Reported from Oklahoma City — “Captain Experiences” this week released a detailed report about the fifteen American states with the most people living in what is called “the path of totality” for the Monday (April 8) eclipse.

These are main takeaways from the report, highlighting some key statistics for Oklahoma:

* The most recent total solar eclipse visible in the U.S. took place in 2017, with the path of totality extending from Oregon to South Carolina. Prior to 2017, only two solar eclipses in the 20th century had totality paths that overlapped some portion of the United States.

* Looking ahead, the next coast-to-coast total solar eclipse won’t occur until 2045.

* Oklahoma is one of 15 U.S. states that will experience a total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024.

* An estimated 83,000 Oklahoma residents (or 2.1% of the population) live in the totality path.

The path of the eclipse, as it courses through Oklahoma, is in the far southeast rural counties of Oklahoma.

* Oklahoma has the twelfth most total residents of any state living in the totality path.

In Oklahoma, Hochatown (a community of just 200 people) was expecting as many as 100,000 tourists for the event.

Also anticipating a massive influx of people was Broken Bow, a town with more than 4,000 residents in McCurtain County.

The town of Boswell, with about 550 year-round residents, was expected to be the first community north of the Red River north of the Red River expected to get the full eclipse impact.

Many who live in the town, with an ethnically diverse population, are descendants of original Oklahoma settlers in the towns of Oberlin (new and old), settled by Freedmen (including Choctaw freedmen) after the American Civil War.

Located in Choctaw County, Boswell is an intriguing community where the population has stayed relatively constant over many decades. Oklahoma City families with ‘kinfolk” in Boswell were taking tents, campers, and trailer homes to stay last night.

The full results of the Captain Experiences analysis — with data drawn from over 1,500 Census places (cities, villages, boroughs, etc.) — and within all 15 states thin the path of “totality” path can be studied here:

https://captainexperiences.com/blog/states-with-best-solar-eclipse-view

Note: Patrick B. McGuigan, founder and publisher of CapitolBeatOK.com, prepared this news story. CapitolBeatOK.com is an independent, non-partisan and locally-managed news service based in Oklahoma City. Pat prepared the story drawing upon the report from ‘Captain Experiences,” founded in 2019 by Jonathan Newar and Attison Barnes. Captain Experiences, they say, “was born out of need; it’s the product of dozens of years spent in the great outdoors and countless hours spent trying to book fishing and hunting trips.” Pat employed other news reports and regionally-based Facebook sites with information about the event and worked with material transmitted by Mike LaFirenza, of Lattice Publishing LLC, 1111 Sixth Avenue, Suite 300, San Diego, California, 92101, United States.