At least one Alaskan is likely to claim Ice Classic jackpot
Originally published Wednesday, May 7, 2008 at 7:05 a.m.
Updated Wednesday, May 7, 2008 at 4:02 p.m.
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Stumble It!ANCHORAGE -- At least one person with an Alaskan address correctly guessed the exact date and time the tripod tipped over in the Nenana Ice Classic.
According to Ice Classic officials, the tripod tipped at 10:53 p.m. Alaska Standard Time on Tuesday. Ice Classic manager Cherrie Forness said contest officials are still trying to determine how many winners there are — those people that down to the minute chose the correct time for when the ice on the Tanana River went out this year. If you were looking at your watch when the ice went out, it said 11:53 p.m. Alaska Daylight Time. The Ice Classic, by tradition, uses Alaska Standard Time.
Once the winners are known, Forness said those people will be contacted with the good news.
This year's jackpot is $303,895 — an increase of $623.
As of Wednesday morning, there was one confirmed winning ticket bought by someone with an Alaska address, Nenana Ice Classic office assistant Amanda Wubbold said. However, a review of ticket information in the Ice Classic's database would not be completed until perhaps Thursday afternoon, so more winners could pop up, she said.
"That could definitely change," she said, of the one winner.
Multiple winners share equally in the jackpot.
The Nenana Ice Classic, now in its 92nd year, is Alaska's version of a lottery. The game began in 1917 when Alaska Railroad workers, looking for a way to brighten up the long, dark Alaska winters, bet on the exact date and time the ice on the Tanana River would break up.
Thousands of people pay $2.50 a ticket to guess what date and time to the minute a tripod set up on the Tanana River ice at Nenana, 55 miles south of Fairbanks, will move downstream and trip a clock that is wired to shore.
Organizers sold 243,776 tickets this year. Wubbold said quite a few tickets were bought by people living in the Lower 48. More than 4,000 were sold to people living outside the United States who sent in their money and their guesses, she said.
Last year, the ice went out April 27 at 3:47 p.m. There were 22 winning ticket holders with each winning ticket worth $13,785.09. The $303,272 jackpot was the biggest in five years.
Forness said earlier that ticket sales in Anchorage and Fairbanks appeared to be up. However, she said, vendors in the Bush didn't fare as well, probably because of the high price of fuel in rural areas.
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On the Net:
http://www.nenanaakiceclassic.com/
Community Discussion
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Maybe next year...
Didn't the news-miner have a headline yesterday..."Ice days, not hours from going out" or something along those lines?
Ha, Ha, Ha, I won!
OK, no I didn't :(
@ Chris.. they sure did. If you go ahead and take a look at nenanaakiceclassic.com and look at the pics from yesterday you could see how it was due to go out at any time.
congrats to those who won!
guess i wont get my new truck, snowmachine, waverunner, debt paid off, house down payment this year.. or that $50,000 I planned to donate (yes, i was going to be the only winner :) )
Well so much for fuel oil this year!
Darn and I got hit in my car yesturday that was gonna be my new truck. And here my picks started today at 10:38pm this is crap.
This is the first year that my husband and I participated in the Ice Classic, and we were only 15 hours away from the break, maybe next year we will get it.....
Liz
it wasnt even supposed to go out!! so it was days away!! a sheet of ice took it right out!!
oh yeah and i was only an hour off !!!! :(
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