HOULTON, Maine — When eclipse fever hit earlier this year, an Aroostook County woman’s decision to design and sell swag based on the celestial event gave her new embroidery business a huge boost and lasting customers.
Erika Burkhart, owner of Serendipity Embroidery in downtown Houlton, said the glow-in-the-dark thread she used for her eclipse design was her silver bullet. And now eight months later, eclipse customers from around the nation are ordering 2024 Total Solar Eclipse apparel as Christmas gifts, she said.
“When I first heard of the eclipse, I asked around and no one seemed to be offering eclipse T-shirts, hats and hoodies,” Burkhart said. “I wanted something quality, appealing to both genders and different.”
Much like Burkhart, Houlton’s eclipse planners had no idea if their efforts would pay off. Despite a number of early naysayers, there were those who had a feeling it would be big. State financial data show it turned out to be big for some businesses and towns in mostly rural parts of Maine in the line of totality for the April 8 event.
Approximately 224,800 people traveled to or around Maine for the eclipse and the estimated economic impact for the state was between $207 million and $219.8 million, according to Jennifer Geiger of the Maine Office of Tourism.
“Visitor spending included lodging, food (restaurants & groceries), shopping, gas, and anything else visitors may have spent money on while on their trip,” Geiger said. “It does not include airfare as part of their transportation costs. These figures do not include any impact to employment.”
Maine’s eclipse economic numbers surpass states like Vermont at $34.8 million and Northeast Ohio at $24.6 million, according to individual state data.
Maine and New Hampshire had some of the most significant gains in spending because of a sudden change in weather, with Texas falling out of favor with eclipse watchers when clouds were predicted, according to a Mastercard Economic Institute report. The weather was clear in the Northeast.
In Aroostook County, state tourism experts looked specifically at Houlton’s Historic Market Square and Riverfront Park, where they counted 16,300 people from April 5 to April 9 from 48 states and several international locations. The majority of those visitors came to Houlton from Bangor, Portland, and Boston, they said.
“We can speculate with confidence that the number is closer to 25,000 when I calculate in the Houlton Airport, rural areas of town, and North Street shopping area,” said Jacob Pelkey, who works for Aroostook County Tourism.
Aroostook County tourism data indicated a 99 percent boost in visitor spending over the 5-day event compared with the same days of the week the prior four weeks. The state saw a 23 percent jump in tourist spending over the same period. State tax data show Houlton area sales increased $887,760 in April compared with the same month in 2023.
Now, post eclipse, Houlton business leaders, town planners, tourism folks and small business owners tout the unexpected economic and community development returns on the event.
“I gained a lot of new followers on Facebook from people out of state. Also, I’ve had several customers come back months after the eclipse because they loved the town so much they decided to come back for a mini vacation,” said Monica Crane, the owner of The Tulgey Wood Emporium, just doors down from Burkhart on Court Street.
There were a handful of downtown businesses that could not be saved by the temporary swell in the town’s population. Just a week after the eclipse, seven downtown businesses closed their brick and mortar shops, although some have regrouped to create online and at-home versions of their businesses.
By summer, the region’s tourism was the same as the previous year, according to Pelkey.
Some might view that as a letdown, but Pelkey said it could be a positive indicator because tourism this summer in the rest of the state was down nine percent.
In addition to the crowd of visitors for totality, NASA scientists set up shop on the roof of the Temple Theater, several members of national media were in town, and New York City filmmakers were producing a documentary about a small town pulling together for the biggest event to ever hit northern Maine.
Nancy Ketch, Houlton director of community development, started eclipse preparations two years before the event. She sat in on workshops, planning sessions and educational forums with other town leaders around the nation.
“There was something that when we first learned about it I thought it could be a moment for us,” she said, adding that at totality, it was a very satisfying and emotional moment.
Most eclipse planners, such as Jane Torres, head of the Greater Houlton Chamber of Commerce, agree with Ketch, who said the event opened the door for new opportunities and connections that endured after the visitors left.
In addition to record sales for some businesses like Burkhart’s, the eclipse brought gains in civic engagement and community preparedness, said Johanna Johnston, executive director of the Southern Aroostook Development Corp.
The extensive planning process has improved the community’s ability to host large-scale events and local leaders gained valuable experience in managing logistics such as traffic, emergency services, and visitor accommodations, Johnston said.
“The event strengthened community collaboration,” she said. “Hundreds of volunteers participated, fostering a renewed sense of civic pride from Gateway Ambassadors to civic groups like Rotary, Interact, JMG, the faith community and the business community.”
The eclipse was the springboard for the evolving Gateway Ambassadors, a community volunteer group that provided expansive eclipse services including ambassadors at all events, at star parks, helping with public safety, riding shuttle buses and staffing eclipse headquarters.
“I have never ever seen this type of commitment, this type of energy and this type of willingness to help,” said Cecilia Rhoda, who has spearheaded the Gateway Ambassador initiative.
The Gateway Ambassadors now have a solid core group of about 35 volunteers who have helped at several community events since the eclipse and hosted their first welcome party for Houlton newcomers on Dec. 18.
They have become a model for other communities seeking to develop a similar group, Rhoda said.
New York City filmmakers Thomas van Kalken and Mia Weinberger just completed a full-length documentary, A Moment in the Sun, from 60 hours of footage shot before and during the eclipse weekend. The documentary will hit the 2025 film festival circuit in the coming months and the filmmakers also plan to return to Houlton for a special viewing at the Temple Theater.
The film looks at how a small town pulled together and to illustrate this, Weinberger and van Kalken followed several townspeople to get an inside view of how things unfolded.
“We’ve been looking at footage of everyone since we left,” Weinberger said. “In a way it feels like we are still there.”
