Hold the presses.

That’s what we’ll be doing on Monday, as we chronicle a historic event for Northeastern Oregon, when an expected 50,000 visitors make their way to our region to experience the Aug. 21 solar eclipse in the path of totality.

The last time Northeast Oregon viewed a total eclipse was Feb. 26, 1979. The next time to view an eclipse in our area will be a partial eclipse on Aug. 12, 2045, as the path of totality goes through Northern California and Nevada. According to maps on eclipsewise.com, Northeastern Oregon won’t experience another eclipse in the path of totality until June 30, 2345.

So Monday’s eclipse is a big deal. Such a big deal, that we’re going to move back our press time so that your Monday newspaper includes the news and photos of the Aug. 21, 2017 eclipse in your Aug. 21, 2017 newspaper.

That means your newspaper will be delivered a couple of hours late on Monday, since we plan to include news as the eclipse happens, at 10:25 a.m. We’re going to get photos, local coverage and wrap up the weekend happenings in your Monday newspaper so that you’ve got the latest, and most historic, news of the day, on the day it happens.

In the meantime, you can follow the news leading up to the eclipse, and as it happens on our websites, bakercityherald.com/special and lagrandeobserver.com/special. We’ll also be posting to our Facebook and Twitter sites and asking for photos and comments from our followers.

Thanks for your patience in waiting to receive Monday’s newspaper. We’re looking forward to providing you local news worthy of the wait.