Alaska Railroad, Part 2

We got on the train at the Fairbanks depot. Then we traveled west to a town called Nenana, which is the place where the Nenena River flows into the Tanana River. These rivers are like everything in Alaska - BIG! My students will recognize Nenena as the place where the 1925 diphtheria serum was taken off the northbound train that had just arrived from Anchorage and loaded onto the first dogsled relay to Nome.

Nenana is known for its famous "Nenana Ice Classic." The townspeople place a tripod in the middle of the river on the frozen ice. Everybody buys raffle tickets to guess exactly the day, hour, and minute that the ice will break up in the spring, and the river will start flowing again! We bought two tickets, one for May 13 and one for May 14! The prize for the winner is thousands of dollars, but lots of money goes to charity, also! We took two pictures of the tripod from the train as we passed by.