Not Since Tecumseh: Darkness at Midday over the Ohio Country-Total Eclipse of the Sun- Presented by Tom O'Grady

Join us as Tom O'Grady presents information on Ohio's last total solar eclipse on June 16, 1806.

The last time Ohio was witness to a total eclipse of the sun was on June 16th, 1806. The 1806 eclipse has gone down in history as Tecumseh's Eclipse. Tecumseh was working to create a confederation of Native tribes to resist continued losses of land to the increased expansion of settlers in this formerly native territory. Future president and then military leader in the newly formed State of Ohio, William Henry Harrison, tried to stop him. In his efforts to discredit Tecumseh and his brother The Prophet, Harrison publicly challenged the Shawnee leadership by calling upon them to prove this power daring them to "cause the Sun to stand still or the Moon to alter its course, the rivers to cease to flow or the dead to rise from their graves." Tecumseh used his knowledge of the approaching eclipse to reinforce the role of The Prophet and himself in the political dynamics unfolding in the newly formed region called the State of Ohio.