Rural Oklahoma towns welcome thousands for total eclipse
Two small towns in rural Oklahoma are welcoming an estimated 60,000 to 100,000 people to Beavers Bend State Park as visitors come to witness the solar total eclipse.
Typically, the towns of Broken Bow and Hochatown have year-round populations of 2,500 and 150, respectively.
Oklahoma Secretary of Tourism, Wildlife and Heritage Shelley Zumwalt told ABC News that McCurtain County has been preparing for about a year and a half, having meetings with state and local public safety officials and other agencies to deal with the influx of visitors and traffic.
She said she's met people who came to the state park from across the U.S. and from Europe, and said she hopes it leads to people returning after the eclipse.
"Just today we've had people from Norway, Denmark, California, Hawaii, Tennessee that I've just seen passing through our lodge this morning, which is phenomenal," Zumwalt said.
"But, in a broader sense, I think that post-pandemic, a lot of people are looking for vacations that kind of take them out of the city and to maybe more of a quieter place and we have a lot of that in Oklahoma and see the tremendous response from just this event has really solidified in my mind that we have something special," she continued.
