For better or worse we are located in one of the prime regions to view the eclipse in August. The local population is supposed to temporarily "bloom" to 10X that of normal. Hopefully this won't turn out to be some sort of Burning Man type of event. (OTOH, maybe I can make a killing on renting out my pasture as a Hippy KOA.)  Unfortunately the festivities will be during Wildfire Prime Time and there's really only one road into/out of this area. The whole event should be interesting and if we live through it we'll get to see on a microcosmic scale the breakdown of civilization when people don't have cell service, Facebook, and other modern "necessities".

Suggestions from those who've gone through even a vaguely similar situation would be welcome.

I'm in Oregon.  The forest service has quoted 5000 to 100000 extra folks in the Jefferson wilderness for the event.  High up on Jefferson is supposed to be some magical place to see the event.  We are talking about putting up portable repeaters on each end of the wilderness area, both SAR and HaM.  Have fun.

It depends on resources available in the area, how well it's "organized" and the weather.

We have "Burning Man" here in the black rock area of nevada and it goes off pretty well considering the "population" of the participants.

But there is a large LEO and medical influx to deal with it. The Burners go to walmart and clean out the shelves and pretty much behave to spite their hippy nature.

Other places without resources near by and a strong support network to keep things in order usually turn into a Lord of the Flies situation pretty quick.

You can come stay with me if it goes crazy, we can hold them off for a bit.

Thank you. I'll bring guns, ammo, and bacon.

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At the April fire commissioners' meeting the fire chief discussed what local and state emergency services were up to...or perhaps more importantly...not up to in regard to this "event". We'll be getting another update tonight and I'm hopeful that local and state LE and EMS folks are getting serious.  The Forest Service is supposedly starting to amp-up the Tree Cops in prep for Mushroom Mania^TM at the Pioneer Fire burn scar and maybe they'll keep their LE status pumped-up for the eclipse. Hope so.

LE and EMS in my area are planning for this.

To make the pasture into a hippypreppersurvivalist koa:

Marked and assigned camp spots.  Baseball field marking chalk will do.

Marked parking.

Porta Potties.

Designated water points.

Designated wash points so one camper does not drain dirty dish water into the next camp site.

Courtesy patrol or security plan.

Alcohol and dope policy.

Damn. I had planned on driving up for the eclipse but I hadn't thought about the major crowds. Oh well, I have seen one total eclipse.

Honestly, I just don't see what the big deal is about eclipses, big waves, shooting stars, etc.

Never really impressed me that much.

They seem to happen regularly enough to be rather unimpressive.

I have seen 1 full solar eclipse, and 3 or 4 partial solar.

Big deal.

I have less faith in humanity. There is a music festival that happens where I used to live and even the well managed and manicured Orange county when the festival let out the gas station was overwhelmed, the place smelled and a few people just said fuck it and walked out with shoplifted shit.


If I were you triple your no Trespassing signs (photocopies in sheet dividers should last the week or so), stock up on a few extra gas cans, fill your tanks now,  make sure you carry fire extinguishers, shovels, etc in you vehicles and perform a regular fire patrol
and carry.

I'm sure most people will be nice and it be a bit of a boon to your local economy but how is the infrastructure set up to resupply gasoline, food, water, etc. Sure 99% of people will be cool but crime always goes up in relation to transient population, etc.

Your biggest problem other than chasing people off your land and cleaning the garbage up after everyone leaves will be some ass flicking a cigarette out a window like they would in a city and it catching the side of the road on fire. Even a small extinguisher and shovel can help stop something if you see it when it starts smoldering.

The prime spot should be just south of us, here in SC, maybe less than an hour drive southbound to experience a full eclipse. We have no plans to prepare for it because I see no logical reason.
Here is a business opportunity: park on the side of the road and sell t shirts - "I survived 2017 solar eclipse". Cheap welding mask inserts (dark glass) should sell very well too. Some websites already sell special, cheap disposable "Eclipse Glasses".

The one I saw was back in the early seventies when I was just a kid in the navy. We were in port and I was working down in the fireroom when someone came down and said we should come topside. To me it was a big deal, not like a partial eclipse, the stars came out in the daytime and the temperature dropped, wow. My memory may be fuzzy about a lot of things that long ago but that really stands out.