The Port of Valdez

THE PORT OF VALDEZ nies who falsely claimed that a route across the Valdez Glacier was an excellent way to reach the Klondike gold fields. It was a great surprise, therefore, to the would-be prospec- tors to arrive in Valdez and find no town and no real trail. A tent city sprang up at the head of the bay; thus Valdez was formed. For the first half of the 20th century, Valdez functioned mainly as a small fishing com- munity. On March 27, 1964, the “Good Friday” earthquake struck 45 miles west of town. Registering 9.2 on the Richter Scale, the quake triggered an underwater landslide, which, in turn, created several huge waves, one of which washed away the Valdez waterfront. The town, itself, was completely destroyed, and in 1967, it was relocated to its present site, four miles east; 52 buildings were moved and the other structures were burned and the ground razed. In 1973, Congress approved the plans for the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline with its southern terminus at Valdez. People moved there to be part of the construction boom and the town's population soared to 8,000. “During those days, there was a big boom for the city, bringing in all the stuff to build the Alaska Pipeline,” re- counts Jeremy Talbott , Ports and Harbor Direc- tor for the City of Valdez. “It continues to be a big portion of our responsibility – the heavy equipment and pipes that go up to Prudhoe Bay, come to us, here.” On March 24, 1989 (another Good Friday), the tanker Exxon Valdez struck Bligh reef, approxi-