Northwest History. Aviation 8. Contest, United States.

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1936
• Subjects: fortune; river ice; Nenana; Alaska; ice breakup; E. "Blondie" Miller; Oscar Nelson; Anchorage; John L. Covich; Juneau; Yukon river; Miller-Neilson ticket; Fairbanks; W. M. Berrigan; ice movement; Tanana river; Chena river; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; Aviation; Pacific; Yukon
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/86680

Fortune Won By Three Men When River Ice Moves. Fortune Won By Three Men When River Ice Moves NENANA, Alaska, May 1.—(JP)— The Tanana river ice breakup brought wealth to E. "Blondie" Miller and Oscar Nelson, both of Anchorage, and John L. Covich, Juneau, and his associates Thursday at exactly 12:58 p.m. While the town's fire bell rang and whistles tooted, the residents of this little Alaska town raced excitedly along the river bank to watch the ice start its journey to the A wire attached to a stake in the ice stopped a guarded clock on shore and word was flashed to Fairbanks where clerks quickly checked the winners of Alaska's great sporting event. They found the Miller-Neilson ticket and that of Covich and his associates fixed the same minute. They were the only ones in 72,000 guesses submitted which hit the minute. It was the 19th time the contest had been held. Last year's winner was W. M. Berrigan, 28, 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. 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 14 inches thick. The breaking of the Tanana heralds spring in the northland, sourdoughs say. The contest is the most important Df 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.