Word: tananas
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Roiling Killer. Nearly every summer the Chena, which snakes through Fairbanks running south to join the Tanana, leaps toward flood stage as winter snows melt in the mountains. But this time, fed by the abnormally heavy rain fall, which in turn washed down summer snow from the mountains, the Chena became a roiling killer...
...with a superficial study of the three Bs principally because it is a fledgling state facing real frontier problems. The "bingo" dealt with a lottery bill (passed) designed to legalize the beloved Alaska tradition of betting on the exact day, hour and minute of the ice breakup on the Tanana and certain other rivers. The booze bill (soon to become law) requires saloons to close down each day between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m.. instead of 3 a.m. to 5 a.m. weekdays. The boudoir bit was altogether something different. Passed last week by the legislature, and ready for Governor...
What the announcer was reporting from his eyewitness perch to intent listeners all over Alaska was not an impending natural disaster, but the Alaskan equivalent of the Irish Sweepstakes: the yearly pool on when the ice would break up in the Tanana River at the little town of Nenana, southwest of Fairbanks. This year hopefuls all over the 49th state and Canada's Yukon Territory (no tickets are sold to "outsiders") bought 170,000 tickets at $1 apiece for a chance to guess the exact day, hour and minute of the breakup. The exact minute is determined...
...last week the roar of ice-littered water had died away along most of Alaska's great rivers; the Tanana, the Yukon, the Porcupine, the Kuskokwim foamed ice-free through the hundreds of miles of evergreen wilderness. Even north of "the Circle" the ground had thawed. Hundreds of thousands of obliging salmon ran in Alaska's larch-green coastal waters. The Arctic ice pack would soon move sullenly offshore. The sun stayed in the skies at night, and green things burst into leaf and blossom with hothouse frenzy. Alaska's short, violent summer had begun...
Spring came to interior Alaska with a crash, a splash and $108,000. As in 28 previous years, last week's icebreak on the Tanana (rhymes with Anna gnaw) River was big news. To the lucky sourdough or trapper who guessed the day, hour and nearest minute the ice went out would go a record $108,000. And like other big news, Alaskans knew they would hear it first from Fairbanks radio station KFAR, whose special events crew was camped at Nenana (rhymes with keen Anna), 150 miles south of the Arctic circle...