With the 2024 eclipse rapidly approaching, communities in the path of totality are preparing for and putting their best foot forward to attract the influx of visitors who will be coming to the area. One community is ahead of the curve as the Calico Rock Community is rolling out plans for visitors early.
According to Fredericka Silvey Johns, the Calico Rock Museum and Visitor Center started meeting in order to put everything into place so that Calico Rock will be remembered for decades to come by those who choose to visit.
“We plan to offer visitors perfect views of the eclipse. We are located on the beautiful White River. We have many back roads to explore with open expanses of sky and plenty of mountaintops to explore,” Johns said. “Our committees are already in place and have set their agendas and have started their actions. Media/Production, Lodging, Food Service, Activities/Events, Public Safety/Health & Law Enforcement/Traffic/Transportation, and more.”
Johns said it is never too early to start planning for the eclipse and noted other communities began planning in mid 2022.
Johns said by engaging the expertise of key people from other towns who were in the path of the 2017 eclipse, she believes Calico Rock will have the best chance to succeed in providing an exceptional and unique experience for visitors.
“Calico Rock has a very colorful history. Being a river town and a railroad town. Calico Rock has a most colorful history which is depicted beautifully and educationally by our museum. We have the only ghost town within the city limits. Signage in ghost town offers the visitor even more stories of our history,” Johns said. “It is never too early to begin planning for something so amazing as a total solar eclipse coming April 8 of next year. It took a while for the realization to set in as to just what this could mean since we are directly in the path. We have done a lot of research on what other towns and cities have experienced.”
Johns said as a result, the committees are holding regular meetings and are also working diligently on social media marketing.
“Because of the realization, we have invited guest speakers who were instrumental in planning other such events. They were mini webinars and articles about just planning. Whenever there is a large influx, there must be planning for safety and entertainment. Traffic can be a major problem,” Johns said. “More and more people have gotten wind of this and businesses and townsfolk have met at The Nook on Peppersauce Alley in Calico Rock. Amazing how quickly people catch onto the fun of such an idea and come up with all kinds of ideas and concerns about such a big event.”
Johns said planning for the event is a large undertaking and many volunteers are needed. Gathering ideas and input while playing to the city’s strengths is a path to success.
“We have lodging in the way of a Historic and newly refurbished hotel overlooking the White River, motels, Bluff cabins, bed and breakfasts, restaurants, gas stations, fast food (Subway) Coffee shops, antiques and collectibles shops, and more,” Johns said. “We now have a Facebook page with a lot of information. It is called: Solar Eclipse Information for Calico Rock. Take a look at the page and follow it to find out how to sign up as a volunteer. All the committees will be listed so that one can decide what is best equipped to do.”
Johns said in addition to the Facebook page, there is also a QR code which may be scanned, and a member of the committee will reach out to those who scan and sign up.
Meeting dates, times and locations will be posted on the Facebook page as well.
“All are invited to just find out what is going on or to immediately sign up to volunteer. At those meetings we will be handing out fliers containing helpful hints from research done on experiences from towns in the past directly in the path of such a solar eclipse,” Johns said.
Lauren is a an award-winning journalist who decided after 10 years of newspaper experience to venture out. Hallmark Times was born.
