sun, the screams of joy from people in attendance could be heard from across the fairgrounds. There were howls, screams of joy and laughter.
The fairgrounds went almost completely dark. You could not hear a bird chirp. And then came a 360-degree sunrise scene.
Without eclipse glasses and a closer look through my camera, I saw the solar corona during totality. A “diamond ring” surrounded the moon. A minute later, there was a pinkish or deep purple ring around the moon caused by the sun.
It was a quick four minutes, and I and hundreds of others never took our eyes off the eclipse.
Then the sun reappeared as the moon moved away, and a celebration of community began among those who witnessed it.
Dave Yolton of Blacksburg, Virginia told me on Sunday as he walked the same land Tecumseh walked at the Shawnee Prairie Reserve outside of Greenville that he wanted to be near where the Indian chief had built a community of followers during the eclipse.
Kat Hibbard, a retired accountant for a large beekeeping company in Benzoia, Michigan, told me the same thing on Monday: “Being in a community of people who are welcoming has made this all the greater.”
Ron Kelemen caught up with me afterwards and said, “I told you I couldn’t describe it better than what you witnessed.”
He was right. It was an extraordinary event and one that leaves a taste for more.
Rich Gillette is a Dayton Daily News managing editor.
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