Spectators gather on the lawn outside the Armstrong Air & Space Museum to witness the total solar eclipse.
File Photo | The Lima News
WAPAKONETA — An estimated 20,000 people visited Wapakoneta on Monday to witness the total solar eclipse, according to the Wapakoneta Area Chamber of Commerce.
The chamber started marketing Wapakoneta as a destination for eclipse chasers at least one year in advance, with digital advertisements targeting people in markets outside the path of totality, said Jackie Martell, the chamber’s executive director.
Festivities began the Thursday prior: Bus tours took visitors to see Wapakoneta native Neil Armstrong’s childhood home. The Wapa Theatre screened Star Wars: A New Hope. The Auglaize County Fairgrounds hosted a three-day festival, while businesses around Wapakoneta organized their own eclipse-themed parties and events.
Martell said the smaller crowds were a “big relief” compared to the 75,000 people emergency management officials projected could visit Wapakoneta to witness the celestial event.
“(It was) actually perfect for our size of town to showcase all that we had to offer,” she said.
The chamber’s estimates are based on head counts from eclipse viewing sites like the Armstrong Air & Space Museum —Martell said at least 10,000 people watched the eclipse from the museum’s lawn — as well as the Auglaize County Fairgrounds, Waynesfield Prairie View Golf Club, Wapakoneta Church and other businesses that opened their parking lots for the event.
Martell credited the city’s success to emergency planning sessions, which started two years earlier, and collaboration between businesses promoting the dozens of events held in Wapakoneta on Monday and days prior.
Ideal weather helped too.
“That was the hardest thing to plan for and it broke in our favor,” Martell said.
While it’s too soon to gather data measuring the overall economic impact of eclipse weekend, Martell said businesses are reporting record sales and back orders for eclipse-themed merchandise.
“We can only imagine the extra visitors that we’ll have (for the Summer Moon Festival in July) because of the eclipse,” Martell said.
Allen County saw fewer visitors than expected Monday too, though the Allen County Convention and Visitors Bureau did not have official estimates.
“We do know that as of the week before the eclipse every hotel room was booked and sold out in the county,” said Christine Pleva, the CVB’s executive director.
The Lima/Allen County Chamber of Commerce held Solar Smash Bash the Saturday before the eclipse “because we wanted to catch the people coming into town,” Executive Director Jed Metzger said.
“Our focus was so emergency services could get through, the best thing you could do for everybody is just to stay home and watch the solar eclipse there,” Metzger said, “and I think our community listened to us and that’s why there weren’t as many events.”
