Town at epicenter of solar-eclipse buzz hopes its welcoming efforts stoke pride and optimism

The lights on Hopkinsville's Alhambra Theatre were
restored for the eclipse. (Photo by Jennifer P. Brown)

We've covered how Hopkinsville, Ky., amplified and prepared for the international attention brought by its proximity to the point of greatest eclipse on Aug. 21. The city's rationale was that the rare event would bring in huge profits to the town and raise awareness about it as a destination for future tourists. Now that the eclipse is over, former Hopkinsville newspaper editor Jennifer P. Brown digs into whether the efforts paid off, in a piece for The Daily Yonder. It speaks to the larger question of how small towns can use rare or one-time events as a springboard for economic development. Some small towns were unwilling or unable commit resources to welcoming visitors.

Hopkinsville prepared exhaustively for the eclipse. It started working on it 10 years ago and hired a full-time eclipse coordinator in September 2016. The town of 32,000 improved roads, spruced up, and planned a three-day festival to welcome visitors from all over the world. As estimates for the crowds surpassed 100,000, "The city took reservations for camping spots and one-day viewing sites at several parks. Two whiskey distilleries in the county rented out space for overnighters and promoted big plans to celebrate with spirits, musical entertainment and food trucks," Brown writes.

So how did it pan out? Mayor Carter Hendricks told Brown that the eclipse brought in about $30 million in spending and what early estimates say was a crowd of 150,000. Coffeehouse owner Amanda Huff-McClure told Brown that business was good on the Friday before the Monday eclipse, "amazing" on Saturday, and Sunday was "breakneck speed and great numbers." She thought Sunday was the most crowded the business could possibly be, but "then on Monday, we doubled that. Monday was insane for us. We got the last available parking space in the free public parking at 5:45 a.m. We had people banging on the glass wanting to know when we were going to open by about 6:15."

Will the eclipse bring future benefits? Interestingly, it's not the city's amenities but the people that might be the biggest attraction to visitors. Louisville Courier-Journal photographer Michael Clevenger wrote, "In the end you can plan for portable toilets and traffic flow and campgrounds for 200,000 of your closest friends. But you can’t buy helpfulness. You can rent hospitable. You can’t fake friendly. Hopkinsville figured out how to host the world but remembered the intangible things that make us uniquely Kentucky. And it showed. The sun and the moon may have stolen the show in Hopkinsville on August 21, but Hopkinsville stole my heart.”

Brown says that's where her hopes lie for the future of Hopkinsville beyond the eclipse. "If more entrepreneurs like Amanda and April see value in downtown, if more people want to spruce up and dig in, then I’ll believe this turn in Hopkinsville’s fortunes is real. I’ll believe it’s about much more than a solar eclipse."