Valdez, Alaska

The port of Valdez was named in 1790 by the Spanish explorer Salvador Fidalgo after the Spanish naval officer Antonio Valdés y Fernández Bazán.[5]

In 1790, within the framework of the expeditions of Spain in the Pacific Northwest, under the direction of Juan Vicente de Güemes, 2nd Count of Revillagigedo, then viceroy of New Spain, Salvador Fidalgo was sent to San Lorenzo de Nootka where they founded the Fort of Saint Michael (Nutka). On May 5, 1790, Fidalgo sailed with the San Carlos de Nutka towards Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet, off the coast of Alaska, and a few weeks later, he anchored off present-day Cordova, Alaska. The expedition found no signs of a Russian presence and traded with natives in the area. On June 3 they disembarked on the coast of present-day Orca Inlet, and, in a solemn ceremony, Fidalgo erected a large wooden cross and reaffirmed Spanish sovereignty over the territory, naming it "Puerto Córdova." Fidalgo continued along the Alaskan coast, until he reached Point Gravina on June 10, where he celebrated another act of reaffirmation of Spanish sovereignty. On June 15, they discovered a port, which they named Puerto Valdés,[6] in honor of Antonio Valdés y Fernández Bazán, then "Secretary of State of the Universal Office of the Navy and the Indies" (a position equivalent to Minister for the affairs of the Spanish Navy and the four Spanish Viceroyalties of the Americas, including the Captaincy General of the Philippines).

In the Nootka Conventions, which followed the Nootka crisis, Spain granted Great Britain access rights to the Pacific Northwest, although it did not establish the boundary with Spanish California, nor did it cede Spanish rights in the area. Spain later relinquished any remaining claim to territory north of the 42nd parallel to the United States as part of the Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819.

A scam to lure prospectors off the Klondike Gold Rush trail led to a town being developed there in 1898. Some steamship companies promoted the Valdez Glacier Trail as a better route for miners to reach the Klondike gold fields and discover new ones in the Copper River country of interior Alaska than that from Skagway. The prospectors who believed the promotion found that they had been deceived. The glacier trail was twice as long and steep as reported, and many men died attempting the crossing, in part by contracting scurvy during the long cold winter without adequate supplies. The town did not flourish until after the construction of the Richardson Highway in 1899, which connected Valdez and Fairbanks. With a new road and its ice-free port, Valdez became permanently established as the first overland supply route into the interior of Alaska. The highway was open in summer-only until 1950, when it started operating as a year-round route.[7]

McKinley Avenue in Valdez, June 1908

In 1907, a shootout between two rival railroad companies ended Valdez's hope of becoming the railroad link from tidewater to the Kennicott Copper Mine. The mine, located in the heart of the Wrangell-St. Elias Mountains, was one of the richest copper ore deposits on the continent. The exact location of the right-of-way dispute, in which one man was killed and several injured, is located at the southern entrance of Keystone Canyon on the Valdez side. A half-completed tunnel in the canyon marks the end of railroad days in Valdez. A rail line to Kennicott was later established from the coastal city of Cordova.[7]

The city of Valdez was badly shaken and damaged in the 1964 Good Friday earthquake. Soil liquefaction of the glacial silt that formed the city's foundation led to a massive underwater landslide, which caused a section of the city's shoreline to break off and sink into the sea. The underwater soil displacement caused a local tsunami 30 feet (9.1 m) high that traveled westward, away from the city and down Valdez Bay. 32 men, women, and children were on the city's main freight dock to help with and watch the unloading of the SS Chena, a supply ship that came to Valdez regularly. All 32 people died as the dock collapsed into the ocean with the violent landslide. There were no deaths in the town.

The Valdez townsite was abandoned and relocated following the 1964 earthquake and was used as a pipe yard for the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, as shown in this 1974 photo.

Residents continued to live there for an additional three years while a new site was being prepared on more stable ground four miles (6 km) away. The new construction was supervised by the Army Corps of Engineers. They transported 54 houses and buildings by truck to the new site, to re-establish the new city at its present location. The original town site was dismantled, abandoned and eventually burned down.[7]

Always Looking Forward In the early 1900s, city leaders George Cheever Hazelet and Andrew Jackson Meals dreamed of moving the original site of Valdez to higher, more stable ground. Long after they were gone, their vision was finally realized. The 1964 earthquake was the defining moment. What is now known as “Old Town” was devastated. The descendants of both men responded by revitalizing the old partnership of 1898. They formed The Port Valdez Company to donate 115 acres of land, where the failed “Hazeletville” development once stood, so the City of Valdez could rebuild and thrive again.[8]

"Hazeletville" Valdez, AK c1900

From 1975 to 1977, the Trans-Alaska pipeline was built to carry oil from the Prudhoe Bay oil fields in northern Alaska to a terminal in Valdez, the nearest ice-free port.[9][10] Oil is loaded onto tanker ships for transport. The construction and operation of the pipeline and terminal boosted the economy of Valdez. The first tanker to be loaded with pipeline oil was the ARCO Juneau in early August 1977, bound for the Cherry Point Refinery in Washington.[11]

The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred as the oil tanker Exxon Valdez was leaving the terminal at Valdez full of oil. The spill occurred at Bligh Reef, about 40 km (25 mi) from Valdez. Although the oil did not reach Valdez, it devastated much of the marine life in the surrounding area. The clean-up of the oil caused a short-term boost to the economy of Valdez.

On January 24, 2014, a major avalanche occurred just outside Valdez at Mile 16 near Keystone Canyon, prompting the closure of the only highway in or out of town. On January 25, Alaska DOT triggered another massive slide that further choked the roadway. Due to weather conditions at the time, the avalanche dammed the Lowe River, creating a half-mile-long lake that stalled snow removal efforts for nearly a week. The blockage was dubbed the "Damalanche" by local city officials after a name coined by local resident, Joshua Buffington. News of this event spread to media outlets nationwide.[12][13] Once the water receded, crews worked around the clock to clear about 200,000 cubic yards of snow in five days. No one was injured during this incident.

The port of Valdez, set against a natural backdrop of mountains in July 2007. Also visible are the shipping terminal for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and Mt. Francis.

Climate chart for Valdez

Despite the presence of temperate rainforest, Valdez under the Köppen climate classification has a subarctic climate (Dfc): its winters, though much warmer than most climates of this type, are not sufficiently mild, as those of, say, Ketchikan, Kodiak, or even nearby Cordova are, to fit into the oceanic or subpolar oceanic climate category.

According to the Weather Channel and NOAA, Valdez is the snowiest city in the United States, with an average of almost 300 in (760 cm) per year. There have been more than 100 in (250 cm) of snow in five separate months (not all in the same year).[16][17]