WILLOW CREEK — The Willow Creek Ice-Out crossed a threshold this year that its founders, standing on the shore of Homan’s Pond in 1927 with ten-cent wagers among mill workers, could never have imagined.
Entries topped 1,000 for the first time. The final count: 1,023. The prize pool: more than $1,000.
“It is no longer a local curiosity,” said Clara Winslow, whose editorial on the event ran alongside a special statistical insert tracing the competition’s history. “The Ice-Out has become a destination event. People come from Bangor, from Presque Isle, from as far away as Portland. They come to watch a buoy bob in a pond until the ice releases it. They come because it is something that can only happen here.”
The insert, four pages long, included a complete list of every champion from 1927 to 1991, the closest prediction margins, earliest and latest ice-clearing dates, and a chart showing the steady increase in entries. It was the most comprehensive documentation of the competition ever published.
The front-window tally at the General Store — a tradition that began with chalk on a slate board in the 1950s — was upgraded to a proper whiteboard with permanent markers. Maeve O’Donnell inaugurated the new system with a flourish, writing the number 1,023 in red ink.
“This is my third decade doing the tally,” O’Donnell said. “When I started, the number fit on a single line. Now I need columns. That is a good problem to have.”