For West Texans, Summer may have felt like it started three months ago.
However, the season officially began Wednesday with the summer solstice.
Odessans gathered early to experience the summer solstice sunrise Wednesday at the Stonehenge replica at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin.
Each year, a group of people have gathered at the Stonehenge replica to witness the summer solstice sunrise ever since it was completed back in 2004.
The summer solstice is the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere as one of the Earth’s poles achieves maximum tilt towards the sun during orbit.
“This was one of the first pieces of public art that was ever built on the university,” UTPB Art Professor Chris Stanley said. “Some of the challenges of bringing public art to the university and navigate the ins- and-outs of how you get something like this approved is a lot. I tell people all the time that we had to go to UT-Austin to get this approved…. The challenge was that we had a campus that didn’t have a lot of public art. We had a community at the time that didn’t have a lot of public art. When you undertake the building of public arts, you’re looking at no only bringing your own community in but also bringing people in from outside the community.”
For the last 19 years, UTPB’s Stonehenge replica has drawn thousands of visitors.
While the real Stonehenge in Great Britain took over a thousand years to build, Odessa’s own replica was built in six weeks.
Made of limestone slabs up to 19 feet tall and 20 tons apiece, Permian Basin’s Stonehenge is shorter than the original but it remains exact in horizontal size and astronomically accurate.
The replica gives people in West Texas a chance to experience the summer solstice sunrise without having to travel across the Atlantic Ocean to the U.K.
“I think one of the challenges was … I don’t think people didn’t believe us but I don’t think people had ever seen it,” Stanley said. “People started showing up from all over the country. The kind of issue was that this was working so I look at this as kind of a foundational piece for all of Odessa. …. It’s the best job in the world. I get to tell people that my office is next to Stonehenge.”
Not only is June 21 the start of Summer but it also International Day of Yoga.
Among the people at this year’s sunrise were yoga enthusiasts who were stretching at the Stonehenge replica.
“We joined up with a yoga studio because today is also International Day of Yoga so you had the yoga people here,” Stanley said. “The Rotarians were here. How do you build a community? You need things like this for people to congregate around. Everyone in this town is so busy so ironically, the easiest way to do this is at 5 a.m. we’ve figured it out. 2004 was our first public viewing of the summer solstice. We’re 19 years out.”
