Nenana Ice Classic (Alaska)

So, have you’ve ever wondered how bored people got in Alaska in the winter in the past? I’m pretty sure the answer is VERY. Why do I think that? Because of some of the things they came up with in the past hundred years and are still doing today.

First, there is the Sour Toe cocktail in Dawson City. You can see more about this here, but basically, some dude a while ago lost a toe in the winter due to frostbite, and now it’s offered in a local drink so that you can drink the Sour Toe (just don’t actually drink the toe or you’ll be fined).

Another example is the Nenana Ice Classic. Simply, this is a bet on when the river that goes through town will thaw in the spring. But it’s more elaborate than that, because, boredom.

Normal people would just place bets (with real money or not) and then see when the water flowed, but that doesn’t solve the boredom during the dark days, nay, months of winter. So a handful of gentlemen who started betting on this in the early 1900s built a sort of pyramid that they dragged onto the ice, and the river was thawed when this contraption fell through the ice (which is caught at the moment whether day or night by a clock that is tethered to it).

At first the money won on bets was small because only a few people were involved, but later more people got involved as bets were placed at a local gathering place, and then even became available throughout Alaska. In the recent past the jackpot has been in the low hundreds of thousands of dollars!

Happy travels (and hopefully not this much boredom)!