Northwest History. Aviation 8. Contest, United States.

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1937
• Subjects: Nenana; Alaska; annual prognostication bee; winter ice; Tanana river; sourdoughs; ice movement; W. M. Berrigan; duck clerk; Bremerton; Wash.; United States; temperature; snowfall; ice guessing contest; Fairbanks district; Chena slough; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; Aviation; Fairbanks; Pacific; Yukon
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/86686

Deadline For Ice Guess Is April 10. DEADLINE FOR ICE GUESS APRIL 10 By Associated Press. NENANA, Alaska, Feb. 24.— Alaskans today were given a dead line of midnight, April 10, to register their guesses in the annual prognostication bee on when the winter ice win start moving in the Tanana river here. It moved April 30 last year and a group of miners and sourdough shared a prize of more than $70,000 as the red flag moved 100 feet and a wire stopped a clock at 12:58 p. m. May 11 is a lucky day, the ice having moved on that date in 1918, 1920, 1921 and 1924. April 30 is a favorite guessing date as the ice moved on that day in 1917 and 1934, and once started out to the Yukon as early as April 26 at 4:03 p. m. Latest in 1935. Latest ice movement in the 20 years of the big guessing bees was in 1935 when the ice moved, the flag pulled the wire and the clock stopped at 1:32 p. m., on May 15. That was the year a tenderfoot, W. M. Berrigan, drug clerk formerly of Bremerton, Wash., won the $61,000 prize and "went outside" to the United States. The guesses come in from all sections of the territory and some veteran guessers file a dozen or Some "just guess," but many make a "scientific study" on which they base their prognostications--ranging from the changes in the moon's phases to the temperature and snowfall charts for many years back. A smaller ice guessing contest also attracts widespread interest in the Fairbanks district, where it is based on the time the ice will start moving out of Chena slough.