Years Ago

Published 1:30 am Thursday, April 2, 2026

20 years ago

Homer has been called enlightened and hip. It’s made the 100 Best Small Art Town, Outside Magazine’s list of Top 10 Dream Towns and Men’s Journal’s 50 Best Places to Live. It’s featured in Arthur and Mary Griffith’s “50 Fabulous Places to Retire in America.” Soon, Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” does a piece on Homer’s eagles. And now Homer is officially cool. In the April 2006 issue of Frommer’s Budget Travel, Homer is listed as one of America’s Top 10 Coolest Small Towns. Other towns making the list are Barnard, Vt.; Murphys, Calif.; Bisbee, Ariz.; Fayetteville, W.Va.; Hudson, N.Y.; Great Barrington, Mass.; Rocheport, Mo.; Marfa, Texas, and Hood River, Ore.

— From the issue of March 30, 2006

30 years ago

Surrounded by darkness he cruises around the Homer area in search of a break in the clouds. Upon discovery he moves quickly, setting up an instrument with the crude appearance of a broken bar-stool yet capable of paralleling the earth’s movement down to the sidereal minute. He lines the device up with the North Star, peering between two door hinges bolted to the side. And shoots. Dennis Anderson, 36, full-time bar manager and part-time celestial photographer, combined his interest in photography with his fascination of comets and built a mechanism that enables him to capture images where few photographers have gone before.

— From the issue of March 28, 1996