Northwest History. Aviation 8. Contest, United States.

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1936
• Subjects: Tanana; ice breakers; E. Miller; J. Covich; Nenana; Alaska; Juneau; W. M. Berrigan; Fairbanks; ice movement; Yukon; Chena river; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; Aviation; Pacific
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/86679

Tanana Ice Breaks; Two Tie For Prize: E. Miller and J. Covich To Split Purse Which Usually Runs Around $60,000 -- 2:58 p. m. Was The Time. TANANA ICE BREAKS; TWO TIE FOR PRIZE E. Miller and J. Covich to Split Purse Which Usually Runs Around $60,00 —2:58 p. m. Was the Time. Nenana, Alaska, April 30— UP)— The ice started moving in the Tanana river here at 12:58 p. m. (2:58 p. m., PST.) today. It was an event for which all Alaska had anxiously awaited. Over 72,000 guessers had predicted a breakup time. E. Miller and J. Covich of Juneau were announced as having guessed the exact time. It was the 19th time the contest had been held. Last year's winner was W. M. Berrigan, 38, Fairbanks pharmacy clerk, spending his first year in the north. He took a sightseeing tour with his $61,600. The ice broke up last year at 1:32 p. m., May 15—the latest date in the history of the contest. The earliest was at 4:03 p. m., April 26, 1926. How Time Registered The ice movement was determined by a wire attached to a bell and clock on shore to a pole frozen in the ice. When the ice moved, the pole broke, pulling the wire, ringing the bell and stopping the clock. Guards, who had been guarding the timing device, relaxed. They had been on duty since Monday. The Tanana river is a main tributary of the Yukon. It had been frozen since December. The ice was 44 The breaking of the Tanana heralds spring in the northland, sourdoughs say. The contest is the most important of two, involving guesses on the ice breakup. The other is staged at Fairbanks, 50 miles northwest, where the Chena river passes. The ice moved there April 26.