As the moon inches closer, covering the sun, millions of people across the states cheer as the 2024 solar eclipse reaches totality. Meanwhile, at 1:59:16 pm a multitude of people gather on the boardwalk in a small town of 600 people. Makanda, Illinois, served as America’s eclipse crossroads seeing both the 2017 and 2024 total solar eclipse. Many witnessed this phenomenon for the second time in their lives.
With onlookers traveling from nearby towns or from places as far as Minnesota, the Makanda boardwalk was filled with people from all over.
With a walk through the Rain Makers studio and up the Jägermeister lined stairway into a garden of greenery, bands performed throughout the day, only stopping to observe the totality of the eclipse.
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The first performance of the day was local band The Deciders, made up of Robert Russell holding the position of guitar player, Chris DiBiase the bassist and Jimmy Beers the band’s drummer.
The Deciders performance started around 11:00 am and ran until 1:00pm, ending just as the eclipse began.
Following the eclipse The Snowbird Streetband took the upstairs back porch of the boardwalk, which played the role of the makeshift stage for the afternoon.
Betty’s Brink and Cody Dawkins started the Snowbird Streetband three years ago, a little while after they met in Alaska after the beginning of the COVID pandemic.
“COVID was really the catalyst for this project. Because we were both in food service honestly, and those restaurants and stuff shut down so we had some time on our hands,” Brinks said.
Brinks followed with, “Yeah to think about it and regroup so that’s actually a good thing for us, for our lives.”
Brinks and Dawkins have been camping around southern Illinois for a while now. Currently they’re camping relatively close to the boardwalk, making their performance on April 8 quite convenient.
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“Here’s what I want to get out of today. I just like to get our four and a half minutes of just that good stuff, and I’d like to see some solar mass ejections,” Brinks said.
Those who traveled from nearby and those traveling nearly 11 hours, like Cathrine Marsh, all had something in common, they were on the hunt for the perfect spot to view the eclipse.
Marsh, a Minnesota native, made her “quest” to southern Illinois after all the stories her brother told her about his trip to Makanda back in 2017 for his eclipse viewing.
“Well my brother [went] last time there was an eclipse and he said it was pretty… I was annoyed I couldn’t make it, and the way he explained it was, I can promise myself that I would make it to this one,” Marsh said.
She was on a mission to make it to southern Illinois for the 2024 eclipse. Her trip was nothing short of what she was wishing for.
“I feel like I’ve been on what I call a quest. This morning I was in Benton which I kinda wanted to go a bit deeper. And well it’s a quest so that’s what you do you keep going until you find your spot. And last time my brother said you will find your people and, there you go, I have found my people so here l am,” Brinks said.
After buying a handcrafted necklace from Dave, the Rainmaker, she found her post next to Hontas Farmer, a Master of Science and professor at the College of DuPage in northern Illinois.
Farmer traveled down from Chicago to relive her eclipse experience from 2017.
”Seven years ago I was right here, pretty much the same spot for the last eclipse. And how many people are gonna get to see an eclipse from the same place twice,” she said.
She traveled down with her 60MM Celestron refracting telescope with a solar filter and her laptop to live stream the eclipse. Her goal was to teach people about the eclipse through her telescope.
”I’m an educator and I’m a scientist, so I might as well do it [teach],” Farmer said.
Another couple that happened to make their way to southern Illinois by chance at the time of the 2017 eclipse decided to make the five hour drive from Joplin, Missouri, again seven years later.
Ron and Toni Kegerries said they wanted to be in the totality of the eclipse in Makanda because it’s a “neat little town.”
“We found the town last time and it was such a neat place, lots of nice people, the shop owners are really nice,” Toni Kegerries said.
”Very eclectic,” Ron Kegerries added.
The couple is retired, giving them more time to travel and view things like the eclipse. Usually when they’re traveling it’s finding somewhere new to fish, but they couldn’t miss the opportunity to see another eclipse in the town after they stumbled upon the event in 2017.
”If it strikes our fancy we go,” Ron Kegerries said.
Once totality hit, onlookers gathered on the spray painted line that makes its way through Makanda marking the line of totality. Once the moon had fully covered the sun and the “diamond ring” appeared onlookers cheered, dogs barked and everyone was clapping their hands in celebration of the momentous event.
Makanda has been a hotspot for eclipse chasers for the last seven years after being the eclipse center of America twice. With town natives running shops selling everything from metal sculptures and ice cream to crystals and sage, the town is well known for its ability to never change.
”This little place? To me, it’s like stuck in time,” Ron Kegerries said.
News editor Joei Younker can be reached at [email protected].
Sports editor Jamilah Lewis can be reached at [email protected].
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