Hundreds gathered Monday afternoon at Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park to witness the solar eclipse.

Park staff were giving out free solar eclipse viewing glasses to the first 125 visitors to the park, and those disappeared quickly.

“People were out here lined up at 8 o’clock this morning,” Park Manager Jennifer Bauer said. “We gave away over 100 glasses. I wish we would have had more. We probably had to turn away 150 people or more after we ran out.”

But not having the special glasses didn’t deter park visitors from celebrating the celestial occurrence. Park staff helped visitors craft eclipse viewers using paper plates. Others brought their own homemade viewing devices. Several of those on hand had constructed viewers out of empty cereal boxes.

Visitors also got the chance to check out the eclipse through a telescope equipped with a special filter to allow safe viewing. Randy Brockley, whose wife Leslie works at the park, brought his telescope to share with others for the eclipse.

Bauer estimates more than 300 people came to the park to enjoy the eclipse. Visitors could be seen all around the grounds — some resting under trees while other sat in camp chairs or stretched out on picnic blankets in the open field around Fort Watauga.

Those in attendance commented on the changing light and how as the eclipse drew nearer the air felt different.

Mel McKay, a member of the Park’s resident historic interpretive group the Washington County Militia, brought along a digital thermometer which he sat up near the telescope. During the course of the eclipse, the temperature dropped several degrees between the beginning and the apex at 2:37 p.m.