The
Tripod Story
Each year a black-and-white tripod is "planted" into the ice
of the Tanana River. A wire attached to a rope runs from the top of
the tripod to a contraption in a watchman's tower on shore. Watchmen
make sure nobody messes with the tripod. Anticipation builds as the
weather warms. The ice under the tripod gets slushy, and then the water
begins to flow. When water flows on the bank near the watchtower, the
time is near. One day or night, the rocks jerk to the top of the tower
as the tripod begins its journey, jerking along as the breaking ice
chunks begin to move! One watchman described it as just like an earthquake,
with rumbling and shaking when the ice starts to go.
When the ice breaks and the tripod begins to move, the rope raises a
50-gallon drum of rocks to the top of the tower. The action trips another
line that releases a guillotine that cuts the main rope to the tripod.
The cutting of that rope trips two other ropes. One rope stops a clock
and the other sets off a loud siren. That's when the whole town finds
out the winner of Alaska's oldest lottery, the Nenana Ice Classic. It's
a big deal because the Ice Classic has handed out millions of dollars
in prize money since 1917--for guessing the exact time the ice breaks
up. What's YOUR guess for this year?