It poured all night. I know this because I was up several times throughout my normal sleeping hours. One of those nights, just couldn't get comfortable, was too warm then too cold, couldn't get my pillow situated just right, a night I was glad to be done with.
By morning it had slowed to a drizzle. With the gray skies and the slow lazy rain it was hard to get moving. It was just after eleven by the time we stepped outdoors in our quest to see what Valdez was all about. Luckily, the rain had stopped.
The campground we're in, Bear Paws Campground is right in the middle of town, just across the street from a small marina. This town is surrounded by mountain on three sides.
There was this low lying strip of clouds that hung around for the longest time.
The City of Valdez lies at the head of Port Valdez, a natural fjord that reaches inland about eleven miles from Prince William Sound.
Few people lived here until the winter of 1897-98 when gold-seekers came to Valdez to follow the "All American Route" over the Valdez Glacier into the interior. This route was advertised all over America as an established trail to the Copper River mines and the way to the Klondike. Imagine the surprise of the 4,000 or so would be miners to find no city, no small town and most importantly, no blazed trail. A tent city was erected and Valdez was formed. Some of them were blessed with foresight and stayed put and opened businesses to service the thousands of miners.
Those that decided to forge ahead faced a difficult, at best, journey over the glacier. Snowslides, snowblindness, glacial crevasses and extreme physical challenges were just some the problems encountered. Supplies of goods had to be transported on people pulled sleds, as many as 20 trips back and forth over the steepest legs of the journey were needed in order to get the necessary year's worth of supplies across.
The museum we visited had quotes from the men of those days. I think they were very telling of what these individuals had to endure.
"Up to this time, at least , no other practicable way to the Copper River Basin had been discovered than up and across this mighty mass of ice, where danger lurks on every hand from fathomless crevasses and sink-holes, often concealed by freshly fallen snow, which treacherously invited the careless step, the result of which could only be a sure, swift, terrible death." Neal Benedict
"Think of a man hitching himself up to a sled, putting on 150 lbs. and pulling that load from 7:00 AM to 2:00 PM, eating frozen bread and beans and drinking snow water for lunch, then walking back the distance of 10 1/2 miles. If this is not turning yourself into a horse what is it? George C. Hazelet
"I the second slide (avalanche)...many tons of provisions were swept off the trail where they were cached and buried deep in snow. It took many days of hard labor afterwards to locate and dig out what they could but some has yet to be recovered and probably never will. Among other things lost in the second slide were the men killed in the previous slide." Joseph A. Bourke
"Most of those who had come to prospect were no more adept to the vocation than a coyote would be to herd sheep. Addison M. Powell
Seeing these pictures made me very thankful for our Ford!
The late 1800's brought the Army to recognize that Valdez was a strategic location for communications and defense and so built Fort Liscum and further developed the Keystone Canyon trail which is today's Richardson Highway.
Valdez was busy town from 1900 to 1920. It supported a bowling alley, a university, several breweries, a dam and hydroelectric plant, a sawmill, a bank, movie theaters, two newspapers a convent and an excellent public library, hospital and school system. In addition to the main industries of mining and shipping, fox farming, fishing and tourism provided employment and revenue. Things were going well, and for one instance, the town could afford the latest in firefighting equipment. These two pieces pictured below are the original pieces bought back in 1910, refurbished of course.
The people of this town seem to have hung onto several things of years gone by. Here is the original fire bell that called volunteer fire fighters when they were needed. This bell could be heard up to five miles away.
All was well into the 1920's and then it all fell apart. With the completion of the Alaska Railroad, running from Seward to Fairbanks via Anchorage, Valdez was not the only way into the interior of the land. Businesses closed, the Army pulled out and the population plummeted to 400-500 residents.
In January of 1959 President Eisenhower signed the proclamation officially admitting Alaska as the 49th state of our union. Alaskans chose native Valdezean, Bill Egan, as their first governor.
Life was going along just find until Good Friday, March 27, 1964. This was the day Alaska will never forget. The day disaster struck. The day the land rolled like waves in an ocean. Measuring 8.6 on the Richter Scale and 9.2 on the Moment Magnitude Scale the earthquake struck just 45 miles away from Valdez.Thirty five feet of waterfront slid into the bay and thirty people standing on the docks lost their lives. Triggering huge waves the town was virtually destroyed. Determined that the land Valdez stood on was unstable the town officials deemed it necessary to move Valdez, as it was rebuilt, 4 miles down the road, on bedrock.
More from Valdez in the next post!
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