How the total solar eclipse impacted Indian Lake area businesses
BELLEFONTAINE, Ohio (WCMH) — The eclipse brought visitors from all over the state as well as the country to the Indian Lake area, and community members hope they come back.
Given its place in the path of Monday’s total solar eclipse, the area was a popular place to be.
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“More people showed up than I could have ever imagined and that was the cool part,” said Dave Hafenbrack, Operations Director at Gathering Grounds, a coffee shop in Russells Point.
The shop closed early so employees could experience the eclipse but still did more than double the business of a normal day, according to Hafenbrack. He said for a community still recovering from the March tornado, eclipse day was part of a comeback.
“It was just a perfect day, perfect weather, for a community who needed that, really it was fantastic,” Hafenbrack said. “We were appreciative of them, everybody was upbeat and that was a valuable part, I think, of just kind of our resurgence a little and revitalization and rebuilding the community.”
Just a few minutes away, the team at Indian Lake Brewing Company estimated a couple hundred people witnessed the eclipse at the brewery.
“I think a lot of people came to support the community and that was really overwhelming. People who said they came up because they knew the businesses were hurting,” said Rebekah Smith, co-owner of the brewery. “And could understand the connection between supporting our businesses and supporting our residents.”
Indian Lake Brewing Company’s sign was damaged during the tornado. Smith described it as a symbol for the community. She said it’s broken but still hanging on. She said visitors helped make Monday one of the busiest days the brewery has ever experienced.
“The actual eclipse itself, it’s something I’m going to remember forever,” Smith said. “But I think when you layer on the emotional aspect of recovering from the tornado plus the eclipse, that’s going to be a tough day for me to top.”
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She also encouraged visitors to return.
“We’re a tourism and we’re getting ready to go into our big season. So as awesome the support we saw with the eclipse, we really just want to encourage people to come back again,” Smith said. “We depend on visitors which means residents depend on visitors and lot of the people who were impacted are folks that work in tourism, they work in our restaurants, in our bars, all of our other retail shops.”
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