With today being the first official day of summer, the Dallas County Conservation Board will be celebrating with a public event tonight.

Naturalist Mike Havlick invites people out to their Summer Solstice program at Hanging Rock Park, 416 Redfield Street, in Redfield to recognize the longest day of the year. He describes that for many cultures around the world, the summer solstice offers a time of reflection, renewal, and evaluation. Havlick shares that the sun will be at the furthest point to the northeast, and then will make its way towards the southeast. He elaborates why the Conservation Board chooses to do this event in Redfield.

“Hanging Rock (Park) historically had an astronomical clock there, and inadvertently we destroyed it when we put in the prairie and stuff up there. We had a person that worked for the (Iowa) DNR who identified this place would’ve been a place where they would’ve had a clock. So, we had a director that put one in that’s much larger scale than what it’s historically been. So we have it there because you can see the sunrises and you can see the sunsets.”

Havlick notes that the event is open to the public for free and encourages as many people to show up as possible, as he mentions guests will meet at the park shelter before heading up the hill. The summer solstice event is taking place tonight from 8:30-9:30pm.