METAMORA, Ind. — Astronomy is giving small businesses in Metamora a boost — and they don’t want to miss out.
The Indiana town is in the path of totality for the April 8 eclipse. Filled with family-owned shops, it’s one of the closest towns within the path to the Cincinnati metro.
“It’s going to be huge for the business community,” said Experience Franklin County executive director Beverly Spurlin. “A lot of our businesses are tourism-oriented … so this is really going to give them a huge boost.”
It’s coming at an unusual time, given the tourism season doesn’t start until around May. Yet thousands are expected to pack the county to see the Earth engulfed by the shadow of the moon for about three minutes.
“We have people from as far away as London, England that are coming to Franklin County,” Spurlin said. The county, no stranger to large crowds, is planning on a wide range of activities throughout the weekend.
At Grannie’s Cookie Jars & Ice Cream Parlors, owner Connie Ragle is ordering double what she would this time of year — 168 gallons of ice cream.
Part of the challenge for the town is they don’t know how many people to expect. Franklin County was estimated to see an influx of anywhere between 20,000 and one million visitors.
“That means nobody knows!” Candy Yurcak, board member of the Whitewater Canal Byway Association, said in February. “That's what's making this kind of fun. You really have no idea how to plan.”
At the Village Smith, owners Karen and Bill Smith said their bed and breakfast has been booked since January. When Karen first heard about the astronomical event, she said she didn’t fully understand the scale of people’s willingness to travel.
“I don’t think I got the scope of it, that it could be as big as it can be,” she said.
Now, they’re all in. But success for the Smiths, and many other business owners, won’t be measured immediately after April 8. Instead, they hope to show those who visit that it’s worth coming back.
“We’re hoping that the experience will be much more than that three-minute period, even though that’ll be historical for them as individuals,” Bill said. “Many of them may not even know that Metamora is on the map. And for them to come and realize, wow, it's a great place of history, a great place of beauty, a place to just relax and to see some wonderful shops.”
Dotted across Metamora’s canal are eclipse flyers, eclipse-themed magazines and Franklin County logoed eclipse glasses.
Whitewater Canal State Historic State site manager Joey Smith will be leading educational programming over the course of the weekend. While he said he’s a “little nervous” about the amount of tourists that might be arriving, part of the excitement is not knowing what to expect.
“I’m excited. We’ve got plenty of glasses, so I’ll be able to view it, no problem.”
With less than three weeks to go, Metamora is nearly ready. Regle at the ice cream parlor will start making waffle cones next week.
“I’ll make them every day so we have enough to make it through,” she said.
Smith’s message for tourists: “We’re ready. So bring them on.”
