The operators of Alaska’s Greatest Guessing Game once again announced the lucky winners of the guesses made on when the ice goes out on the river and have posted those winners on their website.

The Nenana Ice Classic had its beginnings in 1917, over 106 years ago. It was that first year that engineers doing the survey work for the Alaska Railroad placed their bets as to when breakup on the  river would occur. The purse was $800. The betting game on the ice would grow enormously and soon become a tradition.

The game would end this year at 6:47 pm on May 2nd netting 18 winners their share of the $242,923 purse.

Those winners, including two pools, in alphabetic order were Dale Bagley, Paula Bifelt, Moses Brink, Joe Dinkins, Desmond Duffy, Joseph Durrenberger, Kathy Fecke, Edith Frazier, Joseph Gschwind, Lisa Huntington, Roar Ingebretsen, Sean Lincoln, Rosemary Nelson, Sharon A. Turner, Ted and Sally Wicken, Tim R. Young, Nikiski Adventurers Pool and Keefe Klan Pool.

Those winners will win approximately $13,495.72 apiece.

While 18 winners seems like a large number of winners, it is dwarfed in size by the 58 winners of the 1973 contest that went out at 11:59 am on May 4th.

The ice has only gone out on May 2nd four other times in the history of the game. It has gone out as early as April 14th as it did during the early morning hours in 2019. The latest that the ice has moved out to move the tripod downstream was on May 20th. It did so in 1964 and 2013. A full list can be seen in the brochure posted on the Classic’s website.

  contest, ice classic, Nenana, winners