Valdez waterfront, ca. 1912

{{en| Caption on image: Valdez, Alaska PH Coll 247.473 Valdez is located on the north shore of Port Valdez, a deep water fjord in Prince William Sound. It lies 305 road miles east of Anchorage, and 364 road miles south of Fairbanks. It is the southern terminus of the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline. The Port of Valdez was named in 1790 by Don Salvador Fidalgo for the celebrated Spanish naval officer Antonio Valdes y Basan. Due to its excellent ice-free port, a town developed in 1898 as a debarkation point for men seeking a route to the Eagle Mining District and the Klondike gold fields. Valdez soon became the supply center of its own gold mining region, and incorporated as a City in 1901. Fort Liscum was established in 1900, and a sled and wagon road was constructed to Fort Egbert in Eagle by the U.S. Army. The Alaska Road Commission further developed the road for automobile travel to Fairbanks; it was completed by the early 1920s. Tsunamis generated by the 1964 earthquake destroyed the original City, killing several residents. The community was rebuilt in a more sheltered location 4 miles to the west. During the 1970s, construction of the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline terminal and other car

Date

c. 1912

Archive

Wikimedia Commons

Type

photograph

Original size

766 × 445 pixels

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