CARBONDALE — Turtles big and small, from plastic toys to concrete sculptures, adorn the path to Lorri Clendenin’s workstation, a camper near the woody, rocky shoreline of 1,200-acre Little Grassy Lake.
The figurines are gifts from visitors to the campground’s manager, whom former Chicago television meteorologist Tom Skilling dubbed “Turtle” when they met during the 2017 total solar eclipse, which also put southern Illinois in the path of totality.
“We’re on turtle time here at Little Grassy — slow and easy,” said Clendenin about her unhurried lifestyle and the inspiration for Skilling’s nickname.
But planning for Monday’s total eclipse was not easy; she said over 900 campsites are currently occupied at the reservoir. As hundreds of thousands of eclipse chasers flock downstate for the cosmic event — official estimates range from 100,000 to 200,000 — accommodations from hotel rooms to tents are filled.
“Southern Illinois publicized this eclipse bigger than the last,” Clendenin added. “We know we’re prepared for it because last time we had no clue.”
Even dorms at Southern Illinois University set aside for the event, are bustling with guests of all ages. Small businesses and locals are hoping to make the most of what they expect to be the biggest tourist attraction of the year.
Eva Fischer, public relations officer for Carbondale, said on Friday that vacation rental homes and hotel rooms were nearly at complete capacity. The town saw about 50,000 visitors in 2017, and officials expect to see something similar this year.
“What’s a better party than a second solar eclipse?” Fischer said. “We are already seeing an impact on our revenue through these bookings. And we can gauge that that revenue is going to filter through our restaurants and our businesses as well.”
‘Perfect place to be’
Earlier Sunday, a family camping on Little Grassy Lake, about 8 miles southeast of Carbondale, had seized the sunny morning to set up a reflector telescope that projected an image of the sun’s disk onto a white paper plate, harnessing a light so bright it could burn the material if unsupervised.
“There’s a cool sunspot on the sun right now,” CJ Dugan said, pointing at a minuscule dot on the sun’s reflection. Entering the peak of its activity in an 11-year cycle, the sun’s surface is dotted with these magnetic spots that look like dark blemishes.
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Dugan, a producer with WGN-TV, is visiting southern Illinois this weekend strictly as an eclipse chaser along with his wife, their two kids and some family friends from Madison, Wisconsin.
A self-educated astronomy enthusiast, Dugan demonstrated the technique for a curious Skilling, who returned to the region to experience the upcoming eclipse with a WGN-TV crew in a full-circle moment after retiring earlier this year. In 2017, Skilling’s emotional reaction to the eclipse on camera tugged at heartstrings all over the state and the country.
“What a perfect place to be,” Skilling remarked Sunday. “It’s amazing, the camaraderie of it all.”
Mike D’Angelo, WGN photojournalist, left, and retired WGN-TV meteorologist Tom Skilling, right, speak with CJ Dugan, a producer at WGN, as Dugan’s son, Jeremy, 11, plays guitar at Dugan’s friend’s campsite at Little Grassy Lake Campground in Makanda on April 7, 2024. Dugan and his family witnessed the 2017 eclipse with Skilling. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)
As his 11-year-old son Jeremy strummed some chords on the guitar, Dugan showed off a shadowbox with memorabilia from the last eclipse; on the top half, a collage of polaroids, a patch from the village of Makanda, a ticket from the campsite and a page of stamps of the sun that reveal a moon at the forefront when exposed to the bright light.
The bottom half of the shadow box is full of glue dots, where the family has made space for new memories.
In the afternoon at the campground, a man hauled a pile of firewood as a group of children zipped by on their bikes. A couple walked past on a narrow road, cradling mugs of hot coffee. The subtle tinkle of wind chimes hanging from a tent by Clendenin’s camper intensified into a loud rattle as a strong, cool breeze announced incoming afternoon showers.
Brigid Dowdle and two of her four daughters, who drove down from Joliet on Saturday, sketched a rainbow with chalk by speed bumps on a quiet campground road. They were making the most of their time outdoors before the drizzle reached their campsite.
“Because they’re missing class, their teacher sent them some eclipse reading to do,” Dowdle said. They planned on doing homework and crafts all day on what they expected to be a wet and muggy Sunday, but the pleasant morning brought them outside.
Despite rainy Sunday, weather service predicts clear skies for Monday’s solar eclipse
Last-minute changes in weather forecast continued to worry eclipse chasers. Early predictions included clear skies for southern Illinois, but uncertainty remains. According to the National Weather Service, “high-level” cloud cover is likely in the area, but these clouds tend to be less opaque and might not obstruct the view of the eclipse.
After discussing Monday’s outlook with Skilling, Dugan said with a laugh: “I keep oscillating between dread and joy.”
‘Very palpable’
On Friday afternoon, a few dozen patrons at a winery in the Village of Alto Pass, southwest of Carbondale, settled on tables equipped with small easels and canvasses. Each with a glass of wine at hand and a paintbrush at the ready, they followed along as local artists guided them through painting a scene of a total eclipse over water.
Grapes and orchards thrive on the grassy hills and fertile soils of southern Illinois, where a dozen wineries and vineyards in the path of totality have maximized the opportunity to become hubs for eclipse programming and viewing.
“This eclipse is almost like a holiday for us here,” said Marquez Scoggin, co-founder of the community art center Project Human X in Carbondale and co-host of the painting workshop at Alto Vineyards, the oldest winery in the region.
Throughout the weekend and leading up to Monday, local communities and businesses downstate have similarly engaged residents and out-of-towners to celebrate southern Illinois as the Eclipse Crossroads — where the paths of the total solar eclipses of 2017 and 2024 intersect.
Marquez Scoggin, co-founder and co-owner of Project Human X, left, speaks to Sonia Beckmann as he leads an eclipse-themed painting class on April 5, 2024, at Alto Vineyards in Alto Pass. The Downstate vineyard is in the path of totality. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)
Last time, the impact of visitor spending on the region was estimated between $15 million and $18 million, according to Daniel Thomas, deputy director of the Illinois Office of Tourism at the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
Kevin Sylwester, a professor of economics at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, said the solar eclipse in 2017 brought in about $8 million to the city. He expects to see something similar this year.
“Businesses inside the city are hosting special events this weekend, given the influx of tourism,” Sylwester said. “We’re going to see a big spike in economic activity. It will be very palpable, very noticeable.”
Still, Sylwester said, though local businesses are likely to benefit from increased numbers in the area, the weekend will ultimately constitute a small amount of the city’s overall earnings.
The weekend ahead of the Aug. 21 eclipse in 2017 — which also fell on a Monday — contributed less than 1% to the city’s annual economic activity.
“Once the excitement of the event is over, it’s back to normal,” Sylwester said. “It will have a big economic impact for a weekend, but looking for across all of 2024, it’s just three days out of 365.”
