Anchorage Daily News

Is it you?

Did you choose 10:53 p.m. Tuesday as the time the Tanana River ice would go out and stop the clock on the Nenana Ice Classic?

If so, hold tight. You could be about to win all or part of the $303,895 jackpot.

The Ice Classic, now in it's 92nd year, is a game of chance. It also helps to be an amateur historian and would-be meteorologist as people pay $2.50 a try to guess the exact minute a tripod sitting on the Tanana will move.

When the tripod heads downstream, a wire is tripped, stopping the clock.

Ice Classic workers are double-checking the 243,776 tickets sold this year to make sure they get the winner or winners right, said Amanda Wubbold, an office assistant for the Classic.

Everyone who guesses the right time shares in the cash.

As of Wednesday afternoon, there was only one confirmed winner, Wubbold said.

"They are probably aware, and are probably waiting for a phone call."

It would be the first time in more than a decade that a single ticket claimed the whole jackpot, she said.

But with so much double-checking to do, it's too soon to say who that is or where they live, Wubbold said. "We can't say for sure that there's not multiple winners."

According to The Associated Press, the Nenana Ice Classic took root in 1917 when Alaska Railroad workers bet on the precise date and time the ice on the Tanana River would break up.

Last year, the ice went out at 3:47 p.m. April 27. There were 22 winning ticket holders, with each ticket worth $13,785.09. The $303,272 jackpot was the biggest in five years, the AP reported.

Wubbold said she got a call at home from the Ice Classic manager at about 9 p.m. Tuesday.

There was a channel running near the tripod. A crowd gathered at the river, but the ice looked solid.

Wubbold returned home.

Soon, she got another phone call.

"We have a watchman down there 24 hours a day, so we came down and it had shifted free and broke off and went down river," Wubbold said.

This is only the second time the ice has gone out between 10 and 11 p.m., she said.

Find Kyle Hopkins' political blog online at adn.com/alaskapolitics or call him at 257-4334.

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