August 25, 2017
CapitalPress.com
5
Eclipse
Thousands turn
out for E. Idaho
eclipse event in
extinct volcano
on farm ground
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
MENAN, Idaho — The
Aug. 21 total solar eclipse
provided Randy South and
his family a higher purpose
for the extinct tuff volcano on
their farm.
They’ve produced a few
meager hay crops on the 55
acres of farmable ground
within the volcano’s crater.
But South explained there’s
no way to get water inside
the volcano, so his family has
used it mostly for recreation
— riding dirt bikes and sled-
ding down the 500-foot-tall
rim, which has a 2-mile cir-
cumference.
The volcano, however,
provided the ideal setting for
paying visitors from through-
out the world to experience
the eclipse. The South family,
partnering with their neigh-
bors, the Gundersons, start-
ed a website called Crater
Adventures promoting the
chance to witness the eclipse
from a unique setting amid
the path of totality.
An estimated 4,500 visitors
from nearly every state and
25 foreign countries showed
up to watch the eclipse from
the volcano’s rim. Most of the
visitors paid up to $30 per ve-
hicle for eclipse parking and
were shuttled to the volcano’s
rim to view the rare celestial
event.
About 535 carloads of
guests paid $150 for RV sites
and $75 for tent sites to camp
for up to four days in hay
fields at the volcano’s base.
South said the farmer who
leases his family’s hay fields
harvested early, and the re-
growth provided good turf
for campsites. More than 200
campers participated in an
Aug. 18 Dutch oven chicken
dinner for $20 extra, which
included sweet corn raised by
the Gundersons.
South isn’t certain how
much revenue the event gen-
erated, factoring in costs of a
special insurance policy and
shuttle van and portable toilet
rentals.
“Our goal was not to make
money necessarily,” South
said. “Our goal was to have
fun and have a fun experi-
ence.”
The families also invited
their guests, as well as the
community, to a free Idaho fry
feed on Aug. 20. They served
about 700 trays of fries, and
Rexburg-based Wilcox Fresh
donated more fries when sup-
plies ran out.
Elsewhere in Eastern Ida-
ho, Idaho Falls Farmers’ Mar-
ket manager Junean Stoddard
extended her normal Saturday
market by two hours. She said
some vendors sold out of their
produce before the market
even started, based on bigger
orders from local restaurants.
Richard Johnson, owner of
Grove City Gardens in Black-
foot, sold sweet corn from his
farm as Mexican crazy corn at
Rigby’s Moon Fest.
Though sales were less
than Johnson anticipated,
he was pleased by the added
exposure for his Wild Adven-
ture Corn Maze, as well as his
food booth at the upcoming
Eastern Idaho State Fair.
James Hoff, an Idaho po-
tato commissioner, said his
family’s side business, which
fuels private aircraft at the
Idaho Falls Regional Airport,
also noticed extra traffic, fu-
eling about 40 light aircraft
and 80 corporate airplanes in
town to view the eclipse.
Rebecca Squires, emer-
gency manager for Jefferson
County, said eclipse crowds
were big, but not as large
as officials had anticipated.
Squires said more visitors
than anticipated came just
for the day, from as far away
as California, and there were
no significant eclipse-related
problems.
Squires said her county
has implemented a burning
ban, which also covers agri-
cultural burning, from Aug.
14-26, based on the eclipse
traffic.
Lee Juillerat/For the Capital Press
The moon blots out the sun during the total eclipse that was seen in such out of the way places as tiny Camp Sherman, Ore.
Eclipse brings crowds to tiny town in Oregon
By LEE JUILLERAT
For the Capital Press
CAMP SHERMAN, Ore.
— Surreal darkness accompa-
nied the steady drop in tem-
perature.
Excited shouts echoed
from the neighboring homes,
open fields and nearby unseen
viewing places where others
watched. All of them waiting,
waiting, waiting for totality, the
moment the moon would cover
the sun.
The process that began
from our eclipse viewing place
in Camp Sherman shortly after
9 Monday morning seemed to
suddenly accelerate.
Within a half-hour what be-
gan as a tiny nibble on the sun’s
northern flank had gobbled
about half its surface. Wearing
our special eclipse glasses we
watched, excitingly barking a
series of whoops and wows.
Within another 15 min-
utes what remained of the sun
looked like a Cheshire cat’s
narrowing grin.
Alternating bands of light
shimmered as the coverage
continued. Points of light —
Baily’s beads — appeared
as streams of sunlight rolled
across the moon.
Then, split seconds before
totality, oohs and aahs echoed
as the diamond ring effect
briefly but brilliantly glowed
around the blackening moon.
Shortly after 10 — no one
was watching the time too
closely — the moon fully cov-
ered the sun.
Totality.
