Pueblo was near a total eclipse in 1918. Here's why people were 'dreadfully disappointed'
A total solar eclipse is going to pass through the continental United States on Monday, which will plunge a narrow swath of the country into temporary darkness and be partially visible to millions more.
While Pueblo isn’t in the direct path of the solar eclipse this year, the Steel City was close to the path of a total eclipse that came through Colorado in 1918.
The Chieftain reviewed historic newspapers from Pueblo and the rest of the state to see how people reacted to the astrological event. Overall, reports from Pueblo were less enthused about the eclipse than those featured in other periodicals in the state.
How to plan: Where to see the 2024 solar eclipse in Pueblo and how you can do so safely
What happened in Pueblo during an eclipse in 1918
The Pueblo Chieftain warned readers on the front page of the June 8, 1918 edition to avoid looking up at the sun: “DON’T LOOK AT THE SUN TODAY, Unless With Colored Or Smoked Glasses. IT MAY CAUSE PERMANENT BLINDNESS.”
Despite the hype, viewing the eclipse was less exciting than initially expected in Pueblo. The author of the Chieftain’s daily front-page news column, The Spotlight, wrote the day after that he was feeling “dreadfully disappointed” after experiencing a partial total eclipse: “I really hoped it was going to be something worth seeing.”
The author said a thunderstorm that came after the eclipse was “decidedly the best part.”
“(The thunderstorm) proved that it can rain in Pueblo, something that some of us had begun to doubt,” the author wrote.
How reactions in Pueblo compare to the rest of the state
The storm that Puebloans reportedly embraced after the eclipse ended also affected eclipse viewing around the rest of Colorado. Crowds in Denver, which was directly in the path of the eclipse, blamed the city's weather forecaster. The Rocky Mountain News reported that he was the "unhappiest man in Denver" that afternoon.
While reactions in Pueblo were nonplussed, as reported in the Chieftain, other communities around the state appeared to be more fascinated by the astrological phenomenon. Crowds in Denver were "disappointed" by the weather, but "thrilled by sudden darkness," according to the Rocky Mountain News.
People in Montrose were even more out of the way of the direct path than the people in Pueblo, but the Montrose Daily Press wrote that “the whole county looked skyward.”
Closer to Pueblo — and also further outside of the path of totality — a newspaper in Cañon City wrote that most of the locals enjoyed the event.
While the intensity was lower than what “many people had expected,” the Cañon City Daily Times proclaimed that “the eclipse may be said to have been a very successful affair.”
Some businesses also channeled excitement about the eclipse into advertisements.
An ad for a City Market store in the Boulder Daily Camera said that the quality and quantity of products “eclipse the other markets.” And the now-infamous Stanley Hotel in Estes Park advertised in the Rocky Mountain News that it was the “best place” to view the eclipse.
Many newspapers reported that chickens and livestock were affected by the temporary darkness. The Rocky Mountain News published a story the day after the eclipse about how animals at the zoo in Denver reacted: coyotes and wolves howled, but the monkeys reportedly didn’t care. “They never once ceased their nonsensical chatter and movements," the newspaper reported.
A total eclipse is expected to pass directly over Pueblo County in 2045.
What time is the April 8 solar eclipse in Pueblo, Colorado? Find out here with your ZIP code
Note: records from the Pueblo Chieftain were reviewed on microfilm at the Rawlings Library in Pueblo. Newspapers from other parts of the state were reviewed online in the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection.
Anna Lynn Winfrey is a reporter at the Pueblo Chieftain. She can be reached at awinfrey@gannett.com. Please support local news at subscribe.chieftain.com.
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Why Puebloans were reportedly unimpressed with a solar eclipse in 1918
