PITTSBURGH – The sky turned to nightfall for several minutes as visitors stood beneath the shadow of the moon.
“It was incredible,” Dixee Carr, said. She came to the Michael J. Kirwan Dam in Ravenna, Ohio, to enjoy the historic moment with her family. She even brought a box of moon-themed cookies to share. “The sky became a sunset all around us. It was 360 degrees, all around.”
The solar eclipses brought nightfall to the lake and wildlife. Sounds across the waters hushed. Visitors stood motionless, chins in the air, their eyes transfixed by the white ring pressing through the dark atmosphere.
“The light was getting really eerie, like twilight. You could see the glow all around us like a sunset,” said Ashley Ritenour, a park ranger for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District at the Michael J. Kirwan reservoir.
“And then you felt that temperature change,” she said. “It was just incredible. It was warm, and then it got real cool, and the wind died, and now it’s already warming back up.”
The dam stood in the eclipse’s totality for about two minutes. In that darkness, the temperatures shifted from warm to cool, back and forth, in waves. It was as if the wind had been delayed, traveling from a long distance to catch up to the moon’s shadow shifting across the land.
“You could feel it change real quick,” Ritenour said. “The wind dropped off and then it picked right back up.”
Ritenour has worked as a park ranger for the Pittsburgh District for 10 years, most of which at the Kirwan reservoir. In all her years, she had never experienced that temperature shift coming across the lake. The waters had been calm all day leading up to the solar eclipse, but its waves seemed especially gentle in those dark minutes.
“This was just the perfect spot,” said Cassie Wiggins, a local resident who comes to the reservoir often for walks, hiking and kayaking. “This lake is very calm, and this park is one of my favorites in the whole area.”
She lives only thirty minutes from the dam, but other folks had driven three hours to come here.
“It was worth the trip,” said Joe Casalena, who traveled with his wife, Mary Jo, from Bedford, Pennsylvania.
Casalena and his wife brought a pasta colander to the dam. They used the colander holes to cast crescent-shaped light beams and shadows on a white blanket as the moon slipped across the sun.
“It’s great that the Army Corps opened up the dam for the public use, I just wish we had brought our mountain bikes,” Casalena said.
Pittsburgh District’s reservoirs are designed for flood risk reduction and to provide waterflow to navigable rivers, but they are also popular recreational destinations for fishing, water sports and enjoying the outdoors.
The Michael J. Kirwan Dam is one of 16 reservoirs managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District. Seven of those reservoirs were located within the solar eclipse’s path of totality in Ohio, northwestern Pennsylvania and New York. The eclipse brough hundreds of visitors to those reservoirs, some traveling from afar, while others nearby.
“All five of our parking areas were full to capacity with approximately 200 vehicles,” said Tim Hough, the resource manager for the Mosquito Creek Lake in Cortland, Ohio. “The moment of the eclipse was an ‘ah’ moment for many people, truly encapsulating a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Autumn Rodden, a park ranger for the Kinzua Dam spent the day on the patrol boat on the Allegheny Reservoir. She tried not to get her hopes up because the day had been so cloudy, but when the eclipse came, the clouds shifted just in time to unveil the full experience. She heard the crowd from a nearby bay whoop and cheer.
“It was so much cooler than I could have thought, and I am incredibly grateful to have been able to see it,” Rodden said.
Since the founding of the United States in 1776, there have been 21 total solar eclipses visible from the continental states. The next total solar eclipse visible from North America won’t be for another 20 years in August 2044.
While many visitors traveled hours and took off work to watch the eclipse, for the park rangers who work at the reservoirs every day, it was a special experience to see the phenomenon pass over their skies.
“This is where I grew up,” Ritenour said. “For this to happen while I’m on the job was even better.”
In the initial hours of the eclipse, visitors could see the moon inching across the sun slowly, but during the total eclipse, that circle of white light seemed infinitely still.
“The total solar eclipse was a surreal and amazing experience,” said Elizabeth Morsillo, a park ranger at Berlin Lake in Deerfield Township, Ohio.
Several visitors came to Berlin Lake for a picnic and to enjoy time with family, she said.
“It’s so nice that people got together and shared a once-in-a-lifetime experience together, no matter their backgrounds or struggles in life. There aren’t many occasions where so many people can come together, share excitement and appreciate something so amazing,” Morsillo said.
Originally, not many people gathered along the Kirwan Dam to watch the show. A few walkers and bikers traveled the length of the dam, but few stayed. The overcast sky from that morning did not look promising. Then, as the initial sighting of the eclipse began, the clouds began to push aside, parting like the curtains for the main event.
It was by far the most incredible sight I have seen in my life,” said Nicole Govan, the resource manager for Berlin Lake.
She said in the moments leading up to the eclipse she noticed how the birds seemed to suddenly prepare for night fall. The sky around her darkened in a way she had never experienced. The moon passing in front of the sun created the corona that turned the skies into deep, dark blues.
“The eclipse was an experience I will never forget, and I was thankful to have the chance to take a moment and enjoy it,” she said.
Editor’s note:
The solar eclipse’s path of totality passed over seven reservoirs across the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District. The locations included Michael J. Kirwan Dam in Ravenna, Ohio; Berlin Lake Dam in Deerfield Township, Ohio; Mosquito Creek Lake in Cortland, Ohio; Shenango River Lake in Hermitage, Pennsylvania; Woodcock Creek Lake in Saegertown, Pennsylvania; Union City Dam in Waterford, Pennsylvania; and the Allegheny Reservoir which stretches across northwestern Pennsylvania into New York.