Everyone cheered, some
focused on the moment, others
madly clicking away photos on
cameras and cell phones.
The corona, a bluish white
glow, emitted an ethereal fluo-
rescent hue, its intensity seem-
ingly evolving each second.
With totality, stars magical-
ly appeared, but the brightest
point of light was the steady,
brilliant glow of the planet Ve-
nus.
It lasted only about a min-
ute, but the impact of totality
was, well, totally involving.
Actually, the experience was
days in the making. Friends and
I had arrived in Camp Sherman,
a small community near Bend,
on Saturday, wanting to miss
the feared bumper-to-bumper
traffic. Tucked away in forest-
lands near the Metolius River,
the community — like others
in Central Oregon — had been
preparing for the invasion for
months.
The Camp Sherman Store
was ready with eclipse glasses,
T-shirts and other souvenirs. Its
owners organized impromptu
dinners outside the store Sat-
urday and Sunday nights. Pop-
ular trails along the Metolius
River, called by some Oregon’s
most magical river, and camp-
grounds swelled with hikers
and campers.
On Sunday morning, sea-
sonal and year-around resi-
dents were joined by visitors
like Steve, Allen and me for a
special “Egg-lipse” pancake
breakfast at the community
hall.
Camp Sherman has a his-
tory. The first homesteaders
arrived in 1891, mostly wheat
farmers and their families from
high desert areas of Sherman
County seeking to escape the
summer heat to camp, hike and
fish along the Metolius. The
Forest Service began leasing
lands along the river for sum-
mer residences in 1916.
Legend says Camp Sher-
man got its name in unusual
fashion. To guide other farm-
ers to the community, it’s said
someone hammered a shoebox
to a tree at a fork in the road
with the name, “Camp Sher-
man.” The name stuck.
While others stacked nearly
side-by-side in freshly harvest-
ed fields in and near the sud-
denly populated cities of Ma-
dras and Prineville — dubbed
by some television networks
as the nation’s best region for
eclipse viewing — we and oth-
ers savored the experience with
a smattering of old and new
friends. And even as the moon
gradually yielded sunlight, we
knew that — like millions of
others across the nation — we
had shared a mystical experi-
ence, not only the moment the
sun disappeared, but the eterni-
ty of a memory.
Courtesy photo
Eclipse viewers prepare for the Aug. 21 event at Kelley Orchards
in Weiser, Idaho. Ron and Kimi Kelley allowed about 20 eclipse
tourists to experience the event for free in their orchard.
Farmers say total eclipse
was an incredible experience
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
REXBURG, Idaho —
Idaho farmers in the solar
eclipse’s path of totality —
that area where the moon
blocked out 100 percent of the
sun — reported minor incon-
veniences, mostly related to
traffic.
Or, in at least one in-
stance, Canadian tourists who
thought it would be a good
idea to set up their eclipse
viewing camp in the middle of
a newly planted mustard field.
But those farmers also said
the event was an awesome ex-
perience.
“I’ve never seen anything
like it in my life. It was real-
ly spectacular,” said Rexburg
fresh potato grower Lynn Wil-
cox. “It’s an event that I’ll re-
member all the rest of my life
and I’m glad I took the time
to see it.”
Wilcox shut down his po-
tato packing facility in Rex-
burg for the day because of
the anticipated traffic conges-
tion and rented out viewing
space on the property to 131
vehicles.
“Everybody that stayed
there thought it was just awe-
some,” he said.
When they awoke Friday
morning, members of the
Searle family in Shelley no-
ticed vehicle tracks running
through a mustard field they
had planted three days before.
A.J. Searle followed the
tracks and asked the culprits,
Canadians who thought the
field was a good place to en-
joy their eclipse viewing ex-
perience, if they were stuck.
“They said, ‘No, we’re
fine,’” he said.
When Searle informed
them otherwise, the group left
with no problems.
Other than that unwelcome
incursion, he said the eclipse
was remarkable.
“It was amazing; absolute-
ly incredible,” he said. “It was
definitely a once-in-a-lifetime
thing.”
Stan Searle, part of a dif-
ferent Searle farming fam-
ily in Shelley, said he had
planned to be cutting grain
during the day of the eclipse
but there was too much traffic
to do that.
Traffic on the country roads
near his farm was too congest-
ed to move grain trucks.
Two hours after the eclipse,
traffic on those roads was still
backed up and moving about 2
mph, he said.
Stan Searle thought the
event was spectacular but he
was also happy to see it end.
“We want it to get over with
so we can go back to work,” he
said.
Across the state in Weiser,
Kimi Kelley and her husband
Ron shared the total eclipse
experience with about 20 tour-
ists they allowed to camp out
in their orchard for free.
The group included some
astronomers who shared pow-
erful telescopes they brought
with them.
“It was really amazing,”
Kelley said of the experience.
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