Total solar eclipses in the Utica area are extremely rare. This area barely missed totality in 1925 and 2024 and will barely miss out again in 2079 and 2144. A look back in time over the past 1000 years reveals only three total eclipses with the oddity of two of them hardly 45 years apart and the centerlines passed across familiar areas unseen by anyone in a country that was centuries away from existing.

It was not until December 10, 1349, that totality swept over the vast forest-covered hills and valleys of what would someday be Utica and its suburbs. The eclipse might be called the Great New York State Eclipse if it occurred today as the centerline of totality swept in from Canada, crossed Lake Ontario, and passed over Syracuse, Norwich, and Oneonta. The path was wide enough to include Rochester, Watertown, Albany, and New York City. Scranton was on the southern edge, but it just missed Old Forge on the northern edge. Other non-existent cities would have also enjoyed totality including Hartford and Providence along with a good part of Massachusetts and a northern slice of New Jersey, but New York would have the most area totally eclipsed. Totality arrived in the yet-to-be Utica at 11:13 A.M. and lasted 2 minutes, 26 seconds with the low wintery Sun hardly 23º above the horizon, if it was a sunny day. It is fun to picture this area as a snow-covered, desolate, endless wilderness immersed in the dim light of the eerie corona.

The next total solar eclipse was hardly 45 years away and had the Mohawk Valley Community College (MVCC) in its crosshairs! It would have been incredible, but challenging, as the centerline of totality passed over the yet-to-exist Utica on January 21, 1395 hardly an hour before sunset. The odds of seeing it are the worst during the dead of winter, so it probably was clouded out, but the wildlife probably went to bed early in the darkened, silent world. The 1395 eclipse would have an almost twin in 2024 as both paths were identical (came up from Mexico and Texas into Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and New England) except the 1395 path was about 100 miles southeast of the 2024 path and included Utica. The 1395 path through non-existent New York was a good one, but shifted so that Buffalo, Rochester, Oswego, and Watertown would have missed it being outside the northern edge of totality, but Boonville and Old Forge would have experienced totality (both towns would have to wait until 2024 for the next one) along with Syracuse just inside the northern edge. The southern edge would have cut through Binghamton and run almost perfectly parallel along the northwestern edge of I-88 missing Oneonta, Schenectady, and Albany, but Cooperstown would have experienced it. The centerline passed closely north of what would someday be Colgate University and Waterville and literally passed less than a mile south of the old MVAS observatory at Bornick’s farm in Clinton, heading northeast close to the familiar big four-corners region of Washington Mills. Racing at supersonic speeds along Oneida Street, the centerline of darkness passed over MVCC and emerged from Utica on Herkimer Road just west of Windfall Road and raced into the southern Adirondacks near Newport. Totality arrived in the future Utica area at 4:30 P.M. and lasted 2 minutes, 2 seconds with the Sun only 5½º above the horizon and set hardly a half hour later. Was it sunny? We will never know, but the April 8, 2024, eclipse was at least during a better time of year and higher in the sky even if it missed Utica.

The next total solar eclipse over the newly founded village of Utica (it became a city in 1832), occurred on June 16, 1806, lasting a generous 3 minutes and 10 seconds. The path of totality swept in from Ohio and traveled east with the centerline passing south of Utica between Norwich and Binghamton near Oneonta. The first bite was taken out of the Sun at 9:43 A.M. Totality began at 11:01 A.M. and ended around 11:04 A.M. with it lasting as long as 4 minutes and 48 seconds on the centerline south of here. The entire eclipse was over by 12:26 P.M. Utica will not experience another solar eclipse until August 2, 2399! After that there is only one more over Utica before the year 3000, on June 3, 2505, so indeed total solar eclipses are very special!