the nenana ice classic

since 1917, nenana has been the site of the annual nenana ice classic.  a statewide game of chance to guess the day, hour, and minute  the ice will go out on the tanana river.  the winner(s) collect or share about $300,000 in recent years. a chance costs $2.50.  many stores, bars, restaurants across the state receive a packet of tickets and a red 5 gallon can for completed guesses.

started by railroad workers to stifle cabin fever from long cold winters. today a black and white striped tripod is embedded into the frozen river in march. several weeks before breakup the tripod is connected by a line festooned with small flags to a tower on the dock. once the tripod moves 300 feet, the line through a series of pulleys stops a clock and triggers a siren, alerting our small community.  the watchman on duty at the time, verifies the time, opens the guess book displaying the page with the winning time, and secures the watchtower.  it's not long before many people from fairbanks and along the parks highway start arriving on the dock to see breakup for themselves. many expressing disappointment. comforted a bit by pride in how close they came to winning. having the right time but maybe the wrong day, or ONLY one hour off.  it's not uncommon for those watching the news reports and expecting the ice to move at any time to take the drive to nenana in hopes of being  on the dock when  it moves. RV visitors come prepared and determined to wait just to witness this. this includes a fairbanks radio station hoping to catch the singular moment the clock stops.

a rite of our alaskan spring, the ice classic unofficially signals the start of summer for interior alaska. once the river is free of it's winter cover and the water again begins carving the river banks and making sandbars, waterfowl from creamers field in fairbanks and all the hundreds of lakes along the tanana valley migrate to the river.  as a young man going to the uaf in fairbanks, i knew when the ice went out by the sudden absence of these birds. while they disappear from the mainland, they multiply on the river. there will be bands of geese, ducks, swans, cranes flying everywhere.  spring has truly arrived and summer is imminent.

for now however, the work of tabulating thousands of guesses into a book is at hand.  any local wishing a short term job is hired. many locals talk fondly of their first job at the ice classic and how the work was done in the old days. somehow it was better then. before computers and when every guess was counted and recorded by hand.
the tabulation work starts soon after the ticket deadline of midnight April 5th. all the red  cans from across the state are collected in person or sent by private freight. state law prohibits using the mail service or the Internet for gaming.  i find this as a confining restriction but i'm unable to speak of the current law with any degree of reliability. suffice it to say, nenana finds a way to gather all guesses within the confines of regulation..unencumbered and with the approval of lawmakers and administrators, many who have purchased a guess. each ticket outlet starts with a red can, ice classic brochures, and a batch of tickets identified by serial numbers and log sheets. all issued shortly after the tripod is raised in the 1st weekend in march, celebrated as tripod days.  it's become a much larger event from the early days of the railroad.

after completed guesses are returned the total from that location is counted by weighting the contents of the can. over the years this process has been refined and improved. much of the process can be considered proprietary so i will not go into detail.

with guesses returned  it is certain that temporary local work will be available in the community civic center. the rush to build a thick book of guesses. then the only thing to do is wait for the river to select a winner, and very often more than one. there are many office pools buying blocks of tickets, improving their chance of a win by selecting blocks of dates.  in the past there have even been individuals using computers and the science of statistics. having some success these people really have the same chance of winning as the normal everyday individual buying a single chance. their statistics are flawed unless the weather can be factored into the mix. regardless of weather, ice thickness, and the melt on the tanana valley floor. in my mind the primary  factor is the speed of the melt and runoff in the alaska range foothills at the tanana river headwaters.

eventually the river opens up above the nenana railroad bridge and the nenana river runoff cuts an open below the parks highway bridge. then the Hugh sheet of ice in between at least a half mile long and as wide as our river moves tripod and all.  some years in exceptionally warm weather the ice will honeycomb and break into small floating islands collectively gathering against the tripod to push it out. unlike the yukon with super sized cakes of ice grinding and thundering for miles, the tanana river breakup is comparatively mild. some years the melt is so rapid that the ice rots around the tripod base. it leans then falls. lying down, as if it's tired of waiting. still anchored to the ice it will move with breakup and trip the clock.

it makes no difference how dramatic the ice may move.  in nenana it's all about the commotion  caused when the clock stops. newspapers statewide report with front page articles and our dock fills with all makes and sizes of vehicles containing visitors from near and far, looking at our river returned again but mainly checking the clock and book of guesses for themselves. most leave without a win but with fond memories of their nenana visit watching the ice leave our river on it's way to the yukon carrying the tripod with it, the yukon usually breaks up around a week later.

while all this activity is happening, many locals including yours truly will be preparing boats for the first ride of the season. launching at the first sign of interior alaska heat. i'll be curious as to what damage the moving ice has done to familiar picnic spots, riverside fish camps, and willow islands. as a young man i would launch and follow the ice. hunting as i go. spring camping is the best as the country wakes up and comes alive.
having gotten our water back we can now begin our summer of work and play on the river that is our home.  if we've had some luck our gas will be paid for by the ice that kept our river still for 8 months. but most like me will pay the $3.50+/gallon to take a boat ride.
spring breakup resets our personal clocks and sets in motion all those activities making nenana a summer home until it freezes again in october. the returning cold and ice preceded only by 24 hour daylight, fish camp, fall moose camp, and berry patches. part of the fabric of life in our alaska home.

most here would not have it any other way, win or loose. so i must put down this blog and return to the work of preparing my boat.