Valdez, AK - Old Valdez

Because Valdez was founded by prospectors headed to the gold rush and by those wanting to supply their supplies, it was originally located right on the beach, right at the base of the Valdez glacier. Severe glacial winds, heavy snow, seasonal flooding, unstable ground - it was a crappy place to build a town. Even the army moved to a new site 3 miles away. It flooded every summer with the melting from the glacier and the land beneath it was permafrost, melting ice, mud and dirt. Shifting constantly. Difficult to build a foundation for a building.

Then in 1964 the 9.2 Alaska earthquake and resulting tsunami wiped out most of the town. After the earthquake the city’s foundation of glacial silt liquefied, the shoreline slid into the ocean and the resulting 30’ high tsunami traveled out ward towards the ocean. The Chena, a freighter unloading at the the dock that day lifted up and dropped down onto the dock atop bystanders watching the action. 32 people died as the dock collapsed into the ocean under the weight of the freighter. The earthquake, the flooding and the dock collapsed pretty well did in the town.

Finally, they realized that they had to move the town - 4 miles around the shoreline to a stable foundation.

They actually transported 54 homes to new foundations in the New Valdez but others decided to build new homes on their new site. The own town was abandoned, dismantled and finally burned.
Today we toured Old Valdez, where the town used to be. There is not much signage on the highway into town but we used our GPS and a map and found the old site. This used to be a thriving village and now all that is left is memories and, as those who lived her grow older, the memories will die too.

Here is the only foundation that is left, that of the post office.

This plaque stands listing those who died in the earthquake and its aftermath. Chenaga, the town listed in the second column, is a small town across the bay from Valdez.

Not much left of the old town except some street signs, some piers for the loading docks and weed-filled streets.

This one piece of rusting equipment stands silhouetted against the foggy banks. Looks like an old fork lift.

There is also an old cemetery there, hidden away back in the trees. The people of Valdez are slowly working to restore the cemetery and are trying to find all the old graves which are spread out.

Here is this plaque to the earthquake dead from Valdez.

We followed a mown path towards the water and found this grave of a child.

And, these graves too. Note the new fence around the grave on the right. The wooden headstones are also newly done.

We also went to the current cemetery and found these two headstones. Susan Galloway on the right says: ‘I told you I was sick’ while Martha Jane Mandregan reminds us that ‘Juicy Fruit makes the world go round.’

Ethal was the First Lady Barber in Valdez and knows that ‘Even the Lord needs a trim Every now and then.’