Nenana Ice Classic pays $4,500 apiece to 42 winners

Each of the 42 tickets holders who correctly predicted the date and time the Nenana Ice Classic tripod tripped the clock earlier this month will receive around $4,500, organizers said Wednesday.

The winning time was exactly noon Alaska Standard Time (1 p.m. by Alaska Daylight Time) on May 1.

A total of 254,961 tickets were entered with hopes of guessing the exact minute the wooden tripod floated 100 feet downstream along the Tanana River and tripped an intricate, antique clock that keeps the official time for the annual event.

This year's jackpot was $267,444.

Forty-two tickets had the correct guess. Each one is worth $4,584.75 after taxes, said Cherrie Forness, manager of the Ice Classic.

[This antique engineering marvel records spring breakup in Alaska like clockwork]

But for people who entered as a pool, the money is split up further. Forness said the organization is mailing out more than 200 checks this year, which are written out to individuals for federal tax reasons.

"At least they get something," Forness said of the smaller checks. "Probably more than they spent."

Each guess in the competition costs $2.50.

Each year brings a different number of winners. In both 2012 and 2013, there was only one winning ticket, and the winners took home hundreds of thousands of dollars.

1978 had the most number of correct guesses, at 58.

"You never know what you're going to get," Forness said of the varying number of winners.

The annual guessing game started in 1917, the organization says, when railroad workers bet when the river would break up.

Last year, the tripod tripped the clock at 3:39 p.m. on April 23. Throughout the history of the contest, the tripod has gone out as early as April 20 and as late as May 20.

The winners' checks will be mailed out June 1.