3/31/18: What started as a bet between friends has become a popular contest in the Northeast Kingdom called Joe’s Pond Ice Out. Since 1988, people have been placing $1 bets as to when a cement block will fall through the ice on Joe’s Pond. If they guess the correct date and time, they win a jackpot of about $5,000. Half of the funds raised go to Joe’s Pond Association to pay for 4th of July fireworks over the water. This year, about 10,000 tickets have been sold, some to people from across the country.
Eva travelled to Cabot to meet some of the residents of Joe’s Pond who keep this event going and to see the famous block for herself. She also visited Hastings Store in West Danville to place her own $1 bet. Who knows when the ice will give out this year, but hopefully spring will come along with it!
Music: “Fig Leaf Rag – distressed” “Marty Gots a Plan” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
This episode of Stuck in Vermont was made possible by
New England Federal Credit Union
This article appears in The Money & Retirement Issue 2018.
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
That’s awesome. The town I went to college in has been doing the same thing for the past 50 years, but with a car on the ice.
I always plotted to circle the car with road salt and win the pot, but never actually went through with it.
http://www.menomonielions.org/projects-and-events/car-on-the-ice/