It came, they came, they all went and we are still here. I can't speak for others, but as far as I am concerned, the 2017 solar eclipse in Grant County Oregon went about as smoothly as anyone could have hoped. Our county fair came two weeks before the eclipse which made for a nice warm-up for the main event. It was the typical county fair with a carnival and livestock judging and a rodeo in the afternoon. Two weeks later it was eclipse weekend with lots of special events. One of the most interesting to me was an outdoor presentation regarding the Kam Wah Chung museum which is the crown jewel of our cultural offerings. Local history is the focus of my bookstore and I have been to the museum many times but I learned some new things that Saturday. One thing I had never thought about was that the Chinese miners emigrated to gold and tin mines all around the Pacific rim. We had a lot of pop up vendors for the eclipse. I don't know how everyone else did, but the bookstore had what will probably be its best three day weekend ever. The local chamber of commerce put on an evening of entertainment for our guests. The crowd was thin but those who did show up got an evening's worth of entertainment and a great bargain. The dance band played long, loud and late. It might not seem like a big deal to the visitors, but live music, especially good live music is a rare treat for this region. The next morning came the main event: the eclipse. One thing I didn't expect was that during the partial eclipse, the sunlight through the tree branches came in the form of many little partially eclipsed suns. By noon it was back to normal. I have not heard the official word, but as far as I know, there were no major problems. We did not run out of any necessary supplies and no major disasters. It helped that the weather was about as good as it gets. No clouds, not much smoke and not nearly as hot as it can be in August. If we get another eclipse we'll have it down cold.

The 2017 total solar eclipse

-