BoCo chamber making plans for 2024 eclipse

The countdown is on. The Great American Eclipse is only four years, two months and a handful of days away, and Bollinger County will be at the center of it.

"It will be here before we know it," Bollinger County Chamber of Commerce President Becky Wiginton said. "Outside of being one of the places under totality the longest in Missouri, our community has a lot to offer for eclipse viewers. We are rural, we lack the city hustle and bustle, we do not have a lot of big buildings and traffic to distract the view, and an eclipse is a natural event and makes people want to get back to nature, which is why they are attracted to campgrounds and rural areas."

According to the interactive eclipse path using Google maps found on NASA's website, eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov, parts of Bollinger County will be under totality for more than four minutes, Wiginton said, indicating that duration of totality is four minutes, 10.5 seconds in Zalma; four minutes, 10.1 seconds in Leopold; four minutes, 9.6 seconds in Marble Hill; four minutes, 7.7 seconds in Grassy; and three minutes, 58 seconds in Patton.

"Bollinger County Chamber of Commerce is only in the beginning stages of planning for Eclipse 2024," she said. "We have created a Facebook group that is for locals that are interested in assisting with planning and preparing for the day. The eclipse will pass through on Monday, April 8, 2024, which makes it perfect for a long weekend for travelers to spend their weekend in our community."

Wiginton pointed out how other communities were flooded with an influx of visitors during the 2017 eclipse.

"Individuals from St. Clair, Missouri stated that their town of 4,400 had approximately 20,000 people in town the day of the eclipse," she said. "They explained that the people are coming whether you advertise it or not; but since this is happening, you might want to embrace it and use this opportunity for the good of your community."

The chamber is currently collecting lodging information from all areas and plans to map the lodging locations from the center location of duration of totality.

"We have already had requests from folks for a list of places to stay," Wiginton said. "One gentleman from Jefferson City told us on this past Saturday he was the first to be put on the list for a cabin at Whippoorwill Lake for the weekend of the eclipse."

She said plans are underway to establish viewing stations in Zalma, Leopold, Marble Hill, Grassy and Patton -- possibly multiple stations in Zalma and Leopold since they are under totality the longest in the county.

"We know there is a lot of work ahead of us regarding this event. We must think about emergency management, lodging solutions, activities, and everything that you would need to host a festival, but in large scale," Wiginton said. "We would ideally like to set up five lead teams that would either be fellow community organizations or groups of individuals that would lead the activities and needs in their section of the county -- Zalma, Leopold, Marble Hill, Grassy and Patton. We know this will take a large community effort and a lot of working together."

Anyone interested in becoming part of the eclipse planning team can reach the chamber by calling (573) 208-5426 or emailing visitbocomo@gmail.com